International School History - European Schools - S3

Earthquakes are among the most devastating natural disasters on the planet. In the last hundred years they have claimed the lives of over one million people. Earthquakes are destructive mainly because of their unpredictable nature. It is impossible to say accurately when a quake will strike but a new theory could help save lives by preparing cities long in advance for an earthquake...A city called Izmit seemed to be the next place that would be struck. With a population of 500,000 people. Newspapers, science journals and other publications all printed this remarkable news. Unfortunately there was not enough interest from the local community. In August 1999 a massively energetic earthquake lasting just 45 seconds killed 25,000 people.

...using the data acquired from the Izmit quake they began to work out where the next most likely earthquake site would be.The answer would cause a great deal of concern. At the edge of the red zone lay the city of Istanbul, home to more than four million people.