On January 17, 1995, a major earthquake struck near the city of Kobe, Japan, killing more than 6,000 and making more than 45,000 people homeless.
Japan is one of the most geologically active regions on Earth, a place where four major tectonic plates—the Eurasian, Philippine, Pacific, and North American—meet and interact. The Kobe quake was a result of an east-west strike-slip fault where the Eurasian and Philippine plates interact.
The quake cost more than $100 billion in damage, and the Kobe government spent years constructing new facilities to attract back the 50,000 people who left after the quake.