Restless Earth

Oceanic Crust:

• New
• Dense
• Renewable &Destroyable 

Continental Crust:

• Older
• Light
• Not renewable or destroyable 

Destructive Plate Margin: Move together and the oceanic plate sinks below the continental one in a process called: subduction

Constructive Plate Margin: Plates move apart and the magma forces its way up through the cracks to form volcanoes. 

Conservative Plate Margin: Plates slide past each other in a similar direction at a slightly different angle and speed. 

Composite Volcano

• Steep slopes
• Layers of thick ash and lava 
• Infrequent but Violent

Shield Volcano

• Gentle slopes
• Layers of runny lava and little ash
• Frequent but not Violent 

Supervolcanoes

• 1000x more emissions of material 
• No cones but a caldera

Characteristics of Earthquakes

• Focus: Deep within the crust
• Epicentre: Point on the surface

Shock waves:

• Primary: fast and move back and forth
• Secondary: slower and move side to side
• Longitudinal: up and down 
• Transverse: side to side

Occur in:

• Destructive margins: pressure from subduction
• Constructive margins: less severe bc less intense friction and pressure
• Conservative margins: pressure builds when plates jam

Prediction

Protection: Window shutters to prevent shatter, steel frames, foundation sunk into the ground and panels for flexibility. 

Preparation

Formation:

Triggered by earthquakes. Crust shifting and water diplacement above is the start of the tsunami. A normal wind-driven wave increases in height and decreases in wavelength as it approaches the shore.

Farming:

• Home for many susbsitence farmers
• Terraces are used to create flat land because it retains water better
• Cash crops like soybeans, rice and cotton
• Llamas and Alpacas used to carry irrigation materials 
• Female llamas used for meat, milk and wool

Mining:

• Tin, Nickel, Silver and Gold
• Yanacocha gold mine is the largest gold mine in the world
• Town population grew --> lack of services and increased crime rate

HEP:

• Steep slopes are more easily dammed 

Tourism:

Mountain peaks, volcanoes, glaciers and lakes - Inca Trail

March 1980: earthquake, steam filled with ash exploded onto the summit, 8 km exclusion zone around the crater /// 18th of May: 5.1 Richter scale caused landslide + sideways blast of pulverized rock, glacier ice and ash wiped out all living things 27 km north of the crater + trees were uprooted 

57 people died

Aftermath:

Immediate Responses:

• Mobilising helicopters
• Tourists caught in mudflow
• Ash clogged everything 
• Ash cleared from streets within 3 days
• President Carter sent 2 million masks

Long-term Responses:

• Buildings and bridges rebuilding 
• Traces of green have appeared: insects, birds and animals returned
• $1.4 million for transformation 

Old Faithful - Norris Geyser basin

Caldera has bulged up to 70 cm in places and the magma chamber is believed to be 80 km long, 40 km wide and 8 km deep.

Erruption likely to:

• Destroy 10,000 km squared of land
• Kill 87,000 people
• 15 cm of ash would cover buildings within 1000 km 
• 1/3 people affected would die
• Lahars are a possibility
• Ash affects transport, electricity, water and farming 
• UK would await arrival of the ash 5 days later
• Crops would fail
• Climate will change

17th January 1995: Phillipines Plate shifted beneath the Eurasian Plate along the Nokima fault line that runs beneath Kobe - this caused a 7.2 earthquake

• 6434 dead, 40,000 injured, 300,000 homeless
• Gas mains and water pipes fractured
• Roads collapsed
• Railway lines buckled
• 2 million homes w/out electricity
• 1 million homes w/out water
• Fires in the city 
• $220 billion and economy suffered 

• 7-Eleven retailers helped provide essentials
• Motorola maintained free telephone connections 
• Railways 80% fuctional within a month 
• By Septemeber 1996 Hanshin Expressway was fully open again
• Port was 80% functional a year late
• New buildings were built according to the new code

On 12 May 2008 at 2:28 pm - Indian Plate collided with Eurasian plate along the Longmenshan fault line that runs beneath Sichuan. 7.9 earthquake.

• 69,000 dead, 18,000 missing, 374,000 injured, 5 million homeless
• Beichuan: 80% of buildings collapsed
• Dujiangyan city - Juyuan middle school: 900 pupils dead
• Communications brought to a halt
• Roads blocked by landslides
• Rivers blocked by landslides - risks of floods
• $75 million costs

• 20 helicopters
• 1000s of army troops deployed
• Immediate needs: clean water, food supplies, tents and shelter
• 3.3 million tents needed
• 14th of May - International help requested
• Red cross doations - 100 million pounds
• 1 million temporary homes built
• $10 million rebuilding fund

26 December 2004 - Indo Australian Plate subducting beneath the Eurasian Plate. 9.1 earthquake. 

• Coast of Sumatra - Banda Aceh devastated first, then Sri Lanka and Thailand 
• 220,000 dead, 650,000 injured, 2 million homeless
• 1500 settlements in Banda Aceh completely wiped out. 

• Bodies littered the street and were buried in mass graves
• Fresh water, water purification tablets, food and tents all poured in as aid
• UK government gave 75 million pounds + public donations of 100 million pounds
• 372 million pounds donated by public
• 40 million pounds on projects in Sri Lanka and Indonesia
• Indian Ocean Tsunami Warning System set up in June 2006