Hazards

Tectonic Hazards

Tohoku

Japan 11th March 2011

Earthquake

Destructure plate boundary between Pacific and Okhotsk plate

Shallow (30km)

Japan most powerful earthquake on record

9.1 magnitude

Lasted over 3 minutes

Coast is flat, lowlying and soft soil (which amplifies shockaves)

18,500 died

Primary Effects

Foreshocks (which gave evacuation warnings)

Worst affected places were Iwate, Miyagi and Fukushima

Tokyo was not bad due to protection

27,000 buildings destroyed & 1 million damaged across NE Japan

4.4 million households in NE Japan were left without electricity

1.5 million households without running water

1100 sections of track damaged

Secondary Effects

1800 houses destroyed when Fujinuma Dam failed

Triggered tsunami 38m high and travelled 10km in land

56 bridges and railways washed away

Damages were $300 billion, most expensive natural disaster ever

Nuclear power plant in Fukushima

7 reactors in meltdown

Radiation was 8x normal levels

Costs electricity

Immediate response

116 countries and 28 international organisations responded

Mass graves to stop disease spreading

AT&T (telecommunications company) maintained wireless telephone networks free of charge

14,000 evacuated 20km around Fukushima

Long Term Response

55 nuclear reactors taken offline

23 trillion yen set aside for reconstruction ($152b)

Costal protection

By Nov, 96% of electricity supply had been restored, 98% of water supply, 99% of landline network

Port au Prince

12th Jan 2010

Earthquake

7.0 magnitude

Epicentre was 25km W of capital

13km deep focus

Conservative plate between Caribbean and North American

Caused by a slip

Primary effects

230,000 died

300,000 injured

1 million made homless

250,000 houses collapsed/unusable

30,000 commercial buildings collapsed/unusable

Secondary effects

2 million left without water and food

Crime increased with looting

Outbeaks of chlorea

Immediate response

Port was damaged so slow aid

USA sent resuce teams and 10,000 troops

Bottle water and purification were provided

235,000 people were moved away from capital

Long term responses

Haiti relied on overseas aid

1 million people still lived in temporary shelters after a year

Port neeed rebuilding

2021 Earthquake

Long term responses worked

7.2 magbnitude in 2021 in same region

Only 2,500 died that time round

2m tidal wave

Suggests long term planning, response and education were effective

White Island Volcano

Explosion

Mon 9th Dec 2019 14:00

Composite volcno on NZ east coast

Destructive plate boundary with Pacific Plate moving below Aussie plate

Water-filled crater lake which cerates explosions when water and magma hit

Uninhabited island, privately owned, tour operators bring tourists

Water is trapped in pores and rocks - external influence like gas from volcano releases pressurre

Phreatic eruption

Release of ash and steam

Volcanic gases causing explosion

3km of ash and smoke upwards

Short term impacts

47 people on island at time of eruption

18 killed

26 seriously injured

27/31 injured had burns on 30% of their body

Long term impacts

Economic due to lack of tourism

Responses

23 people rescued from island

7 helicopters

Tour operators rescued people 15 minutes (approx) after eruption

26 nautical mile no fly zone

6 NZ soldiers wearing breath equipment and fire-retardant suits recovered 6 of the bodies 4 days later

NZ ordered mass amounts of skin from USA for transplants

There was no warning (1 min)

Tropical Storms

Atmosphere

Hadley

Ferrel

Polar

0-30 degrees N

Warm and dry

Tropical tropopause

Equator is low pressure

30-60 degrees N

Cold and wet

Mid-latitude tropopause

Place between Ferrel and Hadley is high pressure

60+N

Cold and dry

Polar tropopause

Seperated from Ferrel by polar front which is low pressure

North Pole is high pressure

Tropical Storms

What are tropical storms

Area of intense low pressure fromed by rising hot air causing very high wind speeds

Warm air cools and condenses into rain

Jet streams spiral the air around the eye

Basic info

Can move at up to 65mph

75+mph wind speeds (hitting 200)

Up to 250mm of rain a day

Seas need to be hotter 26.5℃ because they heat air above them which means it rises quickly

Seas needs to be 60-70m deep

Low wind shear - Constant wind speed means it can form, high wind spear and storm is blown apart

East to West in Northern hemisphere

West to East in Southern hemisphere

As they hit land, drive away from equator

Coriolis effect bends and spins the warm rising air

Swirl anti-clockwise Norhtern hemisphere

Swirl clockwise Southern hemisphere

Interporical convergence zone (ITCZ) is area between tropics

Formation of tropical storms

Air is heated above the surface of warm oceans. Warm air rises rapidly under low-pressure conditions

Rising ir draws up more air and large volumes of moisture from the ocean, causing strong winds

Coriolis effect causes the air to spin upwards around a calm central eye of the storm

As air rises, it cools and condenses to form large, towering cumulonimbus clouds which generate torrential rainfall. The heat given off when air cools and power the tropical

Cold air sinks in the eye so it's drier and calmer

Tropical storm travales across ocean in the prevailing wind

When tropical storm meets land, it is no longer by source of moisture and heat from the ocean so it loses power and weakens

Humidity

Absolute humidity - Measure of water vapour, regardless of temp

Relative humidity - Measure amount of water vapour relative to remp, percentage of total amount that could be in air relative to temp

Typhoon Haiyan

Facts

7th-11th Nov 2013

6,300 deaths

Hit Philippines primarily and the rest of SE Asia

Category 5 - 314 km/hr

Primary Impacts

7.5m strom surge

Tacloban city - 90% of buildings were destroyed

4.1 million homeless

14.1 million affected

Airport in Tacloban became unusable

Roads, bridges, electricity, communications were down

29,000 injured

Total damage was $12 billion

1.1 million tonnes of crops destroyed

Secondary Impacts

Looting, only 100 police showed up, 8 people died in looting

Some aid workers had to be pulled for safety because of looting

Hospitals had to be shut for sfaety because of safety concerns

Education disrupted

Oil tanker ran aground and caused 800,000 litre spill

Rice prices rose by nearly 12% by 2014

Flooding caused landslides

Immediate Responses

DEC & NGOs launched emergency appeals

Destroyed infrastructure meant only 20% were getting aid by mid Nov

Martial law introduced to prevent looting

5 days after it hit, residents still had m water or shelter

$788 million in UN fundraising

Foreign nations donated $500 million

Damages exceed $8 billion

800,000 people evacuated

1,200 evacuation centres set up

3 days after strom, airport reopened for aid

Long term responses

Oxfam replaced fishing boats

Cash for work program to clear debris and rebuilding Tacloban

$1.5b promised, 1/3 came through on the ground, damage was $8 billion

Reducing Effects

Monitoring

Satellites

Watches cloud pattern associated with tropical storms

Monitor rainfall eveyr 3 hours in the ITCZ to indeity high altitude clouds

Aircraft

Specially equipped aircraft fly through stroms at 10,000 feet

Collect air pressure, rainfall and wind speed

Drop dropsondes (sensors) which send measurements back every second by radio

Nasa monitor using two unmanned aircraft called Global Hawk drones over Atlantic, on board radar and microwaves

Prediction

1992-3 days warning, storm could be predicted +/- 480km

Now - 5 days warning +/- 400km

National Hurricane Centre (USA) predicts a tropical storm's path and intensity using a track cone

2013 - Cyclone Phailin in India, 1.2 million were evacuated, 21 died, 23 died in flash floods

1999 - Similar storm, 10,000 death

Planning

Tendencies to mitigate over prevent

Hard engineering

Install hurricane staps (galvanised metal) between roof and walls

Storm shutter

Emergency generator

Tie down windborne objects

Reinforce garage doors

Remove potentially dangerous trees

Sea walls

Soft Engineering

Salt marches, wetlands and mangroves can protect again storm surges

Trees reduce wind energy and trap debris (can be uprooted)

Planning

Preparing disaster supply kits

having fuel in vehicles

Knowing evacuation centres are

Storing loose objects

Coordinate with family

UK

The Environment Agency is responsible for monitoring the potential for flooding; they evaluate the risk of flooding and issue warnings for areas

Beast from the East

26th Feb-3rd March 2018 was the worst

Causes

Polar jet stream bringing warmer air was blocked

Led to an area of high pressure over Scandiavia and Arctic

Low pressure over Atlantic

Wind blpws from high to low and hnce over UK

Freezing temp brought to UK and Europe

Effects

Most of the UK was covered by snow

Ranging from 10-20cm in thesouth to 50cm in the north

Snow was dry and light so drifted in high winds

Below freezing almsot everywhere and -14 in Cairngorms

Strom Emma combined coming from the south, with rain and flooding

Impacts

At least 10 deaths

8000 road accidents occured over first 3 days

Glasgow airport close and flights delayed or cancelled

Many roads were blocked and traffic was standstill

Sheep farming in highland was badly affected (lambing season)

Food was scarce and crops ruined, farmers couldn't get ot livestock to feed them

Drove up food prices (feed for animals)

Hospitals badly affected with staff and patients unable to get there

Temporary shelters set up for rough sleepers

Schools shut

Electricity down and people couldn't be reached to fix

Electricity meant industries and services couldn't be performed

Responses

RAF was brought in to help relief efforts

10 RAF vehicles and crews transported doctors and stranded patients

M62 -Military provided support rescuing vehicles

Edinburgh - Soldiers deployed to transport 200 clinical staff to and from Western General Hospital and Ediburgh Royal Infirmary

20,000 dead