On Sunday, February 3, 2008, a series of earthquakes rattled the Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda and Burundi. There were four quakes in total. The magnitude of the first quake is 5.9, and it occurred at 9:34 a.m. local time. Three smaller quakes followed in the next few hours in a west-to-east pattern. According to the U.S. Geological Survey Earthquakes Hazards Program, these quakes occurred at a depth of about 10 kilometres(6.2 miles).
The first quake occurred near the southwestern shore of Lake Kivu in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The next two quakes also struck in the valley. The final quake occurred beneath a nearby ridge line in Rwanda. The valley and neighbouring ridge is only a small segment of a long crack in the Earth’s crust that stretches from the Middle East, along the Arabian Peninsula, and through East Africa as far south as Mozambique.
This physical feature is known as the Great Rift Valley, and it is being formed as the two tectonic plates carrying Africa are pulling away from each other and from the Arabian plate to the north. Plates that are pulling away from each other is called divergent plates.
As the three plates pull apart, the crust thins, cracks, and settles—sometimes violently. Magma rises to the surface. Even if it does not erupt, the magma puts tremendous pressure on the thinning, fragile crust, creating more fractures.
34 people had died in the country's west, including 10 killed when a church collapsed. The mayor of the town of Bukavu said five people had died there. Many buildings have been hit and lots of houses have completely collapsed. The quakes were also felt in neighbouring Burundi, disrupting hydroelectric power and causing a half-hour electricity cut.
Even though earthquakes cannot be prevented, scientists should use devices that could predict an earthquake to help the people near that area by alerting and warning them to evacuate from that area. The number of casualties would surely be reduced that way. People from other countries should also donate money to help the earthquake victims to rebuild their homeland.
We will never know how the earthquake victims feel as we live in Singapore, a country without any natural disasters. Even so, we should not just ignore the victims but should help them in every way.
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Done by: Sia Xin Tong(28)
Class: 1 Unity
