Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
give out. The roof caves in. The floors of a multistory building become something akin to a pile of
pancakes. And people get crushed.
As a result, an adage of sorts goes, “Earthquakes don't kill people:
Buildings
kill people.”
Of course, those buildings didn't just up and collapse. It was the earthquake that caused the
collapse, and the greater the magnitude of the quake, the greater the likelihood of casualties
resulting from collapsing buildings. But rarely does a quake
per se
prove fatal. Certainly, the
attendant terror has been known to induce heart attacks. But shaking earth per se is not a major
killer. Usually a side effect does people in, the principal one being structural failure.
Do earthquakes “gobble up” people?
I've seen at least three movies in which the earth suddenly splits open during an earth-
quake and “gobbles up” people who just happen to be standing there. Yes, it has
happened, but the likelihood and frequency of such occurrences is roughly once in every
couple of thousand blue moons. It takes an extraordinarily powerful earthquake to make
the earth “open wide” and do such a thing. Eyewitnesses to the New Madrid earthquakes,
discussed in an earlier sidebar, reported seeing the earth split open. Thankfully, seismic
events of such magnitude are extremely rare. Reality, however, is not always conducive
to box-office success, so Hollywood has a knack for rendering the extraordinary com-
monplace. Powerful quakes on film that transform people into munchies are examples.
A matter of wealth and culture
Wealth and culture also play major roles in determining earthquake damage and casualties. Countries
characterized by low average income and a traditional cultural environment tend to fare far worse
than their wealthy, modern counterparts. Say, for example, that equally strong earthquakes strike a
major American West Coast city and a city in a developing country. Chances are the toll in human
lives and injuries would be far worse in the developing country.
The reason relates to differences in building construction. Buildings with walls of concrete, cinder
block, brick, or adobe-like materials have a rather brittle quality, so they tend to “snap” and give way
rather readily. It helps if they have a supporting skeleton of steel rods or wooden poles, but even these
may prove grossly insufficient in the event of a really strong quake. Unfortunately, literally millions
