Earthquakes + Tsunamis
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- Created by: natatalie
- Created on: 13-10-15 19:28
Tohoku (Tsunami) - 11th March 2011
Exacerbation/Synopticity
- Japans meteorological agency sent out a warning of a much smaller tsunami than expected
- Only 58% of people in Fukushima and Miyagi headed for higher ground
- Deeper water in bays meant that the tsunami travelled quicker, giving less response time
- Those in Miyako trusted the walls, the subsistence of the ground caused lots of deaths
- In Ofunato, the ground subsided by 1metre, they were soon expecting high tides as well
- Tsunamis worse in built up urban areas as the water gets funnelled through the streets
- Those who had survived the tsunami would not neccessarily survive the cold weather
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Tohoku (Tsunami) - 11th March 2011 - Responses
- Tsunami warnings were sent out
- People in Tokyo received a minute early warning before the shaking
- TV warnings immediately shown
- Miyako were very prepared
- Often had practice warnings, 10metre high sea walls
- Geologists and vulcanologists wers soon out to observe what had happened
- Many were evacuated from buildings wearing hard hats etc
- Fukushima was automatically shut down
- It was still hot, so to cool it down it had to run on backup generators, destroyed by tsunami
- Evacuation orders for those living in the vicinity of two separate nuclear power plants
- Rescuers searched for those in the rubble
- Found 870 people in a elementary school
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Nepal - April/May 2015
The Earthquake
- The main earthquake hit on 25th April 2015
- Magnitude 7.8
- 15km deep
- Epicentre - Barpak, Gorkha
- Nepal was then hit by 120 aftershocks
- The largest came on 12th May 2015
- Magnitude 7.3
- The largest came on 12th May 2015
- Created by the Indian plate subducting beneath the Eurasian plate
Synopticity/Exacerbation
- Many houses made from traditional, weak materials
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Nepal - April/May 2015 - Effects
Social Effects
- 8622 died
- 450 000 displaced after homes destroyed
- 800 home destroyed in village of Fakhel (poor building quality)
- Young female survivors were preyed upon by human traffickers
- Many historical temples and monuments detsroyed
- Darahara tower destroyed - built in 1832
- 7500+ schools destroyed
- Many children out of education for months
- 1100 health facilities destroyed
- Electricity cut off in areas near the epicentre
Environmental Effects
- Triggered avalanches upt o 3km wide
- Wiped out the village of Langtang
- Affected 39 districts
- Mount Everest moved 3cm southwest
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Nepal - April/May 2015 - Effects
Economic Effects
- 100 000+ cattle lost
- Many tourists put off from visiting
- Tourism accounted for 8% of the Nepalese economy
- Expected to push nearly 1 million below the poverty line
- Little time to replant crops before the monsoon
- $10 billion in economic losses
Responses
- UK gave more than £70 million in aid
- Search and Rescue teams sent to look for survivors
- 'Searcha nd Rescue Assistance in Disasters' team sent experts with 1.5 tonnes of specialist equipment
- 15 000 tons of food dispatched
- Temporary camps set up (One in Lainchaur)
- 48 international medical teams
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Tohoku (Tsunami) - 11th March 2011 - Effects
Environmental
- Coastline sunk by 1m in some areas
- Miyako's sea walls should have been high enough but the sinking of the earth meant they were flooded badly
- Liquefaction occuring
- Lots of fires overnight
- Fire at the refinery, plume of thick blakc smoke
- Surge affected mountain communities
- Small comunity had a salt lake instead of a small river, killed fish
- Radiation released from Fukushima Daiichi
- Small amounts of radiation in seawater
- Small amounts of radiation on the coast of North America and Canada
- The surge of water carried 5 million tons of debris out to sea
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Tohoku (Tsunami) - 11th March 2011 - Effects
Social
- 15 600 people died
- Temporary shelters filling up in Sendai
- Rebuilding will take generations
- (Hawaii issued evacuation warning) 7 foot waves in Hawaii
- 2500+ missing
- Caused a system failure a Fukushima Daiichi
- Power and mobile recpetion remained down
- No electricity and no water for those people in shelters
Economic
- Airport in Sendai flooded by tsunami, was only 4 years old
- Farm land in Sendai flooded, crops destroyed
- Most buildings in Ofunato destroyed
- Total damages at $300 billion
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Haiti - 12th Jan 2010 - Effects and Responses
Economic Effects
- Borrowed money for rebuilding needs paying back - will take years
- Houses have to be built earthquake proof
Short Term Responses
- UN mobilised an emergency response team to coordinate relief efforts
- The World Bank provided $100 million to support recovery
- WHO sent a 12 member team of healty experts
- International Atomic Energy Agency sent 8 mobile x-ray machines
- Iceland sent 37 search and response specialists, UK sent 71 fire fighters
Long Term Resonses
- Reduce reliance of food imports - rebuild Haitis agricultural capacity
- Don't have the abilities to teach specialist subjects - lack of facilities
- Reduce reliance on charcoal - Increase energy availability - increase quality of life
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Haiti - 12th Jan 2010 - After the earthquake
1 year later
- Still lots of remaining rubble
- 1000's still living in tents (Tent City)
- Some still haven't recieved aid
- Orphanage in Carrefoure - lots of children still living in tents - Running out of food
- 500 000 orphans after earthquake
5 years later
- 70 000 still living in tents
- Some still don't have a water supply
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Haiti - 12th Jan 2010 - Effects and Responses
Social Effects
- Severe lack of food
- Lack of medical aid for the injured
- Clean water issues - Malaria, Dengue Fever
- Disease and illness spread fast
- About 3 million affected from loss of homes - 1.5 million living in tents
- Cholera epidemic - 2500 died from it
- 100 000 - 316 000 killed (allegations that Haitian government claimed was higher to get more aid)
Environmental Effect
- Water supply damaged - no clean drinking water or washing water
- Trash filled beaches, polluted waterways, dead fish
- Nearly all ports and roads either destroyed or closed
- Fire made rescue missions harder
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Haiti - 12th January 2010
Earthquake Background
- 4.53pm, 12th Jan 2010
- Lasted 35-60 seconds
- Epicentre 10 miles southwest of the capital
- Fault line runs straight through Haiti
- Situated between Caribbean and North American plate
- Magnitude 7 earthquake
- Focus 6.2 miles below surface
Synopticity (exacerbation)
- Hurricane two years earlier
- 4/5 Haitians lived in poverty before the earthquake
- Aid not managed properly, money not properly distributed
- When the cholera first came, they didn't know what to do, they hadn't seen it before
- Long term effects hampered by political turmoil
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Christchurch - Feb 2011
Date: 22nd February 2011
Time: 12:51 pm
Magnitude: 6.3
Population of Christchurch: 360,000
Deaths: 191 confirmed
Depth of earthquake: 5km (very shallow)
Immediate Effects-
- Mobile phone network down
- People were prepared and were soon out in high-vis jackets
- Roads blocked due to falling buildings
- Hospital cleared beds to create space for new patients
- Cathedral spire collapsed, PGG building concertinaed
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Tohoku (Tsunami) - 11th March 2011
The Earthquake + Tsunami
- Magnitude 9 earthquake hit northeast Japan at 2:46
- 100km off the east coast
- The Pacific plate subducted under the Eurasian plate, the Euarsian plate bounced back
- Earthquake lasted 5 minutes (long earthquake)
- The Tsunami arrived 100seconds after the earthquake struck
- It hit Ofunato first
- Situated behind a deep bay, the wave travelled quicker so it was hit first
- Sendai was hit second
- Sendai has very flat farming land, airport, water travelled long distances
- Miyako hit third
- Miyako had a 10metre high sea wall that was engulfed by the wave
- A giant whirlpool was generated near Oarai
- Many lives were saved by Japans extensive preparedness
- 40% of Japans coastline has seawalls up to 10metres high
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Indian Ocean (Tsunami) - Dec 2004
The Earthquake
- 26th December 2004
- Magnitude 9 earthquake
- Epicentre off the western coast of Northern Sumatra, Indonesia
- Convergent plate boundary, Indo-Australian plate subducting beneath the Eurasian
- Focus 30 km below sea level
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Indian Ocean (Tsunami) - Dec 2004 - Effects
Social Effects
- Loss of people (doctors, teachers etc) made it harder to find survivors
- Most survivors were living in refugee camps
- Many children were traumatised by what they had seen
- 280 000 died or lost
Environmental Effects
- On Maikhao beach in northern Phuket in Thailand, the sea receded before the tsunami came
- Many trees uprooted
- Drinking water contaminated by saltwater, sewage and decaying corpses
Economic Effects
- Only 6 out of 60 fishing boats from Amphur Khao remained in tact
- Roads and rail links were cut off
- Farmland contaminated with salt water - rice, mango and banana plantations destroyed
- Tourist industry effected
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Indian Ocean (Tsunami) - Dec 2004 - Responses
Responses
- UK government gave £75 million
- NGO's like Save the Children and Church World Service gave tarpaulins, tents, water purification tablets, portable generators and food
- Medical and science teams from UK and Australia helping those with psychological damage and physcial damage
- Also attempting to reunite infants with families by DNA tests
- In Jan 2005, the UN announced a tsunami early warning system for the Indian Ocean
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