Students’ Level of Information and Awareness Regarding Earthquakes

Purpose

The main purpose of our project is to emphasize the level of knowledge that students, from the Academy of Economic Studies, have regarding earthquakes. Moreover, we want to illustrate, through the means of a questionnaire, how well informed and prepared are those students in case of an earthquake.

Project description

We have been talking about earthquakes, but what exactly are them? A scientific definition would be: “Earthquakes or seismic movements are terms used to land shifting, consisting of vibrations created in the internal areas of the Earth, propagated in the form of waves within the rocks. These vibrations resulting from the movements of tectonic plates are often caused by volcanic activity”. A more simple meaning is that: earthquakes are natural disasters that can destroy buildings and even whole villages.

In order to evaluate the intensity of earthquakes, Richter's seismological scale, which is a logarithmic scale, is often used. On this scale, there are 10 levels of magnitude depending on which earthquakes produce more or less damages:

Magnitude 1: Normally it is not felt.

Magnitude 2: Normally it is not felt.

Magnitude 3: It is often felt, but causes no damage.

Magnitude 4: It is often felt, but causes no damage. Noise is heard.

Magnitude 5: Moderate earthquake. Minor damage provoked to buildings near the epicenter. Noise is heard.

Magnitude 6: Powerful Earthquake. Buildings that are not resistant are damaged in a radius of several kilometers from the epicenter.

Magnitude 7: Major Earthquake. It causes more damage to a few hundred kilometers from the epicenter.

Magnitude 8: Giant earthquake. There is more damage, many deaths and many injured persons on hundreds of kilometers.

Magnitude 9: Super-earthquake. Appears very rarely. Destroy all or most of both the epicenter and the area covering thousands of square kilometers around it.

Magnitude 10: Unimaginable. Very few houses remain standing, and the land can be split in two. So far there this magnitude has not been recorded. The maximum recorded was 9.5.

Our study concerns only Romania, therefore, we considered that a list containing the greatest earthquakes, which had occurred over the past years, would be appropriate:

1107 - November 5, 6.2 degree earthquake in Romania

1126 - August 8, 6.2 degree earthquake in Romania

1170 - April 1st, 7 degree earthquake in Romania

1196 - February 13, 7 degree earthquake in Romania

1230 - May 10, 7.1 degree earthquake in Romania

1327 - 7 degree earthquake in Romania

1471 - August 29, 7.1 degree Earthquake in Romania

1516 - November 24, 7.2 degree Earthquake in Romania

1523 - November 19, 5.3 degree Earthquake in Romania

1530 - 4.7 degree Earthquake in Romania

1545 - July 19, 6.7 degree Earthquake in Romania

1550 - October 26, 5.3 degree Earthquake in Romania

1558 - November 2, 6.1degree Earthquake in Romania

1569 - August 17, 6.7 degree Earthquake in Romania

1571 - May 10, 6.5 degree Earthquake in Romania

1590 - August 10, 6.8 degree Earthquake in Romania

1599 - August 4, 6.1 degree Earthquake in Romania

1604 - May 3, the 6.7 degree Earthquake in Romania

1605 - November 24, 6.7 degree Earthquake in Romania

1606 - January 13, 6.4 degree Earthquake in Romania

1637 - February 1, 6.6 degree Earthquake in Romania

1679 - August 9, the 6.8 degree Earthquake in Romania

1681 - August 8th, 6.7 degree Earthquake in Romania

1701 - June 12, 6.9 degree Earthquake in Romania

1711 - October 11, 6.1 degree Earthquake in Romania

1738 - May 31, 7 degree Earthquake in Romania

1746 - December 7, 6.5 degree Earthquake in Romania

1784 - March 18, 5.8 degree Earthquake in Romania

1790 - April 6, 6.9 degree Earthquake in Romania

1793 - December 8, 6.1 degree Earthquake in Romania

1802 - October 26, 7.9 degree Earthquake in Romania

1865 - April 27, 6.4 degree Earthquake in Romania

1868 - November 23, 6.4 degree Earthquake in Romania

1868 - November 27, 6.1 degree Earthquake in Romania

1915 - October 9, 4.5 degree Earthquake in Romania

1915 - October 19, 4.8 degree Earthquake in Romania

1916 - January 26, 6.4 degree Earthquake in Romania

1940 - November 10, 7.4 degree Earthquake in Romania, about 1,000 dead

1977 - March 4, 7.2 degree Earthquake in Romania

1986 - August 30, 7.1 degree Earthquake in Romania

1990 - May 30, 6.9 degree Earthquake in Romania

1991 - July 12, 5.7 degree Earthquake in Romania

1991 - July 18, 5.5 degree Earthquake in Romania

2004 - October 28, 5.4 degree Earthquake in Romania

2009 - 25 April, 5.02 degree earthquake in Romania.