Tectonic Processes and Hazards

Question 1

Where and when did the developed earthquake take place?

Answer 1

Christchurch, New Zealand
Between Australian and Pacific plates
2010

Question 2

Where and when did the emerging earthquake take place?

Answer 2

Sichuan, China
Between Indian-Australian and Eurasian plates
2008

Question 3

Where and when did the developing earthquake take place?

Answer 3

Port-Au-Prince, Haiti
Between North American and Caribbean plates
2010

Question 4

What magnitude was the Christchurch earthquake and what type of boundary was it on?

Answer 4

7.1 magnitude with a 6.3 magnitude aftershock (2011)
On a conservative boundary

Question 5

What magnitude was the Sichuan earthquake and what type of boundary was it on?

Answer 5

7.9 magnitude
On a destructive boundary

Question 6

What magnitude was the Haiti earthquake and what type of boundary was it on?

Answer 6

7 magnitude
On a conservative boundary

Question 7

What was the death toll and social impacts of the Sichuan earthquake?

Answer 7

85,000 deaths (375,000 injured)
4.8m homeless, while 5.7m million evacuated from homes
1.1m people were completely cut off from water supplies

Question 7

What was the death toll and social impacts of the Christchurch earthquake?

Answer 7

185 deaths (around 100,000 injured)
Liquefaction destroyed many roads and buildings
80% of water and sewage systems destroyed
1 in 5 lost jobs due to building destruction

Question 8

What was the death toll and social impacts of the Haiti earthquake?

Answer 8

220,000 deaths
3 million people affected (1.5 million homeless)
Cholera broke out roughly a year later, leading to around 500,000 cases reported

Question 9

What were some economic impacts of the Christchurch earthquake?

Answer 9

$40bn worth of damage
The number of guests visiting hotels in Christchurch fell by over 75% after the earthquake hit
Unemployment hit many different industries such as tourism, recreation and retail

Question 10

What were some economic impacts of the Sichuan earthquake?

Answer 10

$146bn needed to repair/redevelop area
Industrial enterprises in the area suffered an estimated $29m
More than 14,000 industrial companies were damaged

Question 11

What were some economic impacts of the Haiti earthquake?

Answer 11

Reconstruction costs reached $14bn, more than Haiti’s annual GDP
1/5 jobs were lost as a result of the earthquake
The clothing industry (2/3 of Haiti’s exports) was heavily damaged

Question 12

What were some environmental impacts of the Christchurch earthquake?

Answer 12

3.5m tsunami waves in Tasman Lake
Significant landslides and rock falls
Ground shaking took place and rose by up to 1 metre in places

Question 13

What were some environmental impacts of the Sichuan earthquake?

Answer 13

Over 40,000 hectares of forest were destroyed
Over 15,000 secondary landslides, rock falls and debris flows
20,000 hectares of farmland were eradicated

Question 14

What were some environmental impacts of the Haiti earthquake?

Answer 14

90% of buildings fell in Port-au-Prince
Water pollution was a big problem due to rubbish-stricken beaches

Question 15

What were some development factors in Christchurch affecting vulnerability and resilience?

Answer 15

New Zealand has a well-developed hazard resilience programme (Natural Hazards Platform)
Monitoring, Education, emergency plans, building design, land use planning, modelling and risk assessment are all involved

Question 16

What were some development factors in Sichuan affecting vulnerability and resilience?

Answer 16

Poorly built schools (not to regulations) resulted in the deaths of roughly 5,300 children
There was a lack of seismic instruments to be able to anticipate the quake

Question 17

What were some development factors in Haiti affecting vulnerability and resilience?

Answer 17

Haiti is one of the poorest countries in the world (GNI = $660)
Shortage of trained health workers and an underfunded healthcare system
Lack of coherent emergency plan for a disaster caused by inefficient govt

Question 18

What were some geographical factors in Christchurch affecting vulnerability and resilience?

Answer 18

Christchurch is very close to the epicentre of the earthquake, only 25km, increasing the exposure to the seismic waves produced

Question 19

What were some geographical factors in Sichuan affecting vulnerability and resilience?

Answer 19

The earthquake’s extremely shallow origin was just 11.8 miles below the surface, increasing the exposure to seismic waves
The earthquake occurred just 57 miles northwest of Chengdu, increasing exposure

Question 20

What were some geographical factors in Haiti affecting vulnerability and resilience?

Answer 20

The earthquake hit just 15 miles from Port-au-Prince, making it extremely exposed
The earthquake’s origin was very shallow, just 8.1 miles below the surface, worsening the impacts

Question 21

What were some governance factors in Christchurch affecting vulnerability and resilience?

Answer 21

The already well- established hazard resilience programme allowed the country to be well prepared
300 Australian Police were flown in to aid the situation in Christchurch
Quick response led to water networks being restored by August

Question 22

What were some governance factors in Sichuan affecting vulnerability and resilience?

Answer 22

Following the earthquake, the World Bank offered China a $1.5m grant for reconstruction support
One million small temporary homes were built to house the homeless
20 helicopters were immediately assigned to rescue and relief efforts immediately after the quake

Question 23

What were some governance factors in Haiti affecting vulnerability and resilience?

Answer 23

Many countries responded to the earthquake, to come to the aid of Haiti, whose government could not afford the repairs by themselves
The Haitian government gave control of the airport to the US who coordinated the aid
Over 5,000 improved temporary shelters

Question 24

When and where did the developed tsunami take place?

Answer 24

Japan
11th March 2011

Question 25

When and where did the developing tsunami take place?

Answer 25

Indian Ocean
26th December 2004

Question 26

Where was the epicentre and what was the magnitude of the Japanese tsunami?

Answer 26

9.0 magnitude earthquake, 130km of Japanese coast, in the Pacific Ocean

Question 27

Where was the epicentre and what was the magnitude of the Indian Ocean tsunami?

Answer 27

9.0 magnitude earthquake, off the west coast of Indonesia

Question 28

What were some physical causes of the Japanese tsunami?

Answer 28

Caused by movement on or near the subduction zone between the Pacific and North American plates
There were over 500 aftershocks in the week that followed measuring between 5 and 7 on the Richter Scale

Question 29

What were some physical causes of the Indian Ocean tsunami?

Answer 29

Caused by a sudden slippage along the destructive plate margin where the Indo-Australian plate is being subducted beneath the Eurasian plate

Question 30

What were some social impacts of the Japanese tsunami?

Answer 30

Nearly 16,000 people died, with 90% of deaths directly from the tsunami.
56% of deaths were among those over 65, and 75% of those missing were over 60
80,000 residents left their homes due to the radioactivity released by the ageing Fukushima-Daiichi nuclear power plan

Question 31

What were some social impacts of the Indian Ocean tsunami?

Answer 31

Estimated that about 294,000 people were killed or are missing
Over five million people in some of the most remote and poorest parts of the world were left homeless without adequate food, water or sanitation

Question 32

What were some economic impacts of the Japanese tsunami?

Answer 32

The insurance industry was hit hard, with the total bill coming to around £20bn
Japan’s GDP shrank 3.7% between January and March 2011
By June that year, 209 companies had been forced into bankruptcy by the disaster

Question 33

What were some economic impacts of the Indian Ocean tsunami?

Answer 33

Over one million jobs were lost directly as a result of the tsunami
There were economic damages worth $5.597 billion and losses due to changes in economic flow worth $4.333 billion
$82m loss for the hotel and restaurant sector income in 2005 in Phuket

Question 34

What were some environmental impacts of the Japanese tsunami?

Answer 34

The meltdown at Fukushima-Daiichi is the long-term threat to public health posed by exposure to increased radiation
Radiation levels reached 15x those of before the tsunami
60,000 acres of agricultural land had been contaminated through inundation by the tsunami

Question 35

What were some environmental impacts of the Indian Ocean tsunami?

Answer 35

Roughly 200,000 homes destroyed as a result of the tsunami.
64,000 hectares of agricultural land were damaged or contaminated as a result of coastal flooding.

Question 36

What were some development factors affecting vulnerability & resilience in the Japanese tsunami?

Answer 36

As a developed country, Japan invests a significant amount of money into earthquake preparedness, a massive drill was carried out by the Japanese army in 2008, which vastly improved the preparedness of the population

Question 37

What were some development factors affecting vulnerability & resilience in the Indian Ocean tsunami?

Answer 37

Many of the countries affected by the tsunamis, such as Indonesia and Sri Lanka, are extremely poor. They did not have the necessary emergency supplies, procedures or infrastructures to cope with a disaster on this scale and needed to rely heavily on foreign assistance

Question 38

What were some impacts of governance affecting vulnerability & resilience in the Japanese tsunami?

Answer 38

The Japanese govt approved a budget of around £190bn to be spent over a period of 10 years, incentivising areas to attract investment into the Tohoku region, such as tax incentives, special deregulation of planning permission and interest substitutes for loan-lenders.

Question 39

What were some impacts of governance affecting vulnerability & resilience in the Indian Ocean tsunami?

Answer 39

There is no early warning system for the Indian Ocean. Only Thailand has a warning system, and this clearly failed to function adequately due to infrequency of use
In Sri Lanka, the government lacked the experience and capability to handle such a complex rebuilding task