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