The earth is a huge and complex system that operates accurately according to certain natural laws. During the evolution of the earth, natural geographical elements such as terrain, climate, biology, soil and hydrology are also constantly developing and changing. We call natural events that can cause human life and property losses in the surface system of the earth called "natural disasters". From a classification perspective, natural disasters include meteorological disasters, geological and geomorphic disasters, marine disasters and biological disasters. Natural disasters have always accompanied the development of human society, or the history of the development of human society is a history of constant struggle against natural disasters.
Why are there frequent earthquakes in countries along the Pacific coast?
Recently, the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River in my country are in the plum rain season. This year, the precipitation brought by plum rain is relatively large. Under continuous heavy precipitation, very serious floods have occurred in many provinces and cities such as Guizhou, Sichuan, Chongqing, Hubei, Hunan, Anhui and Jiangxi. Floods are meteorological disasters. While fighting floods and floods in my country, natural disasters also occurred in other parts of the world. On June 23, a magnitude 7.5 earthquake occurred in the Pacific coast of Mexico, located in , North America, , , , North America, 7.5 magnitude earthquake occurred in the Pacific coast of , with a depth of about 16 kilometers. The earthquake had killed at least 10 people, and about 2 million people felt a strong sense of tremor. Many houses collapsed due to earthquakes, causing huge economic losses and triggering a tsunami warning.
Mexico earthquake
Mexico is located in the southern part of North America, connected to the United States in the north, and to the south, and to the Guatemala and Belize , to the west, to the Pacific Ocean, to the east, to the east, to the Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean . Mexico is a country with a high incidence of earthquake disasters. In 1985, an 8.1-magnitude earthquake occurred in Mexico City, the capital of Mexico, causing tens of thousands of deaths. We found that not only Mexico, but many countries along the Pacific coast, such as Japan, Chile , New Zealand , Indonesia , the United States and other countries are countries with frequent earthquake disasters. This is strange, why do countries along the Pacific coast experience frequent earthquakes? It seems that this is true, and we find that the number of earthquakes on the Atlantic coast is significantly less than that in countries and regions, including eastern North and South America, Europe and western Africa.
June 23 Mexico earthquake location map
Is there any difference between the Pacific Ocean and the Atlantic Ocean? To explain this problem, we need to start from the perspective of plate tectonic theory. Earthquakes are vibrations caused by the rapid release of energy in the earth's crust. Crust movement is the most important cause of earthquakes. Among them, due to the collision and squeeze movement between plates, the staggering and rupture of the edges and inside the plates is the main cause of earthquakes. Therefore, we can understand that most earthquake-prone areas are located at the boundary where plates collide and squeeze each other, that is, the " extinction boundary " of the plate. From the perspective of plate tectonic theory, the lithosphere on the earth can be divided into six major plates , namely the Asia-European plate, the African plate, the Indian plate , the Pacific plate, the American plate and the Antarctic plate. There are two main boundaries of the plate, namely the Mediterranean -Himalayan extinction border and the Pacific Circle extinction border.
66 plate distribution map
These two areas passing through and nearby areas are areas with frequent earthquakes. For example, the Mediterranean- Himalayan earthquake zone mainly passes through Italy, Turkey , Iran , Afghan , my country's Tibet region, Indonesia and other countries. The frequency of earthquakes occurs very high in these countries and regions. The Pacific Rim Seismic Belt is the most frequent earthquake distribution zone in the world. This region is the extinction border between multiple plates. In the western Pacific, it is mainly the Pacific plate and the Asia-European plate, as well as the extinction border between the Pacific plate and the Indian Ocean plate; in the eastern Pacific, it is mainly the Pacific plate and the American plate, as well as the extinction border between the Antarctic plate and the American plate.
Mediterranean Himalayan seismic belt and Pacific Rim severity belt
Obviously 80% of the world's shallow source earthquakes, 90% of the middle source earthquakes and all deep source earthquakes are concentrated in the world. The earthquake belt starts from New Zealand, Fiji, Fiji, and turns to Indonesia, Philippines, Taiwan Province, Ryukyu Islands, Japanese archipelago, Kuril Islands, Kamchatka Peninsula, Aleutian Islands, Alaska, the western coast of Canada, California, and other places in the western United States, Mexico, Colombia, Peru and Chile, and almost circles the Pacific Ocean. Many major earthquakes occurred in this earthquake belt, including the 9-magnitude earthquake in the East Japan Sea in 2011, the 8.6-magnitude earthquake in San Francisco in the United States in 1906, and the 9.2-magnitude earthquake in Chile in 1962.
Japan's 311 earthquake triggered a tsunami
