Meltdown!: The Nuclear Disaster in Japan and Our Energy Future

Meltdown!: The Nuclear Disaster in Japan and Our Energy Future — page 3
Chapter 1 EARTHQUAKE TSUNAMI MELTDOWN Although it strikes suddenly the Great Tohoku Earth quake has been building up for hundreds of years Like all quakes it happens because Earth s outer rocky layer called the crust is made up of many large slow moving pieces These are called plates The crust lies above another rocky layer called the mantle The mantle is so hot that it is not completely solid It flows in giant loops from Earth s core to the crust The pattern is the same one you can see in a pot of boiling water on a stove But the movement is much slower because the mantle is made of rock At the top of the mantle different loops flow in different directions The flowing mantle drags the crust with it That explains the cracking and movement of the plates Most of the Pacific Ocean lies above the Pacific Plate Japan sits just west of the Pacific Plate on three other plates Those are the North American Plate to the north the Eurasian Plate to the west and the Philippine Plate to the south EARTHQUAKE Year after year the Pacific Plate moves about 8 to 9 centimeters 3 to 3 5 inches closer to Japan That s about half as fast as your hair grows It plows