South Korea, and the Korean Peninsula as a whole, does not have a tectonic plate within close proximity that can cause devastating effects. The Philippine Plate is to the south and east, but it presents a danger to its neighbor, Japan, rather than to the Peninsula itself. The massive power of an earthquake centered in Japan would be diminished with distance. (1) South Korea is in the Eurasian Plate, which is a "stable intraplate environment with diffuse seismicity." (2) Although it is not likely that a massive earthquake will strike the Peninsula in the near future, the frequency of minor earthquakes (2.0 or greater) has increased in recent years prompting officials to explore various earthquake safety measures. (3)
(1) YONHAP News Agency; South Korea Relatively Safe from Major Quakes: Experts; March 11, 2011 http://english.yonhapnews.co.kr/national/2011/03/11/26
(2)SpingerLink; Zonation of the Far Eastern Eurasian Plate around the Korean Peninsula; Tae-Kyung Hong, Seongjun Park, Soung Eil Houng; September 3, 2015 http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00024-015-1170-2
(3) The Korean Times; Korea is Not Safe from Earthquakes; Kim Se-Jeong; April 27, 2015
http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/nation/2015/04/116_177843.html
Hello Susan!
ReplyDeleteMy country of choice is England and it too sits on the Eurasian Plate with no real threat of a strong earthquake. However I believe it is true the Korean Peninsula and most of Asia are at a threat for huge tsunami's after earthquakes even if they are small. The increase of small earthquakes can be alarming especially with non-eathquake friendly infrastructure. I hope Korean makes efforts to proactively deal with this potential threat. Overall great information from your post, I liked it a lot!
Great entry and thank you for the map. Maps will help everyone locating the country and their position respect the plates. As in a few other cases this semester, you might not be really close to a big quake or volcanic eruption, but South Korea will have other issues that you'll soon discover...to be continued...(:
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