Tectonic

Tectonic

“Technology is the best way to reduce the impact of an earthquake”.
To what extent do you agree with this view?

With technology advancing over the last century is can be said the technology has improved the number of impacts with prevention, protection and prediction of earthquakes. The earthquake itself cannot physically be controlled with technology so it has been used in other ways to reduce the physical, social and economic impacts that an earthquake creates. Although the use of technology does reduce the impacts of an earthquake, it depends on the type of technology a country has that varies the number of impacts. For example an HEDC will have the money to spend on advanced technology such as warning systems and building designs thus have more management schemes that will reduce the impacts greatly. Whereas LEDCs have little money so they have to find more appropriate technology that will suit their needs, therefore due to having little or old technology (as well as other factors such as building design) the impacts are much greater.

Earthquakes are caused by tectonic plate movement by the tension that builds up at all three types of plate margins: constructive, destructive and conservative plate margins. In a constructive margin the two plates are moving apart but at different rates, this causes pressure to build up and when it becomes too much the plate cracks creating a fault line and causing an earthquake. Earthquakes occur at a destructive margin, at a destructive margin the plates are moving towards one another either oceanic-continental, oceanic-oceanic and continental-continental. In an oceanic-continental convergence the oceanic crust is more dense and forced under the less dense continental crust, as this occurs the crust may get stuck and cause pressure to build up and when the pressure becomes too much the plates jerk past each other releasing seismic activity (earthquake). In an oceanic-oceanic convergence, again the denser oceanic...

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