2. Content
• Richter Scale
• Magnitude of Quake
• Details of Sichuan Earthquake
• Primary, Secondary Effects of
Earthquake
• Human & Monetary Costs
• Why was it destructive?
• How could it have been avoided?
4. Also known as Richter magnitude test scale, is a
logarithmic scale used to measure the magnitude of an
earthquake, ranging from 0-8 or more. On the Richter
scale, the magnitude of the earthquake is usually shown
as whole number and a decimal number.
5. Normally, an earthquake that has a magnitude lesser than
3 is considered as a micro quake which sometimes can’t
even be felt by people. Earthquakes that are more than 7
on the Richter scale is considered as a major earthquake.
8. The depth of the earthquake is about 19 km. It killed
about 70,000 people and more than 18,000 people had
gone missing. It affected more than 15 million of
people living in the other areas and there were quite a
lot of aftershocks.
11. Primary Effects
• Killed 69,000 people approximately
• 18,000 people had gone missing after the earthquake
• Damaged the communication such as road or phone
lines.
• Destroyed more than 5 million building.
12. Secondary Effects
• More than 5 million people became homeless
• More than one million people became jobless
• The landslides blocking rivers may cause floods
• Shortage of supplies eg. food, water & toilet facilities.
16. Why was this quake was
particularly destructive?
17. Reason 1:
The origin of quake was just 19km below the
Earth’s surface, which caused “extremely
powerful shaking felt”. The closer the origin is to
the Earth’s surface, the stronger the effect.
18. Reason 2:
Many school buildings were poorly constructed,
which caused about 10000 students to have died
when the 7000 classrooms and dormitory rooms
have collapsed during the quake.
19. Reason 3:
The earthquake lasted for 80 seconds, causing
the ground surface to shift about 7m near the
epicenter of the quake, the effect becoming thirty
times more powerful than the quake in 1995 in
Kobe, Japan.
21. The collapse of schools, hospitals, factories
during the quake led to doubts of buildings’ safety
in China. If the government had put in more
money to ensure the buildings to have better
resistance in such events, especially schools, a
lot less would have been killed.
22. Not many of the schools in Sichuan practiced
evacuation during an earthquake, thus students
may have been injured/killed due to lack of
knowledge of how to protect themselves. If
schools had drills of such, less students would
have been hurt.
23. References
1. Jeanna Bryner (2008) Why The China Quake Was So Devastating,
Retrieved from: http://www.livescience.com/2527-china-quake-
devastating.html
2. Facts and Details (2011) Sichuan Earthquake in 2008: Geology, Damage.
And Possible Cause. Retrieved from:
http://factsanddetails.com/china.php?itemid=407&catid=10
&subcatid=65
3. The New York Times (2009) Sichuan Earthquake, Retrieved from:
http://topics.nytimes.com/topics/news/science/topics/earthquakes/si
chuan_province_china/index.html
4. BBC News.(N.D).Mapping the earthquake zone.Retrieved from.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7400614.stm
5. Tudorgeog.(December 24th 2009).Sichuan Earthquake 2008.Retrieved
from. http://www.slideshare.net/tudorgeog/sichuan-earthquake-
2773783
6. Caltech.edu.(November 26th 2008).The science behind China’s 2008
Sichuan earthquake. Retrieved from.
http://www.tectonics.caltech.edu/outreach/highlights/2008MayChina
EQ/
24. References
1. China.org.cn.(N.D).Magnitude of Sichuan Earthquake revised to 8.0.
Retrieved from.
http://www.china.org.cn/environment/news/2008-
05/19/content_15326773.htm
2. Geology.com.(N.D).Eastern Sichuan, China earthquake.Retrieved
from. http://geology.com/events/sichuan-china-earthquake/
3. The New York Times.(May 6th 2009).Sichuan
Earthquake.Retrieved from.
http://topics.nytimes.com/topics/news/science/topics/earthqua
kes/sichuan_province_china/index.html
4. Michael.A.(2012).What is the Richter scale Retrieved
from.http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-the-richter-scale.htm
5. Tom.H.(2012).How Earthquakes work. Retrieved from.
http://science.howstuffworks.com/nature/natural-
disasters/earthquake6.htm
6. USGS.gov.(October 27th 2009). Retrieved from. The Richter
Magnitude Scale.
http://earthquake.usgs.gov/learn/topics/richter.php
25. Credits
Research done by Angela, Clara, Jessica
Photos found by Jessica
Photos edited/PPT done by Clara
References done by Clara, Jessica
