Agadir

1. http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2300/2097474247_be2034083b.jpghttp://farm3.static.flickr.com/2300/2097474247_be2034083b.jpg Agadir   Tina Stant

2. Some facts about Agadir. Agadir is a city that is in the South-West part of Morocco which is in Africa. The city could once have been an ancient roman site. Agadir is in the west side of the Sous-Wadi plain. That plain is surrounded by the Anti-Atlas and the Haut-Atlas mountains. Other three closest cities that are near Agadir are Safi, Marrakech and Ouarzazat. They would not be affected as much as Agadir by natural hazards because they are not as close to the ocean as Agadir is. http://www.erlebnis-tours-maroc.com/images/Photos/Agadir%20Aerial%20View.jpg

3. Were on the map. In this picture, you can see Morocco on the bottom left hand corner. In there, there is a red star and that is were Agadir is. You can see that it is near the Atlantic ocean. The whole of Africa is on the African plate and then so is Agadir. Agadir is close to the next plate which is the south American plate. Both plates are pushing into each other which is making the earthquakes and that is called a destructive margin. You could also call it an oceanic plate crashing into an oceanic plate. http://www.vacationstogo.com/images/ports/maps/504.gif

4. What happened to it. In 1960, there was an earthquake. Measured in magnitude, it was 5.9 out of 10. This happened on January the 13th and it killed about 15,000 people and left 25,000 injured. It killed so many people because they had very poor evacuation system and they were not warned about the earthquake. The damage was so much that they had to make another city on the south side of the old one and left that one the way it is. Now the city is a very popular tourist site with very modern thing like hotels. As well as the earthquake, it also had a huge tidal wave because the land is so close to the ocean. That had also caused more people to die because they would all drown. http://k41.pbase.com/g6/87/590687/2/81855566.wHtcX7WM.jpg http://k41.pbase.com/g6/87/590687/2/81855566.wHtcX7WM.jpg

5. What are tidal waves. http://k41.pbase.com/g6/87/590687/2/81855566.wHtcX7WM.jpg Normal little waves that you find on the beach that you can play in are just caused by wind. Tidal waves, also called tsunamis, are caused by underwater movements in the ocean, for example, an underwater earthquake. They can also be formed by underwater volcano's or just a simple landslide. If this happens in the middle on the ocean and it is very deep, then it will not be that big, even a boat would be able to go through it without tipping over. If it was not that deep and near a shore, then that could really become a threat to the places near that shore. Big waves can travel at least about thousand miles. Like the waves at Hawaii start at Antarctica and they are caused by storms about 6400 kilometres away. So when the big earthquake hit Agadir, there was also a huge tidal wave that hit it right after the earthquake.

6. What can we do about it. These two quotes that I got from a web-site could tell us about what people are doing to protect city’s when it all happens again. “With sufficient notification, an offshore oil rig could aim its own shockwaves towards in incoming tsunami, breaking the tidal wave down into even-smaller and less destructive waves.” So this is that they are trying to beak down a big tidal waves and make it smaller so that it will not do as much harm. This technique is still in process of making but could maybe be used within a decade. The other quote is similar but about earthquakes. “With advance warning, operators of a building could fire electromagnet waves at incoming shockwaves of an earthquake to protect against the worst of an earthquake destructive power.” This would really help because if it is a shockwave against a shockwave, they would both be stopped and there would be no big enough earthquake to do a lot of damage.

7. What to do in an earthquake. The first smart thing to do would be to prepare a safety kit when an earthquake comes. In it you should have a flashlight and extra batteries, money, water bottle, energy bars, (not for the taste) Blankest and a tent, medicine and maybe a phone. When you are in an earthquake, you should right away go under a doorway of under a very strong table. Put your hands behind the back part of your neck so you can protect that as much possible. When the earthquake is over, then you should leave the house as quickly as possible with all the things that you need. Please be kind to your pets and save them!!! Go strait to a big area that has no big danger of things falling onto you like a soccer field, a park of a parking lot. (not the building ones with levels) Once you are there, you just wait until you get more information about what to do next.

8. Bibliography . • “Agadir.” Encyclopaedia Britannica. Vol. 1. Chicago: The University of Chicago, 1768. p138. • “What are waves?” Planet Earth. Time Life Student Library. Crawford, JeanBrute. Amsterdam: Time Life books, 1998. p80-81. • “History of great Earthquakes.” 25/11/2009. PACIFIC DISASTER CANTER. 25/11/2009. http://www.pdc.org/iweb/earthquake_history.jsp • “Cloaking technology could protect buildings from disaster : study.” Not Available. OTTAWA CITTIZEN. 27/11/2009. http://www.ottawacitizen.com/news/Cloaking+technology+could+protect+buildings+from+disasters+study/1914797/story.html • “Perception of earthquake risk in Agadir, Morocco: A case study from a Muslim community.” 29/11/2009. SienceDirect. 29/11/2009. http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B6VPC-4KPP4DD-1&_user=10&_rdoc=1&_fmt=&_orig=search&_sort=d&_docanchor=&view=c&_searchStrId=1114052350&_rerunOrigin=google&_acct=C000050221&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=10&md5=a7a119bbe0030e4694fa378718529fd4 • “What could you do when here is an earthquake?” 29/11/2009. Answers.com. 29/11/2009. http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_could_you_do_when_there_is_an_earthquake

9. Any questions ???

10. THE END !!!