(Options) Hazards Case Studies

Question 1

Destructive Plate Boundary

Answer 1

Nazca Plate forced under South American Plate

Question 2

Collision Zones

Answer 2

Eurasian and Indo-Australian Plates

Question 3

Constructive Plate Boundary

Answer 3

Mid-Atlantic Ridge

Question 4

Conservative Plate Boundary

Answer 4

San Andreas Fault, California

Question 5

Earthquake LEDC

Answer 5

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

Question 6

Earthquake Mountainous region

Answer 6

(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

Question 7

Tsunami

Answer 7

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

Question 8

Earthquake MEDC

Answer 8

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

Question 9

Earthquake MEDC higher destruction

Answer 9

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

Question 10

Earthquake Mitigation Protect - Aseismic design

Answer 10

1. Torre Mayor Mexico City - shock absorbers, diagonal frames + 60m foundations
2. 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)
3. Quakewrap - inexpensive way reinforce concrete, adds layers carbon - Mckinley Tower, Alaska

Question 11

Earthquake Mitigation Predict - Gap Theory (past data/movement fault line)

Answer 11

Turkey

Question 12

Earthquake Mitigation Prepare

Answer 12

1. ‘Duck Cover Hold’ - USA LA
2. American Red Cross provides earthquake safety check-list
3. Japan 1st Sep every year earthquake drill (anniversary Tokyo quake 1923 = 156,000 deaths)

Question 13

Volcano Prediction

Answer 13

• 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

Question 13

Hotspot Volcano

Answer 13

Volcanoes of Hawaii

Question 14

Area live near volcanic activity

Answer 14

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

Question 15

Hurricanes / Cyclones Prepare

Answer 15

USA

• National Hurricane Awareness Week May encourages people to plan
• Federal Emergency Management Agency gives advice for preparing

Question 16

Hurricanes / Cyclones Prediction

Answer 16

• 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)

Question 17

Hurricane

Answer 17

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

Question 18

Cyclone

Answer 18

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

Question 19

Drought

Answer 19

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

Question 20

Human Induced Hazard 2

Answer 20

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

Question 21

Human Induced Hazard 1

Answer 21

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