Earthquake in Egypt
A devastating earthquake struck Dashour (18km south of Cairo), Egypt on Monday 12 October, 1992 at 3.09 pm (local time) collapsing homes into the fractured earth. It was the century’s worst earthquake to hit northern Egypt.
The crustal plates movements linked to this catastrophe are the African and Arabian plates. The earth is made up of many plates. Earthquake occurs when sudden movements take place within and below the Earth’s crust. The plates either move apart, press against one another or move in opposite directions. These movements cause fractures and faults in the crust and the sudden release of built-up stress send shock waves and that causes enormous vibrations.
While the magnitude of this quake measured 5.8 and lasted only 3 seconds is considered mild according to the worldwide scale, there were 560 casualties and about 10,000 people were injured. There were numerous aftershocks with magnitude up to 4.3. It is therefore considered serious by Egypt’s standards as it affected many cities, collapsing many buildings. Monuments were severely damaged too. The Earthquake’s physical damage was estimated at about 1 billion U.S. dollars.
It took the government a while to react. They did not provide immediate aid for victims of the quake. The victims lived on the dirty sidewalk in front of their damaged dwelling for more than a week before the government mobilized the army to set up tent cities at south and northwest of Cairo. Officials eventually provided emergency housing to 2,000 families in a new city outside Cairo.
In my opinion, the government knowing that the country is prone to earthquakes should have proper development planning by ensuring that the buildings can withstand a certain plate movement. In addition, they should also put in place earthquake preparedness strategies to ensure that they can respond immediately to such catastrophe.
Websites
Chris Hedges, http://www.nytimes.com/1992/10/21/world/cairo-journal-after-the-earthquake-a-rumbling-of-discontent.html?pagewanted=1extracted 28-02-2010
Departments of civil engineering and structural engineering, http://www.springerlink.com/content/r546n6x4478l0350, extracted 28-02-2010
http://desastres.usac.edu.gt/document/pdf/eng/dcc5805/doc5805.pdf, extracted 28-02-2010
http://images.google.com.sg/imglanding?q=map%20of%20africa&imgurl=http://peonymoon.files.wordpress.com/2009/04/map-of-africa2.jpg&imgrefurl
Newspaper
Reuters, AFP, AP, Massive quake hits Chile, The Straits Times, 28-02-2010
Book : Atlas
Dr. Wong Poh Poh & Raymond Pask, Singapore and the World, 2nd Edition,
28-02-2010
A devastating earthquake struck Dashour (18km south of Cairo), Egypt on Monday 12 October, 1992 at 3.09 pm (local time) collapsing homes into the fractured earth. It was the century’s worst earthquake to hit northern Egypt.
The crustal plates movements linked to this catastrophe are the African and Arabian plates. The earth is made up of many plates. Earthquake occurs when sudden movements take place within and below the Earth’s crust. The plates either move apart, press against one another or move in opposite directions. These movements cause fractures and faults in the crust and the sudden release of built-up stress send shock waves and that causes enormous vibrations.
While the magnitude of this quake measured 5.8 and lasted only 3 seconds is considered mild according to the worldwide scale, there were 560 casualties and about 10,000 people were injured. There were numerous aftershocks with magnitude up to 4.3. It is therefore considered serious by Egypt’s standards as it affected many cities, collapsing many buildings. Monuments were severely damaged too. The Earthquake’s physical damage was estimated at about 1 billion U.S. dollars.
It took the government a while to react. They did not provide immediate aid for victims of the quake. The victims lived on the dirty sidewalk in front of their damaged dwelling for more than a week before the government mobilized the army to set up tent cities at south and northwest of Cairo. Officials eventually provided emergency housing to 2,000 families in a new city outside Cairo.
In my opinion, the government knowing that the country is prone to earthquakes should have proper development planning by ensuring that the buildings can withstand a certain plate movement. In addition, they should also put in place earthquake preparedness strategies to ensure that they can respond immediately to such catastrophe.
Websites
Chris Hedges, http://www.nytimes.com/1992/10/21/world/cairo-journal-after-the-earthquake-a-rumbling-of-discontent.html?pagewanted=1extracted 28-02-2010
Departments of civil engineering and structural engineering, http://www.springerlink.com/content/r546n6x4478l0350, extracted 28-02-2010
http://desastres.usac.edu.gt/document/pdf/eng/dcc5805/doc5805.pdf, extracted 28-02-2010
http://images.google.com.sg/imglanding?q=map%20of%20africa&imgurl=http://peonymoon.files.wordpress.com/2009/04/map-of-africa2.jpg&imgrefurl
Newspaper
Reuters, AFP, AP, Massive quake hits Chile, The Straits Times, 28-02-2010
Book : Atlas
Dr. Wong Poh Poh & Raymond Pask, Singapore and the World, 2nd Edition,
28-02-2010
