Earthquakes and volcanoes

An Earthquake: Christchurch, New Zealand

●​ Causes:

o​ An earthquake struck New Zealand’s South Island on 22nd February 2011 at 12.51pm.

o​ New Zealand is located on the plate boundary between the Australian (continental

crust) and Pacific plates (oceanic crust).

o​ The plate boundary moves in two ways- destructive and conservative.

o​ The epicentre was 10km away from Christchurch; the second highest populated city in

New Zealand

o​ Magnitude 6.3 on the Richter scale with a shallow focus earthquake (5km below the

surface)

●​ Short-term effects:

o​ 181 people were killed; over half of the deaths occurred in the 6-storey Canterbury

Television building when it collapsed and caught fire.

o​ Approximately 2000 people were treated for minor injuries.

o​ 80% of the city was without electricity.

●​ Long-term effects:

o​ Although many buildings did not collapse, some were demolished because they were

unsafe. Ten thousand houses would need to be rebuilt.

o​ Could no longer host the Rugby World Cup

o​ Overall economic cost = NZ$ 3.5billion

●​ Short-term Management:
o​ A full emergency response plan was in place within 2 hours of the earthquake

happening

o​ The Australian and New Zealand police enforced cordons and organised evacuations

o​ 27,000 chemical toilets were flown into the area as sanitation and sewerage works

were damaged.

●​ Long-term Management:

o​ Insurance companies paid $898 million in building claims.

o​ Text message alert systems in place.

o​ Buildings reinforced with flexible steel that moves with the ground during an earthquake

o​ Monitoring equipment is used to detect the movement of plates.

A Volcano: Eidfell, Iceland

●​ Causes:

o​ Iceland is located on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge.

o​ The North American and Eurasian plates move apart- called constructive plates.

o​ The disruption caused by Eidfell resulted from a series of small volcanic eruptions,

starting on the 20th of March and ending in October 2010.

●​ Short-term effects:

o​ The 150m thick ice cap melted, which caused major flooding to much of Iceland’s

infrastructure.

o​ 0 reported deaths.

o​ Airspace closed across Europe, with at least 17,000 flights a day being cancelled.

●​ Long-term effects:

o​ The eruption cost insurers £65million to customers with cancelled flights.

o​ The emergency services were prepared with advanced equipment.

o​ Iceland had a good warning system, with texts sent to residents with

a 30-minute warning.

o​ Large sections of European airspace were closed down due to ash spreading over the

continent.

●​ Long-term management:

o​ Eidfell has often triggered her larger sister volcano, Katla, to erupt after. As a result,

scientists are monitoring her closely.

o​ Insurance companies and airlines have reviewed their customers' policies.

o​ Some airlines have built ash monitoring equipment onto their aircraft for safety.

●​ Causes:

o​ An earthquake hit Japan’s main island on the 17th of January, 1995, at 05:46.

o​ Japan is located near the plate boundary between the Pacific Plate (Oceanic Crust), the

Philippines Plate (Oceanic Crust), and the Eurasian Plate (Continental Crust).

o​ The plate boundary is convergent. The Pacific Plate subducts under the Philippine

Plate, while the Philippine Plate subducts under Eurasian Plate.

o​ The epicentre was 20 kilometres from Kobe, Japan's seventh-largest city.

o​ The magnitude was 7.4 on the Richter scale with a shallow focus (17 kilometres under

the epicentre).

●​ Short-term effects:

o​ Over 6000 lives were lost.

o​ The majority of the deaths happened in the cities and suburbs.

o​ The earthquake caused nearly 300 fires.

o​ Over 80% of the citizens were left without gas.

●​ Long-term effects:

o​ The buildings were burned down gradually by the numerous fires

o​ Over 300,000 people were left homeless

o​ Over $100 billion worth of damage

o​ Many of the ports were destroyed, which led to a steep decrease in trading.

●​ Short-term management:

o​ Citizens swiftly evacuated from their homes and their city

o​ Many emergency services spent many days looking for survivors

o​ Rations were given to the citizens and the survivors

o​ The Japanese firefighters worked hard to put out the fires in the buildings

●​ Long-term management:

o​ Many people permanently moved out of Kobe into other cities

o​ Multiple jobs were created to rebuild the city, jobs such as builders, architects, and

many more

o​ The Japanese government made it mandatory for the new buildings to be more

resistant to earthquakes, including building shear walls and cross braces.

o​ More seismometers were built so that people could detect plate activity and predict

future earthquakes.
 An Earthquake: Kashmir, Pakistan

●​ Causes:

o​ In 2005, an earthquake measuring 7.6 on the Richter scale hit Kashmir, Pakistan.

o​ The Indian and Eurasian plates collided, causing an earthquake.

o​ Had a shallow focus (15 km below the surface)

●​ Short-term effects:

o​ Large cracks in the ground were formed

o​ Many buildings collapsed throughout the whole city

o​ Many fires were ignited

●​ Long-term effects:

o​ The sewage pipes exploded and contaminated the water pipes

o​ Since it was in the middle of the winter, the hard temperatures killed many people due to

the freezing temperatures.

●​ Short-term management:

o​ The government sent the army, firefighters and the police to help rescue people.

o​ Other countries sent food and shelter to help the victims.

o​ The citizens were evacuated out of the city.

●​ Long-term management:

o​ Many of the public buildings were rebuilt.

o​ The government invested money into rebuilding buildings to make them

earthquake-proof.

o​ Multiple jobs were created to rebuild the city.

o​ Many seismometers were built to detect any future earthquakes.