On March 21^st, the Department of Geography at the Faculty of Arts organized a seminar titled “Japan Earthquake: its Reasons and Consequences”. The seminar was lectured by Prof. Muhammad Abu Safat, Professor of Geomorphology at the Department, and Dr. Jalal Dabbeek, Vice President of the National Agency for Disasters Risk Mitigation and the Director of the Earth Sciences and Seismic Engineering Center. Attendees included Dr. Maher Abu Zant, Dean of the Faculty of Arts, in addition to a number of professors and students.

At the beginning of the meeting, Dr. Ahmed Ra’fat Ghadyyeh, Head of the Geography Department, welcomed the attendants and stressed the importance of promoting awareness among people regarding earthquakes’ risks and the required procedures that must be followed to reduce these risks.

Prof. Abu Safat on his part spoke about the consequences of the Tsunami that took place on March 11^th after the earthquake in Japan which include economical losses and the nuclear radiations that will affect the region for a very long time.

Dr. Dabbeek explained the reasons that gave the earthquake its strength. He also praised the huge efforts that the Japanese are exerting to try to reduce the impacts of this disaster. Dr. Dabbeek explained also that most of the damage was not caused by the earthquake itself but because of the resulting Tsunami because buildings in Japan are specially designed to resist and survive seismic disasters.

Finally, he stressed the necessity to design buildings in Palestine in a similar way to that in Japan because Palestine is one of the regions that are considered vulnerable to earthquakes.