When the Ground Shakes and the Sky Burns

Venezuela Earthquake Explained + Europe’s Record Heatwave | Takaro Kids Geography

This episode covers two major humanitarian crises: a pair of powerful earthquakes in Caracas, Venezuela on June 24 (7.2 followed within a minute by 7.5 on the Richter scale), and an extreme heatwave across Europe. The hosts explain what earthquakes are, how tectonic plates cause shaking, why rigid buildings in places less used to earthquakes can collapse, and describe ongoing rescue efforts, international aid from over 24 countries, and reported unofficial figures of up to 10,000 missing or dead. They then discuss Europe’s unprecedented temperatures (including 39°C in London), why homes and infrastructure there are not designed for such heat, impacts like fan shortages, government advisories, nuclear power plant cooling challenges, glacier melt, and rail disruptions from metal expansion, linking these events to the need to address global warming and climate change. The quiz asks what the Richter scale measures.

00:00 Intro Two Big Events
00:38 Venezuela Quake Overview
01:03 What Causes Earthquakes
02:51 Richter Scale Explained
04:01 Why Buildings Collapse
05:09 Rescue Aid Efforts
07:06 Personal Quake Stories
09:18 Europe Heatwave Begins
11:15 Why Europe Struggles
12:47 Infrastructure Climate Impacts
14:42 Climate Change Takeaways
15:26 Quiz Richter Scale
16:49 Last Week Winner Outro

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Transcript

Kiran 0:00

Mics, camera, action. This week we are back to geography uh, looking at two very important events have happened, one which is still happening. It is in two different continents, one in South America and one in Europe. So this week we're gonna cover the earthquake in Venezuela, and we're gonna cover the heatwave in Europe

Debkanya 0:28

Yeah, both of them are, uh, what you would call a humanitarian crises that are going on in different parts of the world, you know, on opposite sides of the Atlantic Ocean. Venezuela was struck by a really, really, really bad earthquake. In fact, two earthquakes that hit them back to back. It's been pretty scary and pretty sad. I don't know if you've been watching the news, or reading the newspapers at all, but it's been quite a huge disaster that struck the people of Venezuela. There are rescue efforts still going on, but, you know, before we go into that, let's just talk about exactly what happened,

Kiran 1:03

Maybe we can start with what an earthquake is, Debbie, and, you know, how is an earthquake formed?

Debkanya 1:09

A lot of you probably already know what an earthquake is, and basically it is a quake or a tremor or when the Earth shakes really, really hard because a lot of energy is released. Um, sometimes you can see this in the form of waves. Basically, you'll see the ground actually moving in waves, which is really weird because normally you see waves where- wherever you have water, right? So in the ocean, in the sea, that's when you see waves. But when an earthquake happens, you see the land moving in waves sometimes if it's really strong.

Kiran 1:40

in fact, the reason an earthquake happens is because Earth made up of multiple plates tectonic plates. And, uh, these are exactly what they sound like. You know, think about it, just plates, one sitting on top of the other. And so, uh, if you think about two plates that were sitting right next to each other, and then one goes over the other. And, uh, you know, here goes an analogy, which is, uh, let's assume you had some food on those plates, and one goes over the other. It throws off the food from the other plate, right? And that's exactly what happens with an earthquake. It's when two tectonic plates kind of um, they move apart. When they move and, um, hit each other, then that creates a shockwave that all the way up to what we can feel on the

Debkanya 2:35

Yeah, that's right. And sometimes they can be really mild, so you'll just feel a, you know, general-- a little bit of movement. You might feel like, oh, the, you know, land is tilting a little bit. You might see some lights moving around you. But sometimes they can be really strong, and that's what's happened in Venezuela. It happened on the 24th of June, it happened specifically in Caracas, which is a place in Venezuela. Two massive earthquakes, and earthquakes are usually measured on the Richter scale, okay? This is a very specific type of measurement it's not like a scale, right? It's not like the scale that you use to measure in centimeters or in millimeters or, you know, in inches even. So earthquakes are measured on a Richter scale. Over here, the magnitude of the earthquakes that hit Venezuela were 7.2, and this was followed pretty much immediately by another earthquake, which was 7.5 in less than a minute apart, right? These are very, very strong earthquakes. So normally a mild earthquake generally measures anywhere between 3 and 4.9, right? Now this one, this one was really strong. 7.5 is really strong. And what happened was after that, this is, this is the kind of earthquake where entire buildings can collapse, and that's exactly what happened. Like, entire buildings fell down, they collapsed. People got stuck under there. Uh, the earth basically has released a whole amount of energy, and that had to go somewhere, right? It's destroyed the whole city in a lot of ways.

Kiran 4:00

Yeah. And I think, um, you know, there are certain parts of the world which are very used to earthquakes. Japan

Debkanya 4:07

Hmm

Kiran 4:07

It's very used to earthquakes. And so a lot of the buildings that are built in Japan, because... And there you'll feel an earthquake almost every month, right? If not more frequently.

Debkanya 4:19

Milder ones, right? They're not as strong. Yeah

Kiran 4:22

Yeah, yeah, much milder. But the point is the buildings are built for that, even for the stronger ones. So the building actually shakes with the earth, and so it does not resist the earth, and that's what helps them kind of keep things stable. Over here in places like Venezuela, which is not really a big earthquake zone till now, um, at least not frequent, you don't build it that way, think about it, you know, you have a stack of Lego and you're, you've put it on a carpet, and you start pulling that carpet left and right. That Lego stack is gonna fall very quickly

Debkanya 4:56

Yeah

Kiran 4:56

never built for, you know, movement. It's a very rigid structure. And so that's what happens when there's an earthquake in a place that um, like Venezuela, which is not prepared for it all the time

Debkanya 5:09

Absolutely. So a lot of people are still supposedly stuck. In fact, they're saying, you know, of course, unofficial figures are saying it could be anywhere, up to 10,000 people, um, that are missing, have lost their lives, because of this, earthquake. But the interesting thing again is whenever something like this happens, whenever a disaster of this scale stri-strikes anywhere in the world, there is always a lot of help that rushes in, and that's exactly what's happened in Venezuela as well. More than 24 countries have sent help to Venezuela. This is not just in the form of money. There are, you know, people who've gone there to, Like we mentioned, entire buildings have fallen down, you need manpower to remove all that rubble, to pull people out, uh, to pull even animals out, uh, from, from these sites, right? So there are a lot of search and rescue dogs who've been actually trained to smell, um, and, and, you know, can hear human heartbeats from, uh, you know, this rubble, the pile of rubble. They can find and identify where people are stuck. So that's pretty cool. So they're using the search and rescue dogs to find people. And of course, they're sending in supplies because all the people that have been rescued have been injured. They need medicines, they need clothes, they need, you know, clean water. That's one of the hardest things because when, when something like this happens, everything gets destroyed, right? There's no clean water, there's no food. So all of this help is reaching Venezuela, from various countries around the world

Kiran 6:30

Venezuela has been in the news for the last year or so when Trump decided to go in and capture their, president, Nicolás Maduro. And, um, so, you know, it was in a state of flux already. this actually has not helped the economy as such. So it'll be interesting to see how they recover, how much of aid is required to recover, because they still haven't cleared all the rubble and things. It's been over a week, but it's still in a state of rescue, It's not about rebuilding. Rebuilding is gonna take a long, long while. It's gonna be very, very long, the entire process for Venezuela. Have you, have you ever actually experienced an earthquake, Debbie?

Debkanya 7:10

No, never.

Kiran 7:12

No?

Debkanya 7:12

Somehow never. I mean, I think I did long, long ago when I was working in Delhi and I was walking on the street. Uh, but they normally say that you Yeah, of all places, yep. Yeah. But, you know, that's what they say. Normally if you're indoors, chances of you realizing there's an earthquake is higher because there are more things that can move. On the street, if it's really mild, you might be like, uh, you know, it, it just literally passed me by. I didn't feel much at all, and then I realized, oh, there was an earthquake

Kiran 7:41

I've, I've actually been, I mean, not near the epicenter. Um, if you remember quite a few years ago, I think about, um, now maybe 16, 17 years ago, there was an earthquake in Gujarat.

Debkanya 7:54

Mm-hmm.

Kiran 7:54

so I was actually in Rajasthan that point of time, and they are neighboring states. And when it happened, I was actually in Rajasthan and, um, it was at night. So, uh, bed shook um, feel it, and a couple of people actually fell off their beds,

Debkanya 8:15

Wow

Kiran 8:15

even all the way out to Rajasthan. So that... So when an

Debkanya 8:19

This is the Bhuj earthquake? Is that the one you're talking about? The Bhuj earthquake of 2001. Yeah, that was a really, really bad earthquake that hit Gujarat. Many people, I think almost 20,000 people, I think lost their lives

Kiran 8:34

really big one because the epicenter was in Bhuj, but the-- but it was felt across a large area.

Debkanya 8:41

Yeah, yeah. And that was also a 7.7 magnitude earthquake, so

Kiran 8:46

Yeah.

Debkanya 8:46

stronger than the one felt in Venezuela

Kiran 8:49

imagine I was in a state next door, not

Debkanya 8:52

And you felt it

Kiran 8:53

not even in the same state, and I felt it and others felt it. So that's how crazy the earthquake can be

Debkanya 9:00

Really scary, but I mean, the good thing is, you know, a lot of people are still getting rescued. A lot of help has reached them. So hopefully, they'll be able to, save many lives and, as you said, the rebuilding process has to start as well for Venezuela.

Kiran 9:17

Yep. Carrying on to the second story, which is again to do with nature.

Debkanya 9:23

Mm-hmm.

Kiran 9:24

seems to be the theme nowadays. We're doing a lot of these nature episodes, El Niño, the earthquake, and now we're

Debkanya 9:29

Yes

Kiran 9:30

Europe is facing the hottest summer it has ever, ever faced. There are multiple sort of reasons why. There are also a lot of deaths because of the heat wave. In fact, some of the countries in, in Europe have actually said people cannot go outdoors into parks and drink because actually a really dangerous situation because it's so hot that you don't feel it, you don't understand it, and then you get a heat wave, and then you can potentially, you know, major consequences from that. Some countries in Europe, they're facing temperatures which are 10 degrees higher than what they have faced before. Ten degrees. I have a cousin of mine who's in the UK, and it is 39 degrees in London,

Debkanya 10:22

Hmm.

Kiran 10:23

that is of, 39 degrees. I mean, even in Bangalore when you reach 39 degrees, you're like, "Oh my God, that's

Debkanya 10:30

I live in Mumbai and we've had that kind of, those kind of temperatures here this summer. So I mean, I have to say that this is, you know, this, this, the heat in Europe is making a lot of headlines and it's super interesting because Europe has, is not used to those kind of temperatures.

Kiran 10:49

aren't at all

Debkanya 10:50

In, in India, we see these temperatures on a regular basis every year during the summer in places like Delhi, for example, it can go up to 45, 46 degrees,

Kiran 10:59

Yeah.

Debkanya 11:00

right? Bombay can... Bombay this time went up to 39, 40 degrees on certain days in, in certain parts of the city, right? Because some, we know that some parts are hotter than others, um, you know, depending on how much tree cover they have, depending on how those places have been built. Europe is facing this for the first, not for the first time, I would say, but it doesn't happen that often, and which is also why they are not at all equipped for this kind of a situation,

Kiran 11:25

Yeah.

Debkanya 11:25

In India,

Kiran 11:26

for heat

Debkanya 11:28

yeah

Kiran 11:28

because even their houses, when you build houses in Europe, um, it's built to contain heat

Debkanya 11:35

Exactly

Kiran 11:36

cold, so there's padding and, you know, the walls actually have padding inside the walls to keep heat inside and insulate the cold temperature. So now you actually have an oven when you're sitting inside that house because it's trapping even more heat

Debkanya 11:52

Exactly. And they don't have fans in their rooms, which is the

Kiran 11:56

friends.

Debkanya 11:57

other interesting thing 'cause, like, in India, fans are normal, right? Like now, of course,

Kiran 12:03

yeah

Debkanya 12:03

The demand for air conditioning in India has gone up a lot and will keep growing, right? Because it's just getting hotter and hotter. Europe never needed it because, like you said, generally cooler climate, generally they prepare for, you know, to stay warm as opposed to staying cool, right? So no fans even, so that's been really hard. I know those have been selling out really fast in all the stores. And, you know, there's a lot of directives from the government: stay indoors, stay hydrated. All the usual stuff. But yes, um, it's been very interesting to watch how they have been reacting to this, uh, to the heat situation there.

Kiran 12:37

And it's one thing after the other, right? The simple heat wave, I not simple, fairly, fairly,

Debkanya 12:45

Intense, yeah

Kiran 12:46

heat wave. But a lot of Europe, actually survives on non-coal electricity, And for power. India is a coal nation at this point. Majority of our electricity is produced by coal. But in Europe, it's actually nuclear power plants, which is a big, big reason for a lot of their power. Now, nuclear power plants get very, very hot they're generating electricity. Usually, the rivers in Europe flow through the nuclear power plants. It's designed in such a way

Debkanya 13:22

Hmm.

Kiran 13:23

that heat.

Debkanya 13:24

Hmm.

Kiran 13:25

are super warm,

Debkanya 13:26

Yeah

Kiran 13:27

that's not helping them reduce the heat from a nuclear power plant perspective. So, so things are scary. Similarly, you know, you think about it, the, the Arctic, which is your, um, two ice caps,

Debkanya 13:40

Hmm

Kiran 13:40

on the, in the north and your Antarctic in the south, that's starting to actually heat up as well, which

Debkanya 13:47

Yeah

Kiran 13:47

will affect a lot of the biodiversity in that region.

Debkanya 13:50

A lot of glaciers are just melting and disappearing that, you know,

Kiran 13:54

Yeah.

Debkanya 13:55

completely because of the heat. Yeah, it's really scary and quite sad

Kiran 13:58

train disruptions in Europe again, when you're learning science, you'll, you learn that metals expand with heat and contract when it's colder, right? So it becomes smaller when it's colder and it expands when it's warmer. trains run on railway lines, and railway lines are metal, and they have never planned for those railway lines to have a space in between for expansion. Now suddenly it's so hot, the railway lines are expanding and there are train and railway disruptions in, in Europe. So it's just absurd. Things that we have taken for granted and, things that we plan for and design for in places like India, which is warmer, has never happened in Europe. And now because of this entire heatwave coming to the fore and becoming very, very important

Debkanya 14:49

We're gonna see more and more of this, um, you know, with every passing year, unless we, we really figure out how to stop global warming, how to, prepare rather for climate change as well. Both things need to happen at the same time. Till then I guess we'll just have to keep sharing the knowledge that we have in different parts of the world in terms of, okay, how do we deal with extreme heat? How do we deal with extreme cold? How do we deal with extreme conditions? And how can we help each other out, as we saw in the, in, in Venezuela? Like, can we mobilize enough so that we can help each other out? I think that's, that is something that I, I think is common to both these stories as well.

Kiran 15:23

Yes. given all of this geography and science and, you know, all of it, it is time now for our Quiz Question. The quiz

Debkanya 15:36

That's

Kiran 15:37

master,

Debkanya 15:37

right

Kiran 15:38

over to you

Debkanya 15:40

Thank you very much. Thank you very much. The quiz question for today's episode of Takaro Kids is: What exactly does the Richter scale measure? Okay, this is an easy one for you if you've been listening. I mean, come on, you know this. Mm, I want more specific answers. I'll give you options to just make it a little bit easier. Okay? Option one is the amount of visible destruction to buildings. Option two, the magnitude or the energy that has been released at the source of the earthquake. Option three, the duration of the shaking that takes place in minutes. And option four, the depth of the fault line, the fault line in the Earth's surface where the earthquake begins. Is that what it measures? Okay, four options. I want you to give me a specific answer and send them in to us. You can either send us this answer on Instagram, you can send us a direct message or a DM, or you can get onto our website, www.takarokids.com, and enter your answer there

Kiran 16:49

Excellent. And last time, we asked you the question which was specific to the World Cup, the football World Cup, and the question we asked was: When was the last time, if at all, USA hosted the football World Cup? What was the answer, Debbie, and who is our prize winner for this week?

Debkanya 17:13

Well, the answer is the US last hosted the FIFA Men's World Cup, Football World Cup back in 1994, and the correct answer was sent to us by a little boy called Agastya. So congratulations, Agastya. That is the correct answer. Well done

Kiran 17:30

So Agastya, you're gonna get your gift certificate and, do make sure that you talk about Takaro and spread the word about Takaro, and also keep participating because it doesn't matter if you have answered before, won before, never won before, it doesn't matter. Just keep answering. Send us your answers and you could be the lucky winner for this week's episode, what does the Richter scale measure? And until next week, it is bye-bye

Debkanya 17:59

Goodbye