Hazards Flashcards
When was the Eyjafjallajokull eruption?
2010
At what volcanic eruption index was the E15 eruption?
VEI3 - effusive but water got into magma chamber (volatile) from the melting glacials, increasing its explosivity.
What was the main secondary hazard of the E15 eruption?
Jokulhlaups - glacial floods from the magma underground melting the ice above ground
What were the primary impacts of the E15 eruption?
No deaths directly from eruption - but 2 died during travels to witness effusive phase
What were the major secondary impacts from the E15 eruption?
- column of ash trending travellers and costing billions of dollars to travel business - covered all of Europe
- ash fallout causing darkness
- toxic levels of fluoride (livestock dead)
- floods from jokulhlaups damaging infrastructure
How was the E15 eruption predicted/ monitored?
- predicted that Katla volcano was biggest threat - but wrong
- 56 seismic stations
- 70 continuous GPS stations measuring ground displacement + earthquake activity
- Icelandic meteorological office operates monitoring + early warning equipment
What was the preparation like for the E15 eruption?
- from 2006, population of southern Iceland have had evacuation plants for Katla (“more active”)
- instructions to keep livestock inside contracted this
What were the short-term responses of the E15 eruption?
- 500 farm families immediately evacuated
- emergency response plans enacted
What were the medium and long-term responses of the E15 eruption?
- “no fly zone” declared by Civil Aviation Authority over Europe
- temporary airport closures April/May
When was the Montecito mudslide in California?
2018
What were the physical causes of the Montecito mudslide?
- huge rainstorm after a large wildfire - land is dry and loose, can flow easily
- vegetation destroyed that absorbed extra water (debris flow 50 times faster after fire)
- Ynez mountains made up of easily erodible rock (shale + sandstone)
What were the primary impacts of the Montecito mudslide?
- 23 killed, 163 injured
- 20,000 homes lost power
- $177m in property damages
- 130 homes destroyed
- 30 miles section of Route 101 was shut
What were the secondary impacts of the Montecito mudslide?
- $43m to clean up
- 2 bodies never found in mudflow
- clean up only started a week after the initial mudflow
- significant parts of Cold Springs basin buried
What was the monitoring / prediction for the Montecito mudslide?
- in 1969, Army Corps’ engineer issued dire warning to Santa Barbara county about mudslides - failed
- there was a severe rainfall warning due to El Niño
- people were not warned of the scale, occurred at 3 am
What was the preparation like for the Montecito mudslide?
- Santa Barbara county failed to fully empty basins before disaster (Cold Spring basin could only capture 64% of debris)
- there was a ‘voluntary’ evacuation zone
- Cali. Dept. Of water resources issued limit on building in vulnerable areas (building continues in flood zones, money not allocated to basins)
What were some of the short-term responses for the Montecito mudslide?
- 300 residents rescues via airlift
- Debris cleanup started a week later
- More than 1,250 firefighters dispatched for rescue
What were some medium and long-term responses for the Montecito mudslide?
- Partnership for Resilient Communities calling for emergency measures + debris monitoring system
- PRC raining $5m
- California Geological Survey created landslide monitoring programme, collecting data on how vegetation affects soil stability after a fire
When did the Moore Tornado happen?
May 2013 - on ground for 39 min
What scale was the Moore Tornado?
EF5
What were the primary impacts of the Moore Tornado?
- 1200 homes destroyed
- 23 people dead, inc. 7 children
- Briarwood elementary completely destoyed
- 212 injured
- $2bn in damages
What was the secondary impact of the Moore Tornado?
- over $1bn in insurance claims
How was tornado Moore predicted / monitored?
- National Weather forecasted ‘moderate risk of severe thunderstorms’
- Morning issues severe thunderstorm warning for 30 counties in Oklahoma
- Hook echo Doppler radar images of supercell thunderstorm - meteorologists issue warning
What was the preparation for tornado Moore?
- only less than 1/10th had shelters - expensive
- no community shelters
- city has 24h warning centre
- public readiness promotes through community services
- Kelley elementary rebuilt with ‘safe hallways’ - tornado did not reach it
How effective was the PPM for tornado Moore?
- not many people had their own safe shelters
- sirens went off 12 min before tornado touched
- 1/3 less people killed than 1999 tornado
What were the short-term responses for tornado Moore?
- urban search + rescue teams deployed
- convoy of hope charity on the ground in min - over 640 volunteers
What were the medium + long-term responses to tornado Moore?
- Moore first American bank created partnership to address vital community needs to start recovery
- Federal Emergency Management Agency set up community recovery centre, giving out aid
But by May 2014 estimated $8.7m in recovery not met
When was the Hunga Tonga eruption?
January 2022
Where did the Hunga Tonga eruption happen? Why is this significant?
Islands of Hunga Tonga and Hunga-Ha’apai, and they have no permanent inhabitants
What was the magnitude of the Hunga Tonga eruption?
At least VEI-5
Was the eruption of Hunga Tonga effusive or explosive?
Explosive - at O-O convergent plate boundary - addition of volatiles lowered the melting point, changing chemical composition of magma (andesitic to rhyolitic) making it more explosive
What were the primary impacts of the Hunga Tonga eruption?
- 4 killed in Tonga
- Power + communications cut out as damage to undersea cables
- massive amounts of volcanic ash released
What were the secondary impacts from the Hunga Tonga eruption?
- tsunamis in NZ, Japan, USA, Chile, Peru (killed 2)
- contribution to global warming due to vast amounts of water vapour released
- falling ash damaged coral reefs
- oil spills due to shock waves
Prediction of Hunga Tonga eruption? Effective?
- Submarine volcano, so less studied + difficult to predict
- volcanologists spotted activity 2 days before
- not effective due to lack of technology
Preparation for the Hunga Tonga eruption? Effective?
- risk assessment conducted in June 2021 on population + land use
- 2 days after eruption, NZ volcanologists estimated thickness of ash fall
- locals alert + prepared, good education
-effective as small death toll considering magnitude
Short-term responses for Hunga Tonga?
- Fijian government issued tsunami warning
- Australia evacuating beaches
- Aus + NZ pledged $1m in aid
Medium + long-term responses to Hunga Tonga eruption?
- submarine internet cable repaired in 5 weeks
- not much to respond to as preparedness really good
When and where did Hurricane Harvey happen?
Late august / early September 2017, Texas USA
What were some physical causes of Hurricane Harvey?
- primary hazards like flooding results from 2 areas of high pressure blocking storm’s path upwards
- storm drew up water vapour from Gulf of Mexico
- flood defences overwhelmed
- 2017 warmest year without El Niño, enabling Harvey to carry more moisture
What were some primary impacts of Hurricane Harvey?
- 88 deaths
- 204,000 homes destroyed
- vulnerable population hit hardest
- drowning, disease, overcrowding, crime
What were secondary impacts of Hurricane Harvey?
- public health problems due to toxins released into air from refineries
- long-term mental health impacts
- mould exposure
- persistent increase disease exposure
What was the monitoring/ prediction like for Hurricane Harvey?
- forecast models were used but they weren’t effective
- flooding + rainfall not predicted
- track of storm not accurately mapped
- ‘improvement’ to US model made prediction worse, increasing hazard for local populations
What was the preparation like for Hurricane Harvey?
- Federal Emergency Management Agency working with coastguard to mitigate impacts
- disaster response teams mobilised before in Austin
- 50 Texan counties + all Louisiana put on state of emergency
- oil refineries closed
What were some short-term responses for Hurricane Harvey?
- free school meals for 18 months
- NGOs provided support
- relief from foreign governments
What were the medium + long-term responses for Hurricane Harvey?
- FEMA + government support for rebuilding infrastructure
- improved preparedness + assessment of risk using GIS
- provision of long-term healthcare + support
- provision of medicines by NGOs
When was the Japan earthquake?
2011,
What caused most of the damage from the Japan earthquake?
- tsunami + Fukushima nuclear power plant damage
How powerful was the Japan earthquake?
7.2 Richter scale, 5th most powerful earthquake
What was the physical cause of the Japan 2011 earthquake?
- pacific plate subducted beneath Eurasian plate, Eurasian plate lifted over 9m upwards
What was the physical cause of the tsunami from the Japan 2011 earthquake?
- focus of earthquake was located under ocean floor, all water suddenly pushed up
- 40m waves at 800kmph
What were the primary impacts of the 2011 Japan earthquake?
- whole settlements erased by tsunami
- Sendai airport rendered unusable in minutes
- landline + mobile connections lost
- electricity cut off
- ~20,000 deaths
- 65% of deaths 60 or over
- 45,700 buildings destroyed
Secondary impacts of the Japan 2011 earthquake
- shutting down Sendai airport = limiting aid accessibility
- increased risk of flu passing between elderly
- 450,000 homeless, numerous hypothermic
- 11 elderly died from hypothermia
- high chance of epidemics
- TSUMANI = Fukushima nuclear power plant disaster
-radioactivity levels remained higher than normal for farming
What were the methods of prediction / monitoring for Japan 2011 earthquake?
- Japan’s latest seismic hazard map predicted magnitude of 7.7
- expected only 4-5m tsunami
- JMA issues first tsunami warning 3 min after earthquake
- warning systems only triggered in Northeast Japan - magnitude of tsunami underestimated
- japan has world’s densest seismometer network + most expensive early warning system
What was the preparation like for the Japan 2011 earthquake?
- japan has most advances preparedness, but susceptible to tsunami
- densest seismometer network
- tsunami wall completed in 2008, wall protects from 2-3m tsunamis every decade
- Fukushima plant built to withstand wave of 5.7m
What were the short-term responses for the Japan 2011 earthquake?
- rescue workers and 100,000 of Japan self-defence forces dispatched
- government declared 20km evacuation zone around Fukushima power plant, reducing radiation exposure
What were the medium and long-term responses to the Japan 2011 earthquake?
- Red Cross opened appeal for aid funds hours after disaster - British people could donate
AIMS: distribute relief items, 70,000 temp. homes for 280,000 people - 200,000 evacuated within 20km radius around Fukushima
- April 2011, recovery programme established
- reconstruction objectives set in place for vulnerable regions
- JMA recently invested 2billion yen in tsunami relief+ earthquake monitoring systems
When did Typhoon Haiyian happen?
2013, Philippines
What was the reason for severity of typhoon Haiyan?
- lack of knowledge around storm surges -> caused most destruction
- difficult communication + transport between islands
- warning announced but locals did not know what to do
What were the primary impacts of Typhoon Haiyan?
- wind speeds of 195mph (category 5)
- 6,300 deaths, 28,626 injuries
- storm surge 5-6 metres
- flooding in low lying areas + landslides
What were the secondary impacts of Typhoon Haiyan?
- loss of property + businesses estimated at $1bn
- landslides continues for over a month
- 1.9m homeless, 6 displaced
- looting + violence broke out
- oil spill in Iloilo
What was the prediction + monitoring like for Typhoon Haiyan?
- storm surges predicted 2 days in advance
- low resolution mapping = don’t depict inundation
- JMA generated 96-hour storm surge forecast
- extensive hazard maps produced on storm surge
- education campaigns around understanding hazard maps took place
What were some preparation methods for Typhoon Haiyan?
- work + classes suspended
- response teams put on standby
- department of health prepositioned medicine
- Philippine Navy placed on alert
- Tacloban local government evacuated people near coast
Was the prediction/ monitoring effective for Typhoon Haiyan?
- No, lack of warning about storm surge + enforcing education
- difficulty evacuating people due to remote villages
- not everyone knew what a storm surge was
- maps did not reflect flooding extent
- daily concerns more important than hazards
- large communities of informal settlers
Were the preparation methods effective for Typhoon Haiyan?
- incomplete action to prevent loss of life after storm surge warning
- lack of education around storm surges and what actions to take
- in other islands where residents evacuated 2 days before, many lives saved
Short term responses for Typhoon Haiyan?
- governments like USA, UK and NGOs donated $500m
- Hundreds of evacuation centres set up
- immediate help from medical assistance provided, reducing further casualties + spread of disease
Medium + long-term responses for Typhoon Haiyan?
- reconstruction of infrastructure like roads, bridges, airports by USA, EU, etc.
- UN habitat led programmes for rebuilding
- ‘cash for work’ = local people paid to clean rubble
- more education on what to do during storm surge
When was the Haiti earthquake?
2010, 7 magnitude
Why were the effects of the Haiti earthquake so strong?
- 80% of people were living in poverty
- 4,000 people per 1 doctor
- epicentre only 16 miles from Port Au Prince
- shallow focus, at only 5 miles
What were the primary impacts of the Haiti Earthquake?
- 316,000 killed
- 1m homeless
- 250,000 homes destroyed
- prison destroyed and 4,000 inmates escaped
What were the secondary impacts of the Haiti earthquake?
- 1 in 5 people lost their jobs in the long-term
- spread of cholera, bodies piled up on street contaminating water (4,850 died)
- airport extremely damaged,difficult to get aid into the country
What was the monitoring/ prediction like for the Haiti earthquake?
- there were only 2 monitoring stations, but no professional seismologists to monitor
- bad communication systems to warn people
What was the preparation like for the Haiti earthquake?
- low level due to country’s high poverty, conflict, corruption
What were the short-term responses to the Haiti earthquake?
- Dominican Republic first the give aid
- Iceland had emergency response team within 24h
- aid ships had to be turned away from destroyed port
What were the medium and long-term responses for the Haiti earthquake?
- 1500 camps set up in Port-au Prince
- duplication of aid, few spoke french - lack of coordination
- by July 2010, 98% of rubble remained, 1.6m living in camps
- world bank cancelled half of Haiti’s debt
- cash for work programmes
What were the consequences of the corruption in Haiti?
- $13.5bn of air was donated
- Canada gave $657m but only 2% was channeled to Haitian government
- 10 years later, some families still displaced and in tents
