Most Dangerous Places To Live
By: Laura, Bailey, Nicole, Aaron
Introduction
San Francisco, California
Place
San Francisco is located on the coast of California. The city has a population of 805,235, and it is best known for the Golden Gate Bridge that stretches across the skyline. The residents of the area know the city by its cool summers, steep hills, cable cars, and the former Alcatraz Island located out in the bay. San Francisco has multiple dining, entertainment, and scenic options to choose from.
Boundaries
The San Andreas Fault is where the North American Plate encounters the Pacific Plate. This fault runs from Mexico clear up to just north of San Francisco. Both of the plates moving about two inches per year cause a lot of activity. The two plates form a transform boundary and a strike-slip fault where the plates slide past each other. The activity along the two plates has caused many historical earthquakes in the history of San Francisco.
Reasons
San Francisco is one of the most dangerous places to live in the world because of its position on the fault line. Southern California has a total of 10,000 earthquakes per year. One of the most historic earthquakes in the area was the one on April 18, 1906. Over 3,000 people were killed from the earthquake and the fire that followed. The magnitude of the earthquake registered at a 7.8 earthquake, which is pretty powerful. Fires broke out all over the city, leaving many people homeless and without food. Earthquakes are one of the top four reasons that San Francisco is known for.
British Virgin Islands
Place
For many years people have been attracted to the British Virgin Islands. They are attracted by the sand, surf, and sun. Overall its just the pure bliss of the land. But what they don’t know is that it is very active tectonic speaking. Many years have passed, and they have had many earthquakes.
Boundaries
They have many earthquakes, but the last major one was big. The last earthquake had two earthquakes separated by ten minutes. Both waves had a massive magnitude of 7.5! Although not many people were killed (20 people) ,but houses, businesses, essentially some people’s “lives” got washed away by devastating tsunamis that followed the earthquakes. They are located on the border of the Caribbean, North American, and South American plates! This causes for lots of activity. The Caribbean and North American plate form a divergent boundary, North American and South American form a convergent boundary, and the South American and Caribbean plate form a transform boundary. They occur at three different boundaries.
Reasons
Without question, the British Virgin Islands is potentially the most dangerous in the world as far as earthquake activity goes. They have hundreds of earthquakes over the magnitude of 3.5. Earthquakes can be predicted but warning may not go out to the people to keep them safe. People take the risk of living there into their own hands. Sadly some people don’t know how dangerous this place can be.
Japan
Place
Japan is a country made up of about 6,800 islands, located in eastern Asia. The population is 127,817,277 people, making it rated number ten in the world. Japan is a subtropical climate, summers are hot and steamy and winters are cold and icy. Another weather condition is typhoons. Typhoons affect Japan from August to September; some regions have earthquakes and volcanoes more than the others. Some of Japan’s regions are extremely icy during winters but during the summers they are good for growing things. Japan gets 17,000 to 18,000 millimeters of rain per year. Two reasons that attract people to live in Japan are high income and long life expectancy.
Boundaries
Japan is frequently affected by volcanoes and earthquakes. About 1,500 earthquakes strike this country each year. Japan sits on four tectonic plates making it not a very safe place to live. The plates mash and grain against each other causing massive earthquakes. The country also lies along the great ring of fire. About 10% of earth’s volcanoes occur in Japan. Japan holds the biggest earthquakes and volcano disasters throughout the world.
Reasons
Japan has recently had a major earthquake and tsunami in 2011 that killed 15,870 people. It had a magnitude of 9.0. It washed away a lot of buildings, housing, and resorts. Japan has had several other earthquakes like this one. Japan has over 100 active volcanoes. Japan is not the safest place to live, but it is one of the smartest countries.
Solomon Islands
Place
In the Solomon Islands people started to live there because some of the explorers found some gold on the islands. The first people who discovered the Solomon Islands were the people themselves. They started to build some of their homes. There are many languages spoken in the Solomon Islands. There are many people who live there. According to the scenes in 2011, there are 552,267 people living there. The people in the Solomon Islands are very careful and know a lot of the time when to take shelter.
Boundaries
There are not many plates that the Solomon Islands sit on. There are many earthquakes in the Solomon Islands. The Solomon Islands sits on the Solomon sea plate. The south Bismarck plate and the Indo-Australian plate are in a subduction zone. Which means one plate is going under the other. When one plate crosses under another plate it can form a volcano. The magma builds up so much it burst and turns into rock. After it is turned into rock, it keeps repeating that over and over again, and it becomes a volcano.
Reasons
The Solomon Islands are very beautiful but they do have lots of earthquakes. They also have some, but not a lot of volcano eruptions. There have been some very bad ones. One of the ones the magnitude was 7.1 and 8.0. There are seven volcanoes that are active in the Solomon Islands. The Solomon Islands are very dangerous.
Conclusion
Sources
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