Personal Response 5: Earthquakes

1. What are the causes of earthquake?
2. What can people do when there is an earthquake?
3. Do you think scientists can detect an earthquake? If so, how do they do it?
4. Where have earthquakes occurred?
5. Why do these countries have earthquakes?
6. Do you think there will be an earthquake in Singapore? Why?

~~Reflection~~

Earthquakes are one of the world`s dangerous disasters. Many lives were killed in the Sichuan Earthquake. The cause of earthquakes was stated correctly in 1760 by British engineer John Michell, one of the first fathers of seismology, in a memoir where he wrote that earthquakes and the waves of energy that they make are caused by “shifting masses of rock miles below the surface”. Here are some tips if you encounter an earthquake.

1. If you are INDOORS--STAY THERE! (Get under a desk or table and hang on to it, or move into a hallway or get against an inside wall. STAY CLEAR of windows, fireplaces, and heavy furniture or appliances. GET OUT of the kitchen, which is a dangerous place (things can fall on you). DON'T run downstairs or rush outside while the building is shaking or while there is danger of falling and hurting yourself or being hit by falling glass or debris.
2. If you are OUTSIDE-- get into the OPEN, away from buildings, power lines, chimneys, and anything else that might fall on you.
3. If you are DRIVING--stop, but carefully. Move your car as far out of traffic as possible. DO NOT stop on or under a bridge or overpass or under trees, light posts, power lines, or signs. STAY INSIDE your car until the shaking stops. When you RESUME driving watch for breaks in the pavement, fallen rocks, and bumps in the road at bridge approaches.
4. If you are in a MOUNTAINOUS AREA--watch out for falling rock, landslides, trees, and other debris that could be loosened by quakes.

The world's deadliest recorded earthquake occurred in 1556 in central China. It struck a region where most people lived in caves carved from soft rock. These dwellings collapsed during the earthquake, killing an estimated 830,000 people. In 1976 another deadly earthquake struck in Tangshan, China, where more than 250,000 people were killed. A nervous laugh often accompanies the statement, “Our house is on the fault line”. We all know that it is not a great place to be during an earthquake, but what actually is a fault line?
Cracks or fractures in the earth’s crust are known as faults and, because there may be more than one rock fracture, an area is called a fault line. This might be an inactive fault where scientists can see where past movement has been, or one which continues to be active even after millions of years. All but the very deepest earthquakes occur on faults. Faults might be only metres or up to a thousand kilometres.
When tectonic plates move, the rocks at the junction between the two plates are not able to simply glide past each other, due to friction and the rigidity of the rock. Instead, stress builds up in the rock until eventually it breaks, and the two rocky blocks move relative to each other along a fault line. Most Earthquakes are usually from when the place where fault lines are. Luckily Singapore is not near fault lines. Singapore might not have Earthquakes or one day, earthquakes may be in Singapore......

Personal Response 4: Child Safety Belt in School Buses

Many people take school buses to and from school. All lot of pupils have been seen walking around the bus while the bus is moving as it is very dangerous because if the bus is in for an emergency brake, pupils standing up will be thrown forward, smash the windscreen and may die. I agree with Ms Karen Koh that safety belts should be installed because your live is more important than anything else. I do not agree with Mr Leow Beng Kiong because our lives are important. I think that attendants, drivers and even children should remind each other to have your safety belts buckled at all times when you get on a vehicle.