Madeleine Studies Japan's Geology

Japan's most recent bought of extreme weather came over the summer during disastrous rainfall. As the country was still recovering from late June's Typhoon Prapiroon, the atmosphere was too. That, combined with a warm front forming from the Pacific Ocean fed torrential storms across the country for a majority of July. This extreme weather created one of the country's most deadly summers resulting in record-breaking heatwaves (Record 106ª F with 80 deaths from that alone) flooding, landslides, and 176 deaths. Japanese weather disaster experts claim that the country is experiencing significantly more extreme weather events as global warming rises. Because of the country's almost constant-feeling amount of earthquakes, the government tends to allocate funds toward building codes and reinforcing buildings to withstand quakes but not necessarily the increased flooding. Record-Breaking Temperatures compared to cities' previous records, all recorded July 23 Though we

As the book says, slopes are the world's most common landform and Japan is no exception.  Being composed of 70% slopes, Japan experiences mass wastings usually following high rains. Water is a major cause for mass wastings by eroding slope bases, increasing the driving forces for a landslide, as well as increase the weight and underground water pressure of the earth material which, in turn, reduces resistance to slow a landslide as it descends. As with citizen knowledge and preparations for other disasters, Japan has a heightened awareness for mass wastings that has been unfortunately raised by first negatively experiencing destructive landslides. The preemptive landslides from four years ago helped to create warning systems and plans that saved lives from this last summer's onset of monsoon-induced landslides. On August 20, 2014, Hiroshima in particular experienced terrible, deadly landslides following a rainy summer season, where over 400 residential homes were buried and 7