Tectonics case studies

Question 1

Where was the boxing day tsunami located and what caused it?

Answer 1

• West coast of Indonesia in the Indian ocean
• 9.1 magnitude
• Destructive plate margin
• Indo-Australian slid below the Eurasion plate

Question 2

What was the immediate response to the 2004 boxing day tsunami?

Answer 2

• Fresh water, water purification tablets, food, sheeting and tents poured in aid.
• Medical teams and forensic scientists arrived.
• The UK government promised £75 million and public donations of £100 million followed

Question 3

What were the primary impacts of the 2004 boxing day tsunami?

Answer 3

• Communications damaged, eg roads, bridges and rail networks.
• 250,000 deaths, 5-6 million people needed emergency aid, eg food and water
• Mangrove forests along the coast were destroyed

Question 4

What were the secondary impacts of the 2004 boxing day tsunami?

Answer 4

• Thirteen countries were affected, the worst being Indonesia.
• Massive economic damage-tourism industry suffered and fishermen lost their livelihoods
• Infertile land due to the salt water meaning there has been a failure within harvests
• 2 million people were made homeless.

Question 5

What was the long term response of the 2004 boxing day tsunami?

Answer 5

• A year later £372 million had been donated by the British public, but only £128 million had been spent by the Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC) - there were organisational issues following the collection of such a large sum of money.
• Rebuilding is progressing, and the DEC has spent more than £40 million on projects in Sri Lanka and Indonesia, and plans were made to spend a further £190 million the following year building 20,000 houses.
• The Indian Ocean Tsunami Warning System was set up in June 2006

Question 6

Where was the 2011 Japan earthquake located and what caused it?

Answer 6

• Located on the Pacific ring of fire
• 9.0 magnitude
• occurred 70 km off the coast where the Pacific and North American plate meet.

Question 7

What were the infrastructural impacts of the 2011 Japan earthquake?

Answer 7

• Earthquake triggered a tsunami 40m high
• 1 million buildings damaged and 300k destroyed
• Four ports destroyed

Question 8

What were the environmental impacts of the 2011 Japan earthquake?

Answer 8

• Contamination of ground water
• The Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant had all six of its reactors severely damaged

Question 9

What were the socio-economic impacts of the 2011 Japan earthquake?

Answer 9

• killed roughly 16,000 injuring 6000
• estimated cost of £161 billion
• Created 300k refugees

Question 10

Where was the Haiti 2010 earthquake located and what caused it?

Answer 10

• 15 miles southwest of capital city Port-au-Prince
• Magnitude 7.0 followed by smaller aftershocks

Question 11

What were the primary impacts of the Haiti 2010 earthquake?

Answer 11

• 1 million people were left homeless
• 300,000 people died.

Question 12

What were the secondary impacts of the 2010 earthquake?

Answer 12

• After the earthquake there was an outbreak of cholera that devastated the population due to health care being rare and of a poor quality.

Question 13

Why was the 2010 Haiti earthquake so destructive?

Answer 13

• Haiti is an LIC and does not have the funds to afford earthquake proof housing, therefore the earthquake resulted in many buildings collapsing and reduced to rubble.
  -Furthermore the infrastructure was still recovering from two tropical storms in 2008.
• Poorest country in the western hemisphere

Question 14

What were the immediate responses to the 2010 Haiti earthquake?

Answer 14

Haiti received a lot of international aid however is didn’t reach further than Port-au-prince or urban areas. Two weeks into the crisis the operations to rescue those trapped under buildings ceased, however they managed to save around 100 people.

Question 15

Where was the Eyjafjallajokul eruption and what caused it?

Answer 15

• Located on a mid atlantic ridge in Iceland on the north American plate above a hotspot
• On the gulf stream blowing ah into Europe

Question 16

What were the local impacts of the Eyjafjallajokul eruption?

Answer 16

• Livestock taken inside
• Local flooding as glacier melts
• Fresh fish exports impacted by mass loss of income
• Ash contaminated local water supplies
• 50,000 farmers temporarily unemployed
• 500 families evacuated

Question 17

What were the European impacts of the Eyjafjallajokul eruption?

Answer 17

• Airport companies lost 2.66$ billion in gdp
• 11.7% drop in air passengers
• Aid deliveries couldn’t be carried out
• 40,000 brits stranded abroad

Question 18

What were the global impacts of the Eyjafjallajokul eruption?

Answer 18

• Cost airlines £130 million a day
• 30,000 tons of Co2 in atmosphere a day
• 107,000 flights cancelled

Question 19

What were the short term impacts of the Eyjafjallajokul eruption?

Answer 19

• responses were almost entirely domestic (due to being MEDC).
• evacuation of locals (helped by police and rescue teams).
• people living near volcanoes used last minute defences.

Question 20

What were the long term impacts of the Eyjafjallajokul eruption?

Answer 20

• reconstruction of roads (some were allowed to flood to clear water, as this was cheaper than repairing bridges etc.).
• high tech quipment now used to measure volcanic activity.
• text message warning systems set up to alert those within 20 minutes of volcano if there’s an eruption.

Question 21

Why is the Phillipines a multiple hazard zone and an example?

Answer 21

• Different hazard events can happen at the same time can leave communities vulnerable as when they are still recovering from one hazard another hazard occurs. Multiple hazards can leave a community in a near constant emergency, hindering development.
• The philippines is on a convergent plate boundary meaning multiple volcanoes can become active in this area, In the philippines there 22 active volcanoes and 30 percent of the population live within 30 km of an active volcano.
• Pacific ocean so the philippines is prone to tsunamis and is on a typhoon belt and experiences many typhoons, average 15 per year.
• Vulnerability- rapidly developing, with the majority of the population living by the coast. 25 percent of population is in poverty.
  In 2006 and earthquake killed 15 people and generated a 3 m high tsunami, In 2013 an earthquake killed 216 people and typhoon haiyan killed 6201.

Question 22

Where was the Armero tragedy and what caused it?

Answer 22

• the eruption of the Nevado del Ruiz stratovolcano in Tolima, Colombia, on November 13, 1985

Question 23

What were the impacts of the Armero tragedy?

Answer 23

• 22,000 people killed by lahars flowing down the slope with v shaped valleys funneling the mud directly into the town

Question 24

When and where was the Bam earthquake?

Answer 24

The Bam earthquake was in central Iran at 26th of December 2003 at 5:26 am

Question 25

What caused the Bam earthquake?

Answer 25

6.6 magnitude earthquake at the Eurasian destructive plate boundary.
Epicentre was 10km directly underneath of Bam

Question 26

What were the impacts of the Bam earthquake?

Answer 26

• 34-43 thousand died
• 60 thousand people left homeless
• injured up to 200 thousand
• 70% of houses completely destroyed
• 11,000 students and 1,080 teaching staff were killed

Question 27

Why is the Bam earthquake of interest?

Answer 27

Houses made of mud-brick buildings collapsed completely

Although the magnitude wasn’t that high many people died showing there isn’t always a direct link between magnitude and severity of impacts.

Shows what a lack of preventative measures can cause amidst a disaster

Question 28

Where and when did the kumamoto earthquakes occur?

Answer 28

magnitude 7.0 main shock which struck at 01:25 April 16, 2016 beneath the City of Kumamoto Prefecture in Kyushu Region, Japan, at a depth of about 10 kilometres

Question 29

What caused the Kumamoto earthquakes?

Answer 29

These earthquakes were caused by two active faults: the Futagawa and Hinagu faults.

Question 30

What were the impacts of the Kumamoto earthquakes?

Answer 30

The entirety of Kumamoto city was left without water.

Government officials estimated more than 1,000 buildings had been seriously damaged, with 90 destroyed

At least 273 people were killed and 2,809 others were injured by the mainshock.

Question 31

Why are the Kumamoto earthquakes of interest?

Answer 31

Despite a magnitude of 7 the buildings destroyed was very minimal and the casualties stayed relatively low due to Japan having very good resilience systems. Bam had a magnitude of 6.6 and 34-43 thousand died.

Question 32

When and where did the Christchurch earthquake occur?

Answer 32

Tuesday 22 February 2011 at 12:51 p.m. local time.

Canterbury region in the South Island, centred 6.7 kilometres (4.2 mi) south-east of the central business district.

Question 33

What caused the Christchurch earthquake to happen?

Answer 33

It resulted from movement along a previously unknown fault line, 15km in length, running approximately east-west and located to the southeast of Christchurch. A strike-slip fault resulted in movement both east and west, although there was also upward movement (reverse thrust) along the fault line.

Question 34

What were the impacts of the Christchurch earthquake?

Answer 34

In total 184 people were killed, with over 1500 injuries.

enormous damage to the city’s buildings, around half of which were destroyed or severely damaged.

More than 150,000 homes and other buildings in Christchurch were severely damaged or destroyed by the earthquake.

Estimated cost of rebuilding the damage done to Christchurch was roughly 13$ billion

Question 35

Why is the Christchurch earthquake of interest?

Answer 35

This earthquake was more damaging to economy and infrastructure than lives.