1.1 Case studies Flashcards

1
Q

Indian Ocean Tsunami 2004 - description

A
  • 26th December 2004
  • hypocentre 160km away from Sumatra, Indonesia
  • first waves arrived 20mins after quake
  • 800km/h waves
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2
Q

Indian Ocean Tsunami 2004 - causes

A

under sea 9.2 magnitude earthquake caused by subduction of Indian plate under Burma plate

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3
Q

Indian Ocean Tsunami 2004 - Social Impacts

A
  • No tsunami warning system in place
  • 300,000 deaths
  • 1.7 million left homeless
  • Wide spread of disease (cholera and dysentery) through mixing sea water with sewage
  • 6 million people requiring emergency aid
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4
Q

Indian Ocean Tsunami 2004 - economic impacts

A
  • loss of earnings from tourism
  • fishing industry damaged through destruction of ports, boats, equipment
  • destruction of crops and farmland by seawater
  • transport links damaged
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5
Q

Indian Ocean Tsunami 2004 - environmental impacts

A
  • mangrove forests damaged
  • 8 million litres of oil leaked from oil plants in Indonesia
  • coral reefs damaged/destroyed
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6
Q

describe the Nepal Earthquake

A
  • 25 April 2015
  • 7.9 on Richter scale
  • depth of 8.2km
  • Destructive plate margin
  • Indo-Australian plate colliding with Eurasian Plate
  • interplate
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7
Q

Nepal Earthquake - secondary impacts

A
  • Landslides and avalanches which blocked roads and hampered relief efforts
  • Avalanche on Mt Everest killed 19 people
  • Avalanche in the Langtang reagion left 250 missing
  • Landslide blocked River Kaii Gandaki - which caused flooding in capital
  • 9000 deaths
  • 22,000 injuries
  • $10bn in damages
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8
Q

describe the Gujurat earthquake

A
  • 2001
  • intraplate
  • 7.7 magnitude
  • in northern India
  • along a rift fault associated with India + Eurasian plate boundary
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9
Q

Impacts of Gujurat earthquake

A
  • 13-20,000 deaths
  • 167,000 injured
  • 340,000 buildings destroyed
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10
Q

Eyjafjallajokull 2010 - description

A
  • stratovolcano - explosive eruptions associated with the mid-atlantic ridge
  • prior to eruption, 5000 smaller earthquakes recorded near to the volcano’s crater, located beneath a glacier
  • 14th April 2010, erupted from main crater in rthe middle of the glacier
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11
Q

Primary impacts of Eyjafjallajokull eruption

A
  • 150m ice cap melted causing flooding
  • 800 people evacuated
  • 20 farms destroyed
  • schools and businesses closed
  • damage to crops and livestock
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12
Q

Secondary impacts of Eyjafjallajokull eruption

A
  • jokulhaup flooding damaged homes
  • costs of repairing flood defences
  • long-term increased tourism and businesses - 1.7million tourists came as a result
  • Roads bulldozed to allow flood water to reach sea
  • European travel industry had £1.7bn losses
  • 6 flightless days
  • London lost £102mn of tourist income
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13
Q

Describe the Mt. St. Helens eruption.

A
  • located in Washington state
  • deadliest volcanic event in US history
  • along subduction zone of Juan de Fuca and North American plates
  • plinian eruption
  • VEI = 5
  • volcano continuously active until 2008
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14
Q

Mt. St. Helens’ 1980 eruption
- What were the precursor events leading up to the eruption that alerted geologists?

A
  • small earthquakes in March 1980
  • frequency of high magnitude earthquakes increased to about 8 per day
  • phreatic eruptions (steam eruptions)
  • formation of new crater at summit of volcano
  • surface deformation due to accumulation of magma at shallow depths
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15
Q

Mt. St. Helens’ 1980 eruption
- What caused the May 18th lateral blast?

A
  • 5.1 magnitude earthquake directly beneath volcano and northern slope collapsed, causing large debris avalanche
  • sudden pressure change led to expansion of volcanic gases in the underlying magma
  • culminated in a northward-directed lateral blast
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16
Q

Mt. St. Helens 1980 eruption - secondary impacts

A
  • 600km^2 of surrounding forest destroyed
  • 57 deaths
  • 200 homes destroyed
  • volcanic ash deposited across Washington, Idaho, and Montana
17
Q

Mt. St. Helens 1980 eruption - how has the eruption changed volcanic monitoring in the area?

A
  • network of seismometers and GPS stations set up
  • data collected during and after eruption provided a baseline for other studies
  • enabled scientists to observe reawakening of a volcano with modern monitoring techniques
18
Q

Describe the 2022 Tonga earthquake

A
  • occurred on uninhabited island within Tongan archipelago in south pacific
  • part of volcanic arc along subduction zone extending from New Zealand to Fiji
  • most powerful point of eruption occurred on Jan 15, sending an ash plume over 20km into the atmosphere
  • VEI = 4
  • 0.5km^3 released
19
Q

Impacts of the 2022 Tonga earthquake

A
  • caused tsunami waves reaching as far as Japan (at least 3 people killed in Peru)
  • Tonga is a developing nation (104th on 2020 HDI ranking)
  • estimated US$90m in damages (18.5% of Tonga’s GDP)
  • damaged 600 buildings
  • crops lost, fisheries damaged
  • internet coverage not restored until 5 weeks after eruption
20
Q

Describe the Pacific Tsunami Warning System

A
  • 46 member states
  • over 90% of tsunami casualties occur in area
  • aims to increase community resilience
  • uses seismic data from IRIS
  • uses DART system - ocean bottom pressure recorders that measure changes in sea surface height
21
Q

Advantages of Pacific Tsunami Warning System

A
  • Advanced warning saves lives
  • identify long-term patterns and areas at risk
  • centralised data is available for researchers and aid providers
22
Q

Disadvantages of Pacific Tsunami Warning System

A
  • not much notice
  • expensive so out of reach for LICs
  • require mobile devices
23
Q

Describe the Haiti earthquake

A
  • 2010
  • magnitude 7
  • conservative plate boundary between North American and Caribbean plates
  • shallow focus: 5 miles deep
24
Q

Impacts of Haiti Earthquake 2010 (5)

A
  • 316,000 deaths
  • 280,000 buildings destroyed
  • 1.3 million left homeless
  • hospitals and schools damaged
  • airport control tower destroyed, preventing aid from landing
25
Q

Long-term impacts of Haiti earthquake

A
  • only 48% of $13.34bn donations reached Haiti as a lot of money west to NGOs not in Haiti so overheads had to be paid
  • cholera outbreak caused by waste from UN peacekeeper base leaking into local river caused 10,000 deaths
  • many still homeless, access to services is poor
  • by 2013, 279,000 people lived in ‘tent cities’
26
Q

Haiti earthquake - why were the impacts so severe?

A
  • no building regulations so buildings were poor quality and unable to withstand earthquake
  • part of presidential palace collapsed, trapping government officials inside and leading to delays in organising relief efforts
  • morgues quickly overwhelmed so bodies buried in mass graves or left in the open
  • language barriers, purchase of overpriced supplies, and staffing changes meant NGOs were slow to provide housing
27
Q

Describe the 2011 Tohoku Earthquake

A
  • 9.0 magnitude
  • epicentre 43 miles east of Tohoku, Japan
  • 20mile deep focus
  • destructive plate margin: subduction of pacific plate under Eurasian plate
  • friction build-up led to ‘megathrust’ quake
28
Q

Tohoku Earthquake - short-term impacts

A
  • over 20,000 deaths
  • 332,395 buildings destroyed, leaving 130,927 homeless
  • 800 aftershocks
  • tsunami reaching 40m high, completely overtopping existing 12m-high tsunami defences that cost billions to build
  • despite tsunami warning system, only 58% of coastal residents responded to warnings and headed to higher ground
  • total energy released was 600m times that of Hiroshima bomb and shifter Earth’s axis
29
Q

Tohoku Earthquake - Long-term impacts

A
  • tsunami flooded nuclear power stations and led to meltdown of 7 reactors, including Fukushima
  • economic costs of $235bn, most expensive disaster in history
  • Three reactors overheated, melted and released radioactivity into the air during explosions, and also into groundwater which eventually reached the Pacific Ocean