Read these texts , translate and retell them. They tell you about disasters that occur on our planet from time to time. What else can you add to these stories?

What Is an Earthquake? We all know even if we haven't experienced it ourselves, that during an earthquake the ground shakes, lots of buildings fall down and sometimes cracks appear in the earth. But what makes an earthquake happen?

Planet earth is covered with a thick crust. The crust is cracked into more than twenty sections – a bit like the shell of a boiled egg when you tap it with a spoon. These cracked sections are called tectonic plates and they are always on the move. They move very slowly, but with incredible power. When the plates rub against each other or collide with each other, an earthquake happens.

Massive Destruction. Earthquakes happen all the time in all parts of the world but we don't notice most of them because they are small. But big earthquakes are really dangerous. They can buildings fall down, set off landslides and do other deathly things.

Have you ever heard about the Rift Valley in Africa? It was created by repeated earthquakes over thousands of years, which opened up the ground to form an enormous trench. The trench is so deep and wide that it can be seen from the moon!

The highest death toll caused by an earthquake was in China in 1556 when at least 830,000 people died. China also holds the record for the greatest number of deaths in recent times. In 1976, a huge quake caused the death of 250,000 people.

No Protection. Nowadays, new buildings in earthquake-prone towns and cities are built to withstand the shock of an earthquake. Even so, during seismic activity, gas pipes and electricity cables are ripped apart and cause fires and explosions, so even if buildings don't fall down, there can still be a lot of destruction.

San Francisco is a rich city on the west coast of North America. People live there and are still building houses, shops and office blocks. But San Francisco sits on one of the greatest earthquake zones in the world. Children have earthquake drills at school, but, unsurprisingly, people hope that it will never happen.

Tsunami. A tsunami is a chain of huge waves caused by an earthquake, but this time under the seabed. Tsunami waves can be very long (as much as 100 kilometres) and there may be an hour between them. They can move very fast, too, sometimes at the speed of 800 kilometres an hour. So if an earthquake happened in Los Angeles, a tsunami could hit Tokyo quicker than you could fly between the cities by jet.

When a tsunami reaches a coastline, it slows down but its height grows. There have been tsunamis as high as 30 metres above sea level! No wonder they are so dangerous. The Christmas weekend tsunami of 2004 is probably the most destructive tsunami in history.

Sounding the Alarm. Before the huge waves of the recent tsunami crashed into the coastline areas, wild and domestic animals showed very unusual behaviour. They seemed to know what was going to happen.

 According to eyewitness stories, the following events happened:

ü Elephants screamed and ran for higher ground.

ü Dogs refused to go outdoors.

ü Zoo animals rushed into their shelters and nothing could make them come out.

Such stories are not new. In 373 BC, historians wrote that animals, including rats and snakes, deserted the Greek city of Helices just days before a quake destroy the place. During the more recent earthquake in Turkey in 1999, dogs howled like wolves for two days before the earthquake struck. No one took any notice and many buildings fell down like stacks of cards, killing over 17,000 people. Not a single animal died during the Christmas tsunami of 2004 on one of the islands of Thailand, though there were a large number of victims and the greatest destruction. All animals and birds found shelter in the inland area on the tops of hills. 

Do animals have a sixth sense? Can they predict disasters? And why don't people learn to use these animal instincts?

 

Answer the questions.

1. What happens during the earthquakes?

2. What are the reasons for such a phenomenon?

3. What are the most destructing earthquakes have you heard, read or seen?

4. Why are they so dangerous?

5. What is tsunami like?

6. What happens with tsunami when approaching to the coast?

7. Why is tsunami dangerous?

8. Why don’t animals die during such disasters?

9. You are got by an earthquake / tsunami. What should you do in attempt to survive?