Options H&D Flashcards
PPQs
Outline how one characteristic of a community’s population structure can affect its
vulnerability to earthquakes.
An elderly population structure could mean larger numbers of
people would be likely to suffer serious injuries due to their limited mobility.
Explain three strategies that could increase the personal resilience of community
members to an earthquake event such as the one shown in the diagram.
Some individuals have fitted their houses with automatic shutdown
switches, which reduces theirvulnerability/increases their resilience to the
secondary hazard of fires.
Personal resilience is achieved through:
* increased preparedness (for example personal emergency kits, adaptations to
homes)
* use of insurance
* adoption of new technologies (for example smartphone apps related to
advance warning)
* education in use of bamboo to strengthen building design.
Outline how the distance from the epicentre of an earthquake can determine the severity of
two associated secondary hazards.
The further from the epicentre, the fewer landslides. This is
because shaking is less severe, which can cause instability of slopes.
Do not double credit less severe / more severe shaking
Other possibilities include:
* tsunamis
* liquefaction
* fires
* collapse of infrastructure
Explain two reasons why internally displaced persons may have to wait a long time to return
home after a major earthquake event such as this.
Large scale of devastation means an enormous
cost/undertaking to reconstruct housing/infrastructure.
Other possibilities include:
* aftershocks
* infrastructure destroyed
* lack of insurance
Explain how volcanic hazard vulnerability in an area such as this could be reduced using:
(i) GPS crater monitoring;
GPS monitoring means that transmitters/receivers are placed around the
volcano allowing scientists to monitor and record data about the volcano’s activity and changes thus allowing for a timely evacuation of the populations affected by potential volcanic eruptions.
Explain how volcanic hazard vulnerability in an area such as this could be reduced using:
(ii) lava diversions.
Lava diversions can be building walls or incorporating lava tubes as is used
for volcanic eruptions on Mount Etna which have helped divert the lava from the more
populous areas and so saving lives and property.
Outline one physical factor that can increase the speed of onset of a mas movement event.
Prolonged rainfall - soil staurated and accelerates moevment down the slope.
Suggest how two pre-event management strategies could reduce the negative impact of mass movement in an area such as this.
Increasing slope stability by terracing therefore reducing the slope angle and preventing damage to settlement / farmland .
Other strategies include, but are not limited to: banning logging on steep slopes and instead planting more trees.
Outline one reason why high-magnitude earthquake events do not occur very often
It takes a long time for sufficient tension to build between plates in order to generate the higher amounts of energy to be released in a high-magnitudeearthquake event .
Explain how the risk to a community from earthquake events such as these might beaffected by:
(i)the age structure of its population;
A population with a higher proportion of elderly people has greater vulnerability as earthquakes /tsunamis are sudden events with little warning time with insufficient time for people with limited mobility to reach higher ground (tsunami).
Explain how the risk to a community from earthquake events such as these might beaffected by:political factors (governance of the country).
Governments have put in place effective communications to warntheir people about earthquake risks for example, United States GeologicalSurvey (USGS) providing information to the Californian people about theSan Andreas fault thereby prompting citizens to take steps to increasetheir resilience.
Outline one reason why people may underestimate the risk of a geophysicalhazard occurring in their local area.
Lack of data about previous events may mean that it is impossible to predict the likely return interval of the hazard.
Explain how human vulnerability to an earthquake hazard can be reduced by:
(i)one pre-event strategy;
Having metal framed buildings with cross-bracing to reduce the effects of shaking in order to prevent collapse of the buildings.
Explain how human vulnerability to an earthquake hazard can be reduced by: one post-event strategy.
Coordinated search and rescue plan using lifting equipment to improve access to survivors to reduce death and injury.
Outline one reason why the lava from a shield volcano spreads over a wide area
The magma is low in silica and gas/non-explosive/basaltic and produces thin runny/low viscosity lava.
