However, what caused such a severe damage of the city of one of the most highest earthquake-prepared countrys, was that the city of Kobe is close by water, therefore is on soft land. Secondly, the focus was relatively shallow. Engineering was another reason. A huge amount of the houses in Kobe were built before the development of strict seismic codes (1981). They had old wooden frames, heavy clay tiled roofs, and were closely built together. This let the fires travel on to the neighbors rapidly. So unlike the newly built buildings, the old buildings did not resist the earthquake, therefore were damaged and collapsed, causing over 300 fires because of the broken gas lines, within minutes of the earthquake. Reacting to the fires was hindered by the failure of the water supply system and the disruption of the traffic system. Another cause for a particularly devastating effect was that no clear actions were prepared and the careful Japanese government gave a slow response, causing aids and supports to be late.
Ten years later another great earthquake happend in Pakistan, at 8:50am, on October 8th 2005. The magnitude of 7.6 killed about 30,000 people and left 42,000 injured. The earthquake occurred as a result of the convergent plate boundaries colliding, the Indian sub-continent and the Eurasia plate. The focus of the quake was located in northern Pakistan, near Islamabad. Damages occurred mainly throughout Kashmir, leaving two million people homeless.
Even though the magnitude of the Kashmir earthquake was comparatively similar, the damage was far greater than the Kobe earthquake in Japan. One of the main causes of deaths was the poor weather that caused delays. The main earthquake, but also the 147 aftershocks that were registered caused landslides that blocked the roads and huge damage on electricity, water and telephone infrastructure and all the city’s hospitals. The biggest Problem was the poor government, wich did not have much money and aid to spare, and the suffering poverty left people with no places to go. These people had no medical treatment to cure their wounds, and died weeks after the relief. Another cause of so many deaths was the time. Most citizens in Kashmir were awake and off to work, walking through the city without knowing that 60% of the buildings were about to collapse on top of them.
The hour is a important matter that affects the amount of damage caused by the earthquake in each area. The Kobe earthquake could have been more devastating if it had been a few hours later because then the citizens would have been outside of their homes, where anything could have collapse on top of their heads. The Kashmir earthquake was unlucky in this point; however, the period of year in this disaster was more fortunate than the one in Kobe. Kobe was in the middle of winter when the earthquake happend. People who lost their homes had to survive a freezing winter, as in Kashmir the temperature was rather warm.
The measurment of the magnitude on the Richter Scale does not show the complete damage of an Earthquake. From these factors, it is obvious that weather, time, preparation, engineering and the state and postion of government are several affects that have influence on how devestating the damage of an earthquake is.
