Thursday, March 13, 2008

Living on an active plate boundary

There are many societies that live on an active plate boundary, but I decided to research the state of Washington.
Washington is beautiful, has many people, and is a great vacation spot, but there is many things going on that some people are not very aware about. This happens to be that they are living right above an active plate boundary. Many people are of course are aware of this. They have to prepare to be as safe as possible in case of a volcano or earthquake. Some of these people safeguard their home or buildings by having more earthquake proof beams and walls. They also try to make their schools as safe as possible by having volcano and earthquake drills. They want the students to try to get away from mudflows and falling objects. One teacher from Washington says this “By having more volcano drills this makes my feel better because the kids will have a better understanding of what to do during a volcano.” This drill will hopefully protect any kids that could be endangered by a volcano or earthquake. There is also a population of 3.5 million people that live and work close to Mt. Rainer and also 20,000 military personnel that live in the area. This means that scientists need to be aware of any know eruptions or earthquakes. The scientist in that area, are monitoring seismic activity and possible eruptions day in and day out. So far the scientists and the people have kept themselves very protected from any possible eruptions or earthquakes. After Mt. Saint Helens eruption, this state has become very aware that safety needs to be number 1.
Living on an active plate boundary might be difficult, but I think that the State of Washington has done the best that they can by keeping themselves protected.
CB5

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