What caused the Kobe earthquake in Japan in January 1995?
Plate Tectonics:- the earth’s lithosphere is composed of 12 major plates, all moving over the earth’s surface. It must be remembered that oceanic crust is heavier than continental crust and when these collide the oceanic crust is forced to sink below that of the continent crust at a subduction zone. It is this movement that caused the Kobe earthquake. The movement is not smooth but is in a series of sudden jerks caused by the high frictional forces involved. The driving force for the plate movement is thought to be slab pull as the slab sinks at the subduction zone. On the other side of the plate there will be a constructional boundary where rising magma is forming new oceanic crust.
