Bam Earthquake

This major earthquake happened on 26 December 2003 in South Eastern Iran, Bam. It occurred in the South West of Bam, at 1.56am, when most people are asleep. The magnitude of this earthquake is 6.6. The earthquake happened due to the amount of stress produced by the northwards movement of the Arabian Plate, against the Eurasian Plate. The Arabian Plate moves about 3 centimetres towards the Eurasian Plate each year, thus resulting in an earthquake.

As a result of this earthquake, 30 000 people were injured and 26 271 people were killed, most of them who were killed when they were sleeping. Among these people, 11 000 students and 1080 teachers were killed. Due to the lack of teachers, the local education system had faced a big problem. 85% to 90% of the buildings in Bam were totally destroyed or damaged, causing approximately 100 000 people to be homeless.

The government of Bam accepted the aid from other countries, such as the People’s Republic of China, the International Federation of the Red Cross and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). They were using the funds to help the people build their houses. They also supplied tents for the victims to live in temporarily.

I think that the government should set a rule that says all of the buildings or houses must have a good foundation that can withstand the magnitude of any earthquake or other natural disaters better. By doing this, when there is an earthquake, the building or house will not crash so easily.

Website

Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2003_Bam_earthquake, extracted 27-02-2010