Russian MiniLessons: Землетрясения и российской помощи – Earthquakes and Russian Foreign Aid

The following bilingual Russian MiniLesson is meant to build your vocabulary by providing Russian phrases within English text. Hover over the bold Russian to reveal its English translation.

Землетрясениеan earthquake is defined in Russian as подземные толчкиan underground tremor of поверхность землиthe earth's surface. They can be triggered by natural causes such as тектонические процессыtectonic processes or by man-made processes such as explosions, mining works, and others.

Physicists explain that a землетрясение is caused by сейсмические волныseismic waves which are generated by a sudden release of energy in the Earth’s crust. Тектонические землетрясенияtectonic earthquakes most often зарождаютсяbegin at a depth of no deeper than several dozen kilometers within зоны разломаfault lines. Here, горные породыbedrock goes through a violent process. First, there is разрывcracking and перемещениеdisplacement. This place is called очаг землетрясенияthe earthquake center.

If the землетрясение is powerful enough, it разрушает здания и сооружения destroys buildings and infrastructure. While there are about 10,000 earthquakes per year worldwide, only 100 of them are разрушительныеdestructive.

Earthquakes of cила/магнитуда 7.5 баллов по шкале Рихтера a magnitude of 7.5 points on the Richter scale or more can cause other природное бедствиеnatural disasters. For instance, цунамиa tsunami is a series of water waves caused by the перемещение большого объема водных массdisplacement of a large volume of water, usually in an ocean.

Japan is situated in the so-called “Тихоокеанское вулканическое огненное кольцо”Pacific Ring of Fire, where earthquakes occur frequently. The recent Tohoku earthquake which occurred on March 11, was a 9.0-magnitude undersea earthquake which triggered чрезвычайно разрушительное цунамиextremely destructive tsunami waves of up to 30 m that struck Japan minutes after the quake, in some cases traveling up to 10 km (6 mi) inland.

The Japanese National Police Agency officially confirmed 11,232 убитыеdead, 2,778 раненыеinjured, and 16,361 people пропавшие без вестиmissing. The tsunami caused значительный ущербmajor damage, and destroyed entire towns.

Russia took part in the rescue operation in Japan, sending самолет с 50 спасателями на борту и техникой an aircraft with 50 rescue workers onboard and equipment. Later, another 130 Russian rescue workers were sent.

On March 16, a Russian aircraft с грузом гуманитарной помощиwith a cargo of humanitarian aid arrived in Japan.

Russian media additionally reported that the management of the Luzhniki Olympic Complex in Moscow пожертвовалdonated over one million rubles to the Japanese Embassy.