California's Hazards

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  • California geophysical hazards
    • location
      • west coast of America
      • lies near the pacific coast
    • Economic development stage
      • America is stage 5 on Rostows scale of development
        • America only super power
        • GDP of $53,000 per capita
      • California has a high GDP of $1.9 trillion
        • "take off" was due to the mining industry
      • over 600,00 millionaires in the state
    • Landslide hazards
      • many slopes over 15 degrees
      • arid desert like conditions
        • highest recording of 57 C
        • limiting growth of vegetation which stabilise hillsides
        • wildfires leave slopes without protection of vegetation
      • seismic activity loosens the soil
      • last 25 years they have killed 100 Californian's
    • wildfires
      • triggered by lightening and made worse by strong winds and parched land
      • expensive because hydroplanes used to extinguish  fire
    • seismic activity
      • The san Andreas fault runs along side the west coast of America
        • convergent plant boundary
          • both pacific plate and north American plate are moving north
            • pacific plate is moving at a faster rate
            • build up of friction creates stress in the rocks and one plate eventually slips past each other
              • sudden release of energy creates an earthquake
      • 1906 earthquake 7.8
        • buildings were wooden and not designed for earthquakes
          • 28,000 buildings destroyed
          • 400,000 people made homeless
            • $400 million of property damage
        • infrastructure damage made recovery difficult
          • broken water pipes meant that fires couldn't be put out
            • fires cause by broken pipelines burnt for three days
          • destroyed water and sewer pipes, railways and roadways
        • response
          • emergency aid provided food. water , tents, blankets and medical supplies
          • vigorous research into earthquakes
            • development of the seismograph
            • creation of geodetic instruments
              • allowing regional zoning
      • 1989 earthquake 7.0
        • more than 1000 landslides occurred I the Santa cruz mountains
        • collapse of infrastructure
          • eg The cypris freeway collapsed
          • about 1,300 buildings damaged
          • government emergency radio system failed
        • 63 deaths
        • $5.9 billion worth of damage
        • responses
          • national guard patrolled the streets to stop looting
          • $30 billion to rebuild bridges, pipelines and other infrastructure
          • Cyprus freeway rebuilt ten years later wit seismic design
          • 12,000 people have completed the citizen of Oakland respond to emergencies course
            • enables them to survive the first 72 hours without any aid

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