Week 3 Blog: Earthquakes
This week for my blog, I will be discussing earthquakes and this natural disaster effects Finland. I will also be diving into the necessary precautions Finland has taken, in case Finland is hit by a massive earthquake.
And now for something completely different....
Finland is relatively lucky, with the minimal amount of earthquakes it has to endured compared to other places on the planet (i.e. China). Remember from the previous blog post, that Finland's location in the middle of the continental plate is far from the plate margin areas (that are affected by earthquakes). When an earthquake does happen, the ground is stable from it's position on the continent, which makes shaking weak. Most of the earthquakes take place in the Northern region on Finland and have never been higher than 4.7 on the Richter scale.
To be honest, I had a hard time believing that Finland has minimal amounts of earthquakes. So, I went online to do some research of my own. I found a very interesting website that records the daily earthquakes of places from all over the world. Earthquake Tracker, recorded the last earthquake in Finland, which was 5 years ago, with a magnitude of 2.6 in Mantsala, Uusimaa, Finland. The earthquake before that, was a year prior to the earthquake in Mantsala, with a magnitude of 4.1 in Dragsfjard, Sounthwest Finland, Finland. From looking at the earthquakes and their seismic activity in Finland, for the past 12 years, there have only been seven earthquakes with a magnitude no greater than 2.7.
Finland is not in great danger of having an earthquake become a natural disaster. This doesn't mean that Finland is not at risk for other natural disasters that can hit their country (massive snow storms and flooding), but they still stay informed on earthquakes preparedness. On a website dedicated to earthquakes called Shaking Earth, there is information on how to prepare for an earthquake before hand (flashlights with working batteries and non parishble food), to what to do during an earthquake, and after, along the side margins of the article. This website is published in Finland, from the University of Helsinki. I find it hard to believe that Finland would not be prepared in case of a dangerous earthquake, since Sweeden has had earthquakes above 7.0 on the Richter scale. Another fascinating tidbit about Finkand is that the country will continuously give money to other countries that were devastated by a massive earthquake. For example, Finland donated over 3 million euros to Nepal after the country was hit with a 7.8 magnitude earthquake, back in May of 2015.
Photo:
Depressing Finland, Meanwhile in Finland. (2016). Retrieved
from http://depressingfinland.tumblr.com/post/69893425717/meanwhile-in-finland.
Work Cited:
Earthquake Tracker, Today's Earthquakes in Finland. (2016).
Retrieved from http://earthquaketrack.com/p/finland/recent.
Finland increases support to Nepal earthquake victims. (2016). Retrieved from http://formin.finland.fi/public/default.aspx?contentid=326218.
Korhonen, N. (n.d.). Shaking earth. Retrieved from http://www.helsinki.fi/lehdet/uh/101c.htm.
This was such an interesting post, Harmony. It appears that Finland, like South Korea, is not in imminent danger of a massive earthquake as neither is near a plate boundary. It is good to know, however, that Finland is not ignoring the possibility of experiencing an earthquake of some significance. Evidence of that is the website published by the University of Helsinki that gives valuable earthquake safety information to the people of Finland. It was especially interesting to read about charitable aid that Finland has extended to countries that have experienced devastation as a result of natural hazards. Good reporting!
ReplyDeleteI loved how you tied the plate boundaries with the earthquakes (or lack of)! Really good to see how generous they are and that they helped Nepal in their recovery. That is how it should be-
ReplyDeleteAlso enjoyed the picture! (:
Iceland has hundreds of earthquakes a week so I was also surprised that they were not more concerned with them. They have only had a handful of quakes over M5.9 in the past 88 years though, so it's just not something that takes top priority for the inhabitants. Except that some tremors coincide with volcanic activity which they are highly concerned with. Unlike Finland, Iceland sits right on TWO boundary plates which would also lead you to believe that they would be more concerned about earthquake activity but like Finland, most of Iceland's earthquakes are under M3.1
ReplyDeleteIt's good that they are still informed about earthquake preparedness. I don't think it's bad to have an informed public. I love hearing that they are so generous with other countries affected by natural disasters. Thanks for the information about Finland and earthquakes!