EARTHQUAKE

Manasi Manaswini, VII B

Good morning.
Esteemed Principal Madam Sister Roseline, Honourable members of the Jury,
Revered teachers and my dear friends, today I, Manasi Manaswini, am standing before
you all to speak something about earthquake.
Nature has two faces, on one side it is the nature which gives us everything for
our survival and on the other side when it turns violent it destroys everything in a very
short span of time that is what we call as Natural Disasters. Famines, floods, hurricanes,
earthquakes, etc are the examples of them.
Now lets know what an earthquake is? By earthquake we simply understand
shaking of the earths surface, which usually lasts for few seconds to minutes. This can
range from simple tremors that may be unnoticeable to extensive devastations like
collapse of large structures like buildings and bridges, uprooting of trees, change of
route of rivers and so on.
Let me simply explain, especially to my younger friends, why at all an earthquake
happen. Before knowing this we must have an idea of earths configuration. The core of
the earth is molten iron core which is covered by a layer of hot rock. Above the rock
layer there lays approximately 60 miles thick land areas called Tectonic plates. Still
these plates are in motion at a slow pace of 20 centimetres in a year. Over a billion year
ago there was a single land mass known as Rodinia which gradually broke apart and
again 500 million years ago they merged to form a land mass called Pannotia which
again separated to join again 250 million year ago as Pangaea. At the present time they
are again drifting away. Now when these tectonic plates either move apart or bump into
each other or slide under each other an earthquake happens.
Till date there is no scientific way to predict about earthquakes even in most
prone areas. Richter scale rates the severity in an exponential scale that means
earthquake of level 2 is 10 times severe than level 1 and level 3 is ten times more severe
than level 2 and so on. Earthquake of level 1 severity is mostly unnoticed whereas
levels above 7 cause devastating damage. What results from this shaking of the earth is

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Manasi Manaswini, VII B

collapse of large constructions like buildings, bridges; large cracks on earth that engulfs
everything above them, uprooting of trees; even change of direction of rivers and
creation of mountains and so on. The present Himalayan and Alpine mountain ranges
are the results of earthquakes only. Depending on the frequency and intensity of the
earthquakes earth is divided in to different Seismic zones. Our country India has five
Seismic zones, zone 1 which is least prone to zone 5 most prone. North-East region,
portions of Gujrat, some Sub-Himalayan areas come under Seismic zone 5.
Now lets look at some of the deadliest earthquakes of the current century to get
an idea of the damage caused by them. The most deadliest of this century was that
occurred in Haiti on 12th January 2010 claiming more than 3,00,000 lives followed by
more than 2,00,000 lives in the one occurred in the Indian Ocean on 26 th December
2004. Siachun 2008, Pakistan 2005 and Iran 2003 and Nepal 2015 are some other severe
ones killing people in thousands.
Now let me tell you all what are the things to do when an earthquake happens.
1. First come to an open place at the earliest feeling of shakes.
2. Do not panic.
3. First make yourself safe and then help others like women, children and older
persons come safe.
4. If you are not able leave the building then make yourself safe underneath a
strong object like a cut, sofa, almirah, etc.
And the one thing we must not do is do not I repeat do not stay beneath or beside
a construction or tree etc.
Earthquakes cannot be prevented but we can safe ourself to some extent by
constructing earthquake resistant buildings.
My talk will be incomplete if I will not say something about what we should do
when we know about an earthquake causing devastation in some place. The survived
ones of the area after the quake are homeless destitute. They need all the basic needs of
life food, water and shelter for their survival. As said in the Bhagwat Gita, Service to

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Manasi Manaswini, VII B

mankind is service to God we all must become generous in providing support for their
survival.
Thank you one and all for your patient hearing.
Jai Hind.