Which disaster took place in kobe japan in 1995

Unable to grasp the extent of the damage for hours after the quake, the national government came under heavy criticism for its slow response to the catastrophe. That led the government to improve its crisis management. A Cabinet team was launched to gather information on big disasters on a hour basis.

When the Great East Japan Earthquake hit on March 11, , the government held the first meeting of its emergency disaster management team within 30 minutes of the magnitude 9.

On the other hand, efforts to reduce the damage from big earthquakes remain slow. Most of the people killed in the quake were crushed by houses and buildings toppled by the temblor. Thereafter, the government started offering subsidies to promote quake-proof work on houses built under pres building standards.

When a series of deadly temblors hit Kumamoto Prefecture in , most of the buildings destroyed were wooden houses built under the old standards. Similarly of concern in a major quake striking big cities are clusters of old wooden houses vulnerable to fire.

In the Hanshin quake, roughly 7, houses burned down — many of them concentrated in areas with narrow streets difficult for fire engines to navigate. Clusters of old wooden houses still remain in large numbers in Tokyo and other big urban areas. The Hanshin quake highlighted how vulnerable these clusters of old houses are to devastating quakes. Measures need to be taken to avert a repeat of that disaster.

Many local medical institutions were paralyzed when their facilities were damaged by the Kobe earthquake, hampering aid to the injured. When those plates scrape against each other and cause an earthquake, the results can be deadly and devastating.

Learn more about earthquakes with this curated collection of classroom resources. Earthquakes happen everyday around the world.

Explore them with MapMaker, National Geographic's classroom interactive mapping tool. Join our community of educators and receive the latest information on National Geographic's resources for you and your students. Skip to content. Fractured Road, Japan A crane and several construction vehicles lay toppled on a fractured road in Kobe, Japan, after a temblor shook the quake-prone country.

Photograph by Karen Kasmauski, National Geographic. Twitter Facebook Pinterest Google Classroom. Background Info Vocabulary. On January 17, , a major earthquake struck near the city of Kobe, Japan, killing more than 6, and making more than 45, people homeless. Japan is one of the most geologic ally active regions on Earth, a place where four major tectonic plate s—the Eurasian, Philippine, Pacific, and North American—meet and interact.

The Kobe quake was a result of an east-west strike-slip fault where the Eurasian and Philippine plates interact. The quake had a moment magnitude of 6. The Kobe government spent years construct ing new facilities to attract back the 50, people who left after the quake. More Dates in History January. Media Credits The audio, illustrations, photos, and videos are credited beneath the media asset, except for promotional images, which generally link to another page that contains the media credit.

Media If a media asset is downloadable, a download button appears in the corner of the media viewer. Text Text on this page is printable and can be used according to our Terms of Service. Japan on Tuesday commemorated the 22nd anniversary of the devastating earthquake that left 6, people dead in the city of Kobe and several locations in the center of the country in Relatives of the deceased and survivors of the earthquake, considered one of the most tragic in the country's history, gather every year on the date of the quake anniversary in a park in Kobe and observe a minute of silence at 5.

Attendees laid out some 7, bamboo candles which were formed to read "," representing the date of the earthquake, and the word in Kanji characters "hikari," which means "light" in Japanese.

The memorial service for the Great Hanshin Earthquake - named after the region - took place at a monument at the Higashi Yuenchi park, according to public broadcaster NHK. After a minute of silence, a memorial ceremony took place in which victims like Shinji Otorii, who lost his wife in the disaster, remembered the victims and the remaining challenges after the tragedy.