Earthquakes are defined as the shaking of the earth by seismic waves radiating away from a disturbance, most commonly fault movement. There are two kinds of crust that make up the earths surface, oceanic and continental. On those crusts exist plates which are broken pieces of the earths lithosphere. The map below shows the names and boundaries of the two crusts on the earth's surface and the various plates which cover the earth.. Earthquakes occur from various plate tectonic settings such as extension (plates pulling apart), compression (plats coming/collide together), and transformation (plates moving along side of each other) (Abbot). Earthquakes are destructive events which may destroy our surrounds and take our lives and occur all over the world. One such catastrophic earthquake occurred in Japan

(http://pubs.usgs.gov/gip/earthq1/where.html)

On January 17^th 1995 at 5:46 am the Southern Hyogo, prefecture of Japan was hit by a devastating earthquake measured at 7.3 on the Richter scale. The earthquake left the city of Kobe in the earthquake was named the Great Hanshin earthquake.  The earthquake is also known by the names of Kobe, South Hyogo, Hyogo-Ken Nanbu, and the Great Hanshin-Awaji. In the 20 seconds that the ground shook well over 5,000 people perished and 300,000 were left either, injured or homeless. Kobe is the Hyogo prefecture capitol of the Kansai region of Japan. With a population of 1.5 million, it is one of Japans largest cities. Kobe was the first Japanese port to be opened to international trade and is one of Japans most cosmopolitan cities. he Japanese Archipelago is located in an area where several oceanic and continental plate meet cause frequent earthquakes, volcanoes, and hot springs in this region. Japan is said to be on e of the most unstable geological places on Earth. Many areas in Japan have experienced sever earthquakes in the past as well as Tsunami waves as a result of the earthquakes. The islands were formed by molten magma being released by the melting of the Philippines plate. The great Kanto quake of 1923 in Tokyo, took the lives of over 140,000 people, so Japan is no stranger to devastating quakes (1 Kobe Earthquake).

(http://japaneseguesthouse.com/prefecture.htm )

(http://www.drgeorgepc.com/EarthquakesJapan.html)