(Options) Hazards Case Studies Flashcards
1
Q
Destructive Plate Boundary
A
Nazca Plate forced under South American Plate
2
Q
Collision Zones
A
Eurasian and Indo-Australian Plates
3
Q
Constructive Plate Boundary
A
Mid-Atlantic Ridge
4
Q
Conservative Plate Boundary
A
San Andreas Fault, California
5
Q
Earthquake LEDC
A
Haiti 2010 Jan
- 7.0; epicentre 25km from Port-au-Prince ; focus 13km deep = most energy transmitted to surface
- buildings deadly (built on soft sedimentary rock) - 50% demolished
- 316,000 died, 300,000 injured, 1.5mn homeless
- water supply system destroyed = 8,000 died cholera
- 1mn displaced year later - shanty town outside capital (2.3mn displaced)
- poorest nation Western Hemisphere, poverty
- road damage cracks up to 4m deep
- 20,000 commercial buildings + 225,000 residences collapsed or damaged
- 15% more material 15% more cost = strengthen corners help buildings
- 800,000 live outside 450 camps (3 camps portable water)
- 4,758 schools damaged
- 72% population live below $2 day
- life expectancy 62; adult literacy rate 62%
- Dominican Republic opened hospitals
- 5,500 US troops
- celebrity telethon raised £35mn
- World food programme feed 2mn month
- World bank suspended debt
- GNI $660 per person per annum
- $7.8bn damage 120% GDP
- gov corruption = 53% aid spent 2 years later
- remittance dependent 2008 = 32% GDP
- 36% Port-au-Prince live slum conditions
- 25% Civil servants died
- Rape / sexual attacks camps
- airport queues / damaged port ships turned away
- 20% jobs disappeared
6
Q
Earthquake Mountainous region
A
(Pakistan-administered) Kashmir Oct 2005
- 7.6 richter; 7-8 mercalli
- Uri 80% town destroyed
- 86,000 killed; over 106,000 injured
- unconsolidated sediment = buildings on unstable ground + buildings rock/ timber w poor foundations = all buildings 60km radius epicentre collapsed, all damaged 100km radius
- gov corruption - powerful more aid poor inadequate / nothing
- damages over $5bn
- politicised relief
- landslides / rockfalls
- 32,335 buildings collapsed Kashmir
7
Q
Tsunami
A
Boxing Day Tsunami 2004
- earthquake 9 richter off west coast Indonesia = displacement water 5km deep; sea floor moved up 3m = tsunami east + west
- water wall 24m high, 13.5m a sec
- deaths 111,172 Indonesia of over 225,000 11 countries
- Maldives 16 corals swamped
- huge global media coverage
- fishermen lost boats + nets - Amphur Khao Thailand 6/60 fishing boats intact
- Sumatra waves 10-30m High; 4m Thailand, Sri Lanka, Somalia
- salt water contaminated farmland - Sri Lanka plantations destroyed
- buildings destroyed Sri Lanka coast
- over 1500 villages Sumatra lost + over 100 schools wrecked
- 1500 died train - Sri Lanka rail link destroyed
- UK gov £75mn + £100mn public; Australian gov $810mn; japan $500mn; world bank $250mn
- jan 2005 UN announced tsunami early warning system established Indian Ocean
- west tsunami reached S India + Sri Lanka 2 hours
- subsidence w Sumatran coast
- uk + Australia medical + science teams
- NGOs supplies in (Save the Children)
- run-up height 32m; some waves 2km inland
- Maldives whole islands uninhabitable
- Sumatra coastal towns completely destroyed (wooden buildings on stilts)
- sand scoured = land below sea level
- Sri Lanka = over 35,000 dead; 100,000+ houses damaged; 552,641 displaced/injured; 50,000 wells abandoned - 12,000 damaged salt water contamination; 130,000 fishing / tourism jobs lost; 1000km coast affected
- Sri Lanka vulnerable - poor, most live close coast, economy fishing/tourism dependent
- Panama all 40 canoes damaged - NGO practical action help make new - 166 homes rebuilt
- 2005 400 NGOs Sri Lanka
- civil war = east 10% houses reconstructed 2005 90% South
- gov buffer zone move away coast abandoned 2007
- 70% fish catch restored 2006-9
- Belgian Red Cross founded 495 houses reconstruction - local ownership
- catastrophe draw down fund $102mn world bank
8
Q
Earthquake MEDC
A
Christchurch, New Zealand 2010-11
- feb 2011 6.3 earthquake = 183 deaths (2010 sep = 7.1 no deaths)
- liquefaction
- damage = 20% GDP
- search + rescue teams (UK, USA, Japan etc)
- power restored 95% households 2 weeks
- mains supply back 70% households week
- Air New Zealand extra flights
- Blueprint = recovery plan for 21st century city
- 1/4 children below poverty line
- 50% pop income £15000 year
- large educational disparity
- disaster capitalism - blueprint benefits big companies - wealth to few
- demolished buildings could have repaired 20-30% cost new buildings in less time
- plan build 35,000 dwellings (10000-20000 lost)
- pop fallen 7000
- heritage buildings demolished - 50% listed buildings lost, cathedral deteriorating
9
Q
Earthquake MEDC higher destruction
A
Kobe, Japan 1995
- 7.2; 5:46am; Pacific ring of fire; focus 20km from Kobe (1.5mn pop)
- soil liquefaction
- industrial area Kobe severe damage (3-5% japans industry)
- 6,434 died; over 30,000 injuries
- 80% schools, museums, sports facilities destroyed
- 200,000 buildings collapsed (wooden or 1960s)
- 300+ fires; broken sewage pipes; 22% offices unusable
- $200bn damage = 2.5% GDP
- over 300,000 homeless
- lost faith early warning systems (fault line previously unknown)
- 68 mountainous areas needed support against landslides
- unemployment rose, stock market declined
- broken transport / communication lines = slow ineffective rescue
- urban area high pop density hit
- poor gov organisation
- foreign doctors held airport no licenses Japan
- after: gov improved disaster response policy, invest earthquake proof shelters, piping seismic resistant, emergency food/water supply network
10
Q
Earthquake Mitigation Protect - Aseismic design
A
- Torre Mayor Mexico City - shock absorbers, diagonal frames + 60m foundations
- Tokyo Sky Tree - tallest structure Japan w seismic proofing, central shaft made of reinforced concrete, central pillar attached to tower frame w oil dampers (cushions during earthquake thought to absorb 50% energy from earthquake)
- Quakewrap - inexpensive way reinforce concrete, adds layers carbon - Mckinley Tower, Alaska
11
Q
Earthquake Mitigation Predict - Gap Theory (past data/movement fault line)
A
Turkey
12
Q
Earthquake Mitigation Prepare
A
- ‘Duck Cover Hold’ - USA LA
- American Red Cross provides earthquake safety check-list
- Japan 1st Sep every year earthquake drill (anniversary Tokyo quake 1923 = 156,000 deaths)
13
Q
Volcano Prediction
A
- USGS successfully predicted eruption Mt Pinatubo 1991 ; unsuccessfully predicted eruption Mammoth Mountain Ski Area California = reduced visitors / economic distress
- hard predict timescale: Mt Pinatubo erupted few weeks, Soufriere Hills Volcano Montserrat erupted 1997-2005; Mt Etna Sicily hundreds years
13
Q
Hotspot Volcano
A
Volcanoes of Hawaii
14
Q
Area live near volcanic activity
A
Iceland
- created by volcanic activity
- rich soils
- tourism
- ash fallout April 2010 from Eyjafjalljokull glacier = widespread disruption European aid travel - no deaths, large economic cost, trade impacted
15
Q
Hurricanes / Cyclones Prepare
A
USA
- National Hurricane Awareness Week May encourages people to plan
- Federal Emergency Management Agency gives advice for preparing
16
Q
Hurricanes / Cyclones Prediction
A
- 2013 NOAA installed 2 supercomputers predict landfall 5 days advance within 400km
- Hurricane warning centre, Florida “tracking cones” predict 7 days advance - 70% accuracy
- 2013 cyclone Phillip predicted, 1.2mn ppl evacuated, death toll = 48 (1999 cyclone same area killed 100,000)
17
Q
Hurricane
A
Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans 2005 August
- 225km/h, category 4
- lingered = continued build not over fast
- ocean rise 9m in places
- New Orleans in Mississippi delta (delta sinking 1cm year - sea level rise threat = 2m higher 2100 - much delta less 1m asl) Gulf of Mexico = most city below sea level - hurricane flooded 80% city
- over 1,800 killed
- 204,000 homes damaged
- over 800,000 homeless
- cost US economy $80bn
- rescue operation criticised
- in 4 month hurricane season, land disappears 6,500-10,000 hectares year
- office of coastal protection spending $1.5bn 4 Years wetland restoration, $14.3bn new levees + defences
- $200bn to divert Mississippi to save deltas wetlands / settlements from sinking
18
Q
Cyclone
A
Cyclone Nargis
- Burma May 2008 winds over 190km/h
- torrential rain, 134,000 died
- 95% buildings demolished cyclone + floods
- 15 townships Irrawaddy Delta suffered worst - 7 of them lost 90-95% homes with 70% pop dead/ missing
- disaster management experts failed get visas to enter country
- Irrawaddy Delta low-lying home 7mn/53mn Burma - 2mn life land less 5m asl = vulnerable
19
Q
Drought
A
Sahel - 200-600mm rail annually - famine, dust storms, resource conflict Causes: - Population growth 3% a year - Deforestation - Overgrazing (lost land: national parks, tourism and commercial farms) - Temp. increase (droughts) - Storms = water erosion - USAID and Red Cross education projects on sustainability - Eden Foundation and USAID drip irrigation - stone walls and creosote bushes - NGOs medical supplies in refugee camps
20
Q
Human Induced Hazard 2
A
Chernobyl, Ukraine 1986
- uncontrolled reaction (reactor exploded) in Soviet Nuclear Plant blew roof off = cloud radioactive material
- Radiation poured out 10 days
- 200,000km2 contaminated (Ukraine, Belarus, Russia 71%; also N Europe
- workers risked health to contain disaster
- 31 immediate deaths, 4,000 projected
- 50,000 residents evacuated = ghost town
- 250,000+ moved to safety, 30km exclusion zone
- Soviets tried to cover it up
21
Q
Human Induced Hazard 1
A
Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill, Gulf of Mexico
- largest offshore spill US history
- Deepwater Horizon drilling rig explosion = spill from sea floor oil gusher
- April 2010
- fires for 36 hours
- coral reefs affected - blocked sunlight / chemical pollution
- spill impossible to contain
- oil gushed out 3 months, 4.9mn barrels, 30yrs to recover
- 9 species dolphin at risk
- Migrating birds (50,000 brown pelicans) use beaches rest stops = contamination risk
- tourism + fishing damaged
- anthracene levels x2 accepted (toxic)
- cancer-forming carcinogens (human health risk)
- 8 US national parks at risk; 400+ animal species; 1,200 fish species
- 13 died, 17 injured
- Nov 2012 11,000km2 Gulf closed
- 20% bluefin tuna killed
- Nov 2012 6,800+ animals dead
- bioaccumulation / magnification e.g. whale sharks feed on plankton
- Nov 2012 BP plead guilty
- BP $4.525bn fines (ongoing)
- BP 4yrs Gov monitoring safety practices + ethics + temp ban from new contracts w/US Gov
- 675 US clams + oysters + 75% US shrimp normally produced risk contamination
