Restless Earth: Case Studies Flashcards
EYJAFJALLAJÄKULL: Geographical Cause
- Mid Atlantic edge (NA plate & Eurasian plate)
- Due to complicated plate tectonics partial subduction of the Eurasian plate occurs
- Composite volcano
- Iceland is on a hot spot of warm and high pressure magma, which is runny and basaltic
EYJAFJALLAJÄKULL: when?
April 14th 2010
EYJAFJALLAJÄKULL: the eruption
The eruption was 250m below the ice. Created a surge of meltwater or JOKULHLAUP. Water entered the CALDERA making a PHREATOMAGNETIC eruption 8km high. Meltwater flooded the m1 and washed away bridges. Ash covered farmland with toxic ash & fluoride.
EYJAFJALLAJÄKULL: secondary effects
Air space between 20-40thousand feet full of ash. 20 countries fully closed their airspace, 100,000 flights cancelled meaning the aero-travel industry lost £130 million a day. F1 teams had to drive to China, Icelandic fishing suffered for many months and KENYAN FLOWER EXPORTS LOST £1.3 MILLION A DAY.
EYJAFJALLAJÄKULL: Positives?
- 50,000 extra passengers on Eurostar links
- Car rental businesses got extra income
- 2.8 million less tonnes of CO2 released
EYJAFJALLAJÄKULL: responses?
Quick well trained rescue teams saved lives and left farm animals behind.
New research centre built in Iceland. The air industry invested £200 million into research and new flight rules introduced.
HAITI: when
12th January 2010
HAITI: tectonics
A complex set of plate margins: the NA plate and Caribbean plate move conservatively with the GENOVE micro plate in between; it has two SLIP STRIKE FAULTS. On the southern ENRIQUILLO-PLANTAIN pressure had built up for 250years and was released in 2010 along 65km of the fault.
HAITI: the quake
- 7 Richter shaking the earth 4meters
- focus just 13km deep, epicentre 15km away from PORT AU PRINCE
- 52 aftershocks
- Liquefaction, landslides (due to deforestation) and a tsunami that killed 3
HAITI: problems before quake
- Poorest Western Hemisphere country
- Poor infrastructure, crumbling cement built on unstable ground
- Lack of clean water or electricity
- Basic easily damaged airports/ports
HAITI: effects
- 1/5 below poverty line —–> 80% below poverty line
- 230,000 dead
- 3 million homeless
- 20000 new orphans (‘restavek’ children used for slave labour)
- 250,000 residences collapse
HAITI: economic effects
$11.5 damage = 120% of GDP 1/3 building collapse 1/2 schools close Tourism destroyed Slow growth Unemployment
HAITI: Responses
Rescue teams arrive within 24hours from DOMINICAN REPUBLIC, U.S. , EU AND ICELAND. NGOs set up camps = safer than the streets. Bottlenecks at ports/airports meant slow distribution of food. MASS GRAVES BUILT. USS CARL VINSON arrived with 600,000 emergency food rations, water containers and 19 helicopters
HAITI: camps
2 million in need of food, no running water, theft and muggings and violence, aid stolen then sold on, 1.5 million in tent cities
CHOLERA from NEPALESE aid workers kills 8000 and costs $2million to eradicate
HAITI: long term response
Business loans, 85 canteens set up and ran by Haitians
Land redistributed and mills set up to increase agriculture and food security
Housing developments slowly replace tents, stonemasons being trained for employment and to make stronger buildings
Social security for those disabled
People taught to build wells so they can be replicated elsewhere
KOBE: when
January 17th 1995
KOBE: Tectonics
Around Kobe there are 3 main continental plates and the AMUR MICRO-PLATE. The DENSER OCEANIC PHILIPPINES PLATE is subducted under the lighter CONTINENTAL EURASIAN PLATE at a rate of 10cm a year. Friction here cause the earthquake. 7.2 Richter
KOBE: where
The focus was 30km below the surface of AWAJ ISLAND and the epicentre 20km from Kobe. Seismic waves travelled along the NOJMA FAULT
KOBE: effects
On the soft reclaimed land liquefaction occurred. Kobe is the 2nd most populous are in Japan. Ground moved 50m side-to-side and 1m up and down. Traditional wooden structures fell, 7500 homes burnt down, 2 million homes were without electricity and 1 million homes with out water for 10 days, DEATH TOLL 6000 and 22000 injured, 300000 left homeless that nights sheltered in unsanitary town halls ect
KOBE: economics
- cost $102.5 billion
- 4% of japans industry was in Kobe and much of it damaged in the liquefaction zone
- unemployment rose
- hanshin expressway collapsed
- 130km section of the bullet train closed
- just 30% of railways useable
- 120/150 quays destroyed
KOBE: Short term response
Search and response teams looked for survivors and cleared rubble, didn’t have infrared scanners. Fire teams worked non stop. Hospitals filled up and transferred patients across Japan, shelters were set up. MOTOROLA made all communications free
KOBE: long term response
Stronger buildings built further apart, all BRIDGES REBUILT IN 14 months with rubber blocks, 80% of railway and port back by August, water electricity by July. New laws for stronger buildings, seismic activity monitored and schools do earthquake drills
Human uses of the Alps: ski resort
Val d’Isere France
Human uses of the Alps: tourism
Interlaken Switzerland, glacial troughs shelter communities
