Madeleine Studies Japan's Geology

Japan is located at an intersection of four tectonic plates, part of the hotspot known as The Ring Of Fire. The plates in clockwise order are the Eurasian Plate (shaded green), the North American Plate (red), Pacific Plate (Yellow), and the Philippine Plate (purple) The boundaries of all four plates surrounding Japan are convergent, meaning that the two plates push together which results in higher occurrences of earthquakes and explosive volcanoes. These particular plates are subduction zones, where one plate moves below the other plate into the Asthenosphere. As the plate is dragged down by gravity, the mantle melts the rock down into liquid magma which rises back up and leads to volcanic activity. Volcanic Activity Earthquake Activity Subduction Zones Images are taken from: http://education.maps.arcgis.com/home/webmap/viewer.html?layers=69cb1f185afa47528708dbaa89e0729b&useExisting=1  (Image 1) http://earthguide.ucsd.edu/eoc/teachers/t_tectonics/p

The planet is often riddled with Natural Processes , proof of the earth moving and changing. It is not until a process occurs near/or affecting humans that it is deemed a Natural Hazard . This is when a natural process such as an earthquake transpires and the damage potentially threatens human lives or property. A hazard is classified as a Natural Disaster when a hazardous process occurs in a concentrated space and time and either kills 10+ people, affects 100+ people, a state of emergency is declared, and/or the area requests international assistance. A disaster is considered a Catastrophe  if it requires years to recover at a significant cost.  An interesting tidbit I found as I was deciding to study Japan was that the  2011 Tōhoku earthquake is often written about as a disaster despite being the largest earthquake recorded in Japanese history (9.0 magnitude), the following and unpredicted Tsunamis, the damaged Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant cooling system with consequent r