EQ2

Question 1

What is the Un’s definition of a disaster?

Answer 1

500 deaths or more.

Question 2

What does the UN constitute as a mega-disaster?

Answer 2

• 2000 deaths
• 200, 000 made homeless
• GDP is reduced by 5%
• Dependence on aid from abroad after a year.

Question 3

What are infamous mega-disasters?

Answer 3

• 2011 Tohoku tsunami (18,000 deaths in Honshu)
• Haiti 2010 eathquake (225,00 deaths, 100% of GDP)
• Sichuan eathquake 2008 (90,000 deaths)

Question 4

What is an infamous disaster?

Answer 4

Chile 2010 (500 deaths)

Question 5

What is the most expensive mega-disaster in the world?

Answer 5

• 2011 Tohoku cost $221 billion.

Question 6

What is the mega-disaster with the most fatalities in the world?

Answer 6

China, Tangshan 1972. 655,000 deaths,.

Question 7

What is the mega-disatser with the largest insurance losses in the world?

Answer 7

Tohoku 2011: $40 million

Question 8

What are the two ways to measure the magnitude of an earthquake?

Answer 8

• Richter scale developed by Charles Richter. Measures the speed at which waves reach a certain location.
• MM scale. Updates scale in the 1970’s. Measures energy released.

Question 9

What is the way to measure the intensity of an earthquake?

Answer 9

Mercalli Scale. Measures amount of damage done by an earthquake in 12 stages.

Question 10

What is the risk equation?

Answer 10

Risk = vulnerability x hazard / capacity to cope.

Question 11

What is the PAR model?

Answer 11

• Root causes
• dynamic pressures
• unsafe conditions
  Disaster!
• Tectonic processes

Question 12

How can the risk equation be adapted into a model?

Answer 12

risk and vulnerability into Degg’s disaster model.

Question 13

Case study: Mt. Etna 1983

Answer 13

Barriers were built to divert lava to protect the village of Catania.

Question 14

What is vulnerability?

Answer 14

This is the human geographical factors which will affect risk.
- It is fundamental to decreasing tectonic impact.

Question 15

What are the ways in which people have tried to predict earthquakes?

Answer 15

• Chaos theory
• Animal behaviour
• Time spacing

Question 16

What are the ways in which a volcanic eruption can be predicted?

Answer 16

• Topography
• water pH
• mineral composition
• thermal change
• seismic activity

Question 17

What are the different vulnerabilities?

Answer 17

• social - when a community cannot provide for every individual
• physical - hazard-prone ares.
• environmental - increasing pop.
• economic - risk of losing assets

Question 18

Case Study: Turkey 1999

Answer 18

• Old practises meant there was sufficient aseismic building.
• Urbanisation means that expansion occurs rapidly, and with little control over building quality.
  1999 - 7.4MM quake. killed 17,000 people.
• Lead to push for rural development.

Question 19

Case Study: Egypt

Answer 19

• Risk perception is low
• This leads to resistance to earthquake-proofing.
• However, the government has educated people with a free leaflet. However, this has not reached outskirts of Cairo.

Question 20

What impacts socio-economic damage?

Answer 20

• Level of Development is a key factor.
• Economic costs are higher in developed countries, however individual costs can be more impactful on individuals in developing countries.

Question 21

Who are the players which govern disasters?

Answer 21

• Insurance companies - They are worried about multiple hazard zones.
• World Risk Report - Say urbanisation increases risk.

Question 22

Case Study: Vanuatu

Answer 22

Multiple Hazard Zone:
- Most at risk country in 2015 by the WRR.
- Has several micro-plates over its islands
- Cyclone Pan in 2015
- Mt. Yasur. Released lava bombs during Strombolian eruptions.
- Physical isolation
- Gender inequality
- Stagnant HDI