Plate Tectonics

Question 1

When was the Haiti earthquake?

Answer 1

12 Jan, 2010

Question 2

How many people died?

Answer 2

220,000 died, and 250,000 injured

Question 3

Haiti - How many buildings collapsed? How many people homeless? What happened to the services?

Answer 3

300,000 buildings collapsed, resulting in 1.3 million homeless. Water, communication and electricity were damaged, police was in chaos

Question 4

Why was the Haiti Earthquake affected so much?

Answer 4

Lack of regulation due to poverty

1/3 of Port Au Prince destroyed in the quake

2/3 of the population were unemployed before the quake, meaning citizens were poor and so could not recover as well as people in Iceland

Government had little money so facilities emergency services were very poor

Government could be poor due to in 1804 the debts created to have their independence (94 million gold franks)

1/2 of Haiti’s population were poor

Question 5

How does being poverty affect risks to natural disasters?

Answer 5

Limited resources, lack of education and health services can increase their exposure to risks.

Question 6

Name a few primary effects of Eyjafjallajökull

Answer 6

Eruption turned day to night because of the ash clouds

Over 36,000 people were killed

Plane flights were cancelled

Homes and roads were damaged

Question 7

Name some secondary effects of Eyjafjallajökull

Answer 7

Sporting events were cancelled due to cancelled flights, impacting the tourism industry all over the world and impacting the economy badly

Fresh food imports were halted, so industries were affected by a lack of imported raw materials

Local water supplies were contaminated by fluoride

Flooding was caused by the glaciers melting

Europe lost over 6 million per day from loss in the tourism industry

Worldwide, businesses lost billions

Question 8

Immediate responses to Eyjafjallajökull

Answer 8

A state of emergency was declared in Iceland, (regular and normal procedures were halted to put public health and safety first before anything else)

EU airspace was closed a a safety precaution, (first time since WW2)

Evacuation of the people happened before the volcano erupted to reduce lives lost

Question 9

Long term responses to Eyjafjallajökull

Answer 9

Properties need to be rebuilt

Restoration of utilities, eg. Cleansing the fluoride from water sources

Developing opportunities for the economy to recover

Question 10

What is the plate margin where 2 plates move away from each other?

Answer 10

Constructive Plate Margin - eg. Atlantic Ridge

Question 11

What is the plate margin where 2 plates move towards eachother?

Answer 11

Destructive Plate Margin. 2 plates moving towards each other causes plates to crash or slide OVER each other, eg. Himalayas.

Question 12

What can happen when plates crash together?

Answer 12

Earthquakes

Question 13

What is a conservative plate margin?

Answer 13

Where 2 plates slide past each other, eg. San Andreas Fault

Question 14

What are the layers of the Earth?

Answer 14

Crust, upper mantle, lower mantle, core.

Question 15

What is the mantle?

Answer 15

A semi-liquid layer made of molten magma

Question 16

What is the Lithosphere?

Answer 16

Crust and upper mantle

Question 17

What is the outer core made of?

Answer 17

Iron and Nickel

Question 18

What is the temperature at the outer core?

Answer 18

4700 Degrees Celsius

Question 19

What is the temperature of the inner core?

Answer 19

5505 Degrees Celsius, (as hot as the surface of the sun)

Question 20

What are the 7 continental plates?

Answer 20

African, Antarctic, Eurasian, Indo-Australian, North American, Pacific and South American.

Question 21

What are Plate Tectonics?

Answer 21

The movement of plates, (also known as continental drift)

Question 22

What is Pangea?

Answer 22

A supercontinent from millions of years ago

Question 23

How do the plates move?

Answer 23

Heat within lower mantle drive convection currents which help to move the plates

Question 24

What are plate margins?

Answer 24

Where tectonic plates meet, (eg. Conservative, constructive, destructive)

Question 25

How can we map out our Earth?

Answer 25

Using seismographs

Question 26

How thick is the continental crust?

Answer 26

20-30km

Question 27

Where does the Asthenosphere occur?

Answer 27

At the base of the upper mantle, (100km)

Question 28

What are the fastest plates in the world?

Answer 28

Pacific plate and Indo-Australian

Question 29

What is an example of evidence for continental drift?

Answer 29

Fossil Locations

Question 30

What is palaeomagnetism?

Answer 30

The study of rocks and their age

Question 31

How many volcano zones does Iceland have?

Answer 31

30

Question 32

What are some exclusive features of volcanic zones?

Answer 32

Springs, Vents, Magma, Gizas, etc

Question 33

How is Montserrat’s plate boundary formed?

Answer 33

Formed by the Atlantic plate shifting towards and underneath the Caribbean plate, creating Volcanoes and Earthquakes, (destructive plate margin)

Question 34

Effects of Earthquakes, (notes)

Answer 34

Many people die initially
Many people are also injured
Little space in hospitals
Many aftershocks, (above 5.5 on Richter scale)
Cultural heritage sites destroyed
Rescue and aid arrives shortly after
Tent cities are assembled
There is desperation for food, water and resources 
Severe damage caused to buildings

Question 35

What are relief efforts for future earthquakes in Haiti?

Answer 35

Micro-credit schemes, where charity donates money to civilians to begin work.

Improvements to buildings where more civilians can live in housing

Crop trials, where Oxfam invests in making the farmer’s product better to increase efficiency