1. The Kobe earthquake 1995 Made by: Mohamed Fawzy 9A

2. On Tuesday, January 17th 1995, at 5.46 a.m. an earthquake of magnitude 7.2 on the Richter Scale struck Kobe. This region is the second most populated area after Tokyo, with a population of 10 million. The ground shook for only 20 seconds but in that short time over 5,000 people died, over 300,000 people became homeless and damage was £100 billion was caused to roads, houses, factories and infrastructure.

3. Why did the earthquake happen here? Three plates meet near to the coast of Japan. Close to Kobe, the heavier oceanic Philippines Plate is being pushed beneath the lighter continental Eurasian Plate . Earthquakes are very common along this boundary.

4. The great destruction which resulted from the 1995 Kobe Earthquake was due to the shallow depth of the focus which was only about 16 kms. below the surface and the fact that the epicentre occurred close to a very heavily populated area.

7. Before After Most roads suffered some damage

8. Many of lower floors of office blocks crumpled by the weight above

9. The Kobe Port was also damaged Cranes tilted or fell

10. Modern buildings designed to be earthquake proof suffered little damage, although some were left standing at an angle when the ground beneath them liquefied

11. Fire, triggered by broken gas pipes caused a huge amount of damage, destroying at least 7,500 wooden homes.