Tectonic Hazards and Processes EQ3 Flashcards
What are the main tectonic disaster trends?
- deaths have fallen over time due to better response, management and prediction. (More then 120,000 fallen to 20,000 in 2015
- number of reported disaster have increased then stabilised due to improvements in data coverage (can get data from more rural areas)
- number of people affected by disasters continue to rise as populations grow and more people live in risky locations
- economic looses have increased as more affluent people and more advanced technology
Why are data statistics often inaccurate?
- depends what is counted (primary deaths or secondary deaths)
- locations (rural/remote areas tend to under recorded)
- declaration on number of deaths could be ignored or over extracted (deaths of tourists in 2004 Tsunami Thailand were played down to protect there tourist industry
- statistic during disasters are hard to locate
- time trend analysis is difficult to do
What is a tectonic mega disaster?
These are large scale disasters that are usually classified as high impact, low probability (HILP) events.
E.g. 2004 Boxing Day Tsunamis and 2010 Haiti
What are the main characteristics of mega disasters?
- large scale disasters either spatial and aerial scale, or economic or human
- pose problems fro effective management (short and long term)
- countries will enquire international support in the immediate aftermath and long term recovery.
Why was the 2004 Asian Tsunami classified at a HILP?
- 14 counties affected surrounding the Indian Ocean affected
- huge economic losses and deaths toll in Indonesia and Thailand
What was the 2011 Japanese tsunami (Tohoku)?
- only Japan was directly affected, but economic impacts had global consequences
- massive disruption to ports, factories and power supplies
- nuclear meltdown at Fukushima catalyses Germany abandoning its nuclear energy programme.
Why is the 2010 Eyjafjallokull earthquake classified as a HILP event?
- 20 European countries affected due to the total or partial closure of their airspace
- The ash cloud cancelled 100,000 flight costing £1 billion.
What is a multiple hazard zone?
Multiple-hazard zones are places where a number of physical hazards combine to create an increased level of risk for the country and its population. These are disaster hotspots.
E.g. Philippines with 36.4% of population exposed to 5 separate hazards.
What are hydro meteorological hazards?
Natural process of a atmospheric nature that may cause loss life and destruction. Examples include floods, droughts, storms and tropical cyclones.
What is prediction?
Predictions includes knowing when or where a natural hazard will occur on a spatial and temporal scale. This means communities have time to prepare and evacuate.
What is forecasting?
Forecasting is a much less precise prediction which provides a percentage chance of a hazard occur. It is a lot less accurate.
How can earthquake be predicted?
It is not possible to make accurate predictions of the occurrence of earthquake. Scientists are using
- animal behaviour
- changes in radon emission
- electromagnetic variation
To attempt to predict earthquake.
How are earthquake forecasting?
Earthquake risk can be forecasted since it’s based if the statistical likelihood of an event happening at a particular location. They are based of data and evidence gathered through global seismic monitoring networks and historical networks.
Why is forecasting important?
Forecasting is important as it encourages governments to enforce better buildings regulation and no build zones in areas of high stress . As well as develop education and evacuation procedures.
Why are earthquake predictions not that helpful?
For predictions to be useful they need to be highly accurate both spatial and temporally to enable evacuation of certain areas they are not meaning the usefulness of them is arguable.
How can volcanic eruptions be predicted?
- monitoring equipment on volcanos can measure changes as the magma chambers fill
- tilt meters can record tithe volcanos ‘bulging’ as the mahatma rises
- seismometers can record minor earthquakes including magma movement
- gas spectrometers analyse gas emissions. (Carbon dioxide and sulphur dioxide)
How useful are volcanic predictions?
Volcanic eruptions are fairly predictable as data is both spatially and temporally accurate. The minimal death rolls from recent volcanic eruption can be mainly attributed to vastly improved prediction.
How can Tsunamis be predicted?
Tsunamis can be partially predicted
- earthquake induced ones cannot be predicted
- seismometers can tell an earthquake occurrence and locate it and ocean monitoring equipment can detect tsunamis in the open sea.
- this can be relayed to coastal areas which can be evacuated.
What is the hazard management cycle?
The hazard management cycle illustrates the different stages of managing hazards it attempt to reduce the scale of a disaster. It creates a cycle with one hazard event informing the preparation of the next.
What are the stages of the hazard management cycle?
- The Hazard
- Response (immediate help to save lives through search and rescue and shelter)
- Recovery (rebuilding infrastructure and services)
- Mitigation (acting it reduce the scale of the next disaster though land use zoning and hazard buildings)
- Preparedness ((community education, warning systems and evacuation drills)
What are the physical factors the can affect a response?
- geographical accessibility
- type of hazard (scale, magnitude)
- topography of region (mountainous)
- climate (e.g, monsoon rains)
What are the human factors that can affect response?
- population density
- degree of community preparedness
- technology and resource abundance
- economic wealth and life, of infrastructure
- level of governance
- ability of services (health, repose teams)
