Research

After the recent earthquakes in Pakistan, I heard TV opinions of different people and read articles. With them I am able to draw some intresting conclusions:

Why Earthquakes Come?

Earth releases its energy in many ways. One of its most dangerous and unpredictable way is earthquakes.

On the ground we are standing, below it are plates called tectonic plates. Every regio in the earth is on some plate. Some continents have same plates, some have different. Oceans are on plates as well.These plates move and because of their motions they develop energy in them and
they release it when it becomes too much either in the form of volcano or earthquake or in some other form.

Formation of Earth on Different Plates:

The World Today:


The picture above tells the formation of today's world on plates. I would say you open the picture while reading the material in this section.

The meeting point (indicated by the red lines) of different plates lie in three main categories. They are Constructive, Destructive and Conservative.

At Constructive Margins:
Where two plates are met by constructive line shown in the picture, then these two plates are going away from each other. The sea floor is spreading, allowing semi-molten rock to well up b/w the two diverging plates. E.g, as you can see in the picture,there is a constructive
meeting point b/w the Europe and North America, So the mid-Atlantic Europe and North American are being forced apart at 2 cm a year.

At Destructive Margins:
Destructive Margins occur when plates are forced together. When two continent plates collide, giant mountain ranges are thrust up. E.g, as a result of collision of Eurassian plate and Indo Plate , we see a great Himalyan Range, similarly Alps in Europe by the collision of Eurassian an African Plate. When an oceanic plate collides with a continental plate, part of its load of crust is subducted or carried down, into the mantle beneath the more buoyant continental crust. When two oceanic plates collide, a volcanic island such as Marianas Islands in Pacific is formed. Due to collision of plates , earthquakes can occur here, e.g Pakistan's recent quake that was felt in India because of the same reason that we both share the destructive meeting point of plates of Eurassian and Indo-Australian Plate.

At Conservative Margins:
Here no new crust is generated neither destroyed but there can be disastrous earthquake. They take place by the sliding of the plates together. If you see the picture again what line is going through possibly Iran and Pakistan...its conservative line. e.g Iran disastrous earthquake that killed thousands of people.

World 130 Millions Year Ago:
The picture below shows the world 130 millions year before. Now isnt that amazing how the world changed and we have a completely different world today, thats because of the movement of the plates. If you remember the text above, i wrote north america and europe are seperating at 2cm/year speed. See this picture below , how they were 130 million year before. Now, they are apart at quite a considerable distance between them. So its the movement of the plates that should be taken seriously. We will see how the world will be in 250 Million years from now in next section.



World 250 Millions Years From Now:
Even now Africa is breaking up; the Mediterranean is closing; Western and Eastern Californica are sailing past each other. The earth's tectonic process continue inexorably, and by computer plotting from exisiting trends it is possible to predict the future and below is the future.



See above where the America, Australia, India, Pakistan, Africa are, they are just because of the movement of the plates. Todays world will be so different tomorrow.

Prediction of Earthquakes:

Human Way:

• The most promising research on prediction of earthquake is on waves that are generated at the time of earthquake. There are two types of waves that are generated at the time of quake. One is P-Wave (Primary Wave) and the other is S-Wave (Secondary Wave). P-Wave are shock waves that travel like a bellow. S-Wave is the wave that is generated afterwards and cause ripple up and down. Research suggests that the speed at which the rock transmits P waves changes before the an earthquake strikes.

• The P-Waves and S-Waves travel in direction that form a right angle triangle. The ratio of P-Wave and S-Wave is in b/w 1.24-1.34. However when an earthquake comes , this
  ratio changes to a greater extent.

• Scientists have also studied the length of time between major earthquake episodes. Violent earthquake sometime come in cycles at plate edges. Large earthquakes are likely to occur where they have happened 100 years or more ago. High risk area when this research was being done were told "Chile, California, Taiwan , Sumatra and Caribbean". So now we know where Tsunami hit, at the high risk area of Taiwan and Sumatra which the scientist predicted way back.

Animals Way:
Animals can predict earthquakes. Yes that is absolutely right. Animals behave differently when they sense earthquake is on the cards. For e.g A group of Elephants that were near the Tsunami hit area left the area before the Tsunami struck that area.How elephant knew about the earthquake? . The answer is elephant foot have sensors that can sense waves travelling beneath the earth and that helps them sensing about earthquake.

Future Predictions:
There are many more earthquakes still to come as you can see the world is completely different in future. For Pakistanis and Asians ,the news is not good thats what i think because if you see the current world (World today picture) , a conservative line goes through Iran and a destructive line goes from the northern parts of Pakistan , so because of the movement of the plates to bring the shape of the world 250 millions years from now, we can encounter more
earthquakes, the current earthquake is just one from the sequence that might hit the region in future..sorry to say that..but thats true, but the time is in millions so we shouldnt worry that much as we wont be living that much.

Same goes for the rest of the world. Earthquake wont stop coming but one should be careful while living in the areas of constructive, destructive and conservative meeting points of the plate because these points are mostly vulnerable to yield an earthquake.

Credits:
World Atlas for pictures and technical assistance
Dr. Shahid Masood's Views on News program.

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