Geography Creative Writing: Earthquakes

Geography Creative Writing Author Name Institution Affiliation An earthquake, also called temblor or tremor, is the shaking of the surface of the Earth. When a significant amount of energy is released from the lithosphere of the Earth, then an earthquake is likely to take place. It is capable of creating seismic waves and destroying an entire city or village within seconds. Earthquakes range in size and have their own frequencies. For example, some of them may shake the Earth for only a few seconds, and the others can last for up to three hours. In the reading titled Earthquakes and Tsunamis, it is clearly mentioned that the internal structure of the Earth has been layered in spherical shells: a liquid outer core, a solid inner core and a silicate crust (p. 3). Scientific understanding of the internal structure and composition of the Earth is entirely based on observations of bathymetry and topography, samples collected from the surface of the Earth and from depths created by volcanoes, measurement of the magnetic and gravitational fields of the Earth, experiments done on crystalline solids at the specific temperature and pressure, and detailed analysis of the seismic waves that frequently pass through the Earth. I had always been fascinated by the study of earthquakes (seismology), but I did not get a chance to experience the one till my teenage. The 2016 Old Iliamna earthquake changed my life by the whole and made me understand that earthquakes are among the most dangerous natural phenomenon, as I lost my two siblings and my father in this incident. It had stuck in an Alaskan region known as the Cook Inlet, close to Iliamna, and the time was 1:30 a.m. AKST. The disaster took place on January 24, 2016, and registered 7.2. It was felt by all of my family members, relatives living in the same city, and of course, our neighbors. Later on, I got to know that entire Alaska had felt this earthquake, and moderate to heavy damages to homes, businesses, roads, and lives were experienced at that time. We were sleeping in our bedrooms when someone from the street began shouting and crying. We woke up and came outside, but my father could not get out of his bed, and the entire hou...