What are the factors do the damage earthquakes cause depend on?

When an earthquake strikes, the intensity of earthquake shaking determines the severity of damage. In turn, the main factors affecting earthquake shaking intensity are earthquake depth, proximity to the fault, the underlying soil, and building characteristics—particularly height.

What are the factors that cause earthquakes?

The tectonic plates are always slowly moving, but they get stuck at their edges due to friction. When the stress on the edge overcomes the friction, there is an earthquake that releases energy in waves that travel through the earth’s crust and cause the shaking that we feel.

What do earthquakes depend on?

The size of an earthquake depends on the size of the fault and the amount of slip on the fault, but that’s not something scientists can simply measure with a measuring tape since faults are many kilometers deep beneath the earth’s surface.

What typically causes the most damage during earthquakes?

The destructive effects of earthquakes are from landslides, tsunamis, fires, and fault rupture. The violent shaking of the ground produces the greatest property losses and personal injuries.

What are the 3 main causes of earthquakes?

5 Main Causes of Earthquakes

• Volcanic Eruptions. The main cause of the earthquake is volcanic eruptions.
• Tectonic Movements. The surface of the earth consists of some plates, comprising of the upper mantle. …
• Geological Faults. …
• Man-Made. …
• Minor Causes.

What are the 5 effects of earthquakes?

The primary effects of earthquakes are ground shaking, ground rupture, landslides, tsunamis, and liquefaction.

What are the causes and effects of earthquakes?

Causes of Earthquakes

These plates are constantly shifting. Disturbances in the earth’s crust are created when they pass each other or collide. Earthquakes or tremors are the terms for these types of disturbances. Or in other words, deep below, near tectonic plate margins, earthquakes occur.

What are harmful earthquake effects?

Some of the common impacts of earthquakes include structural damage to buildings, fires, damage to bridges and highways, initiation of slope failures, liquefaction, and tsunami.

Which disastrous effects occur during earthquakes?

The effects from earthquakes include ground shaking, surface faulting, ground failure, and less commonly, tsunamis.

How do earthquakes damage buildings?

Result: while columns can bend, the swaying motion, when intensified, snaps the building like matchsticks and collapses. A superstructure can be damaged, not only on account of the shaking which results from quakes but also due to chain effects like fire, land slide etc caused by earthquake.

How do earthquakes affect the environment?

Earthquakes often cause dramatic changes at Earth’s surface. In addition to the ground movements, other surface effects include changes in the flow of groundwater, landslides, and mudflows. Earthquakes can do significant damage to buildings, bridges, pipelines, railways, embankments, dams, and other structures.

What are three factors that influence the magnitude of the earthquake load on a structure?

The wind load is an external force, the magnitude of which depends upon the height of the building, the velocity of the wind and the amount of surface area that the wind “attacks.” The magnitude earthquake load depends up the mass of the structure, the stiffness of the structural system and the acceleration of the …

What factors can influence the damage resistance of buildings during an earthquake?

Factors Influencing Earthquake Resistant Design of Structures

• Seismic Structural Configuration.
• Structural Stiffness.
• Structural Strength.
• Ductility of Structure.

What are the factors affecting the response of a building?

Various factors such as brittle columns, stiffness elements, flexible ground floor, short columns, shapes, sizes, number of storeys, type of foundation, location of adjacent buildings, structural layouts etc.