Case Studies

Boxing Day – Indian Ocean Tsunami 2004

- 9.3 Magnitude
- Largest since 1964 Alaska
- Longest Earthquake ever recorded
- 15 meters high

Where?
- West coast Sumatra, Indonesia
- Indian subducted by Burma
- 30km3 of water displaced
NO PREPERATION
After Effects
- 220,000 deaths in 14 countries
- Displaced more than 1.74 million
- 146,000 missing
- Cost Indonesia $4.4 billion, overall $8.71 billion, GDP loss more than 20%
- Nearly 2 million left homeless

Responses
- Indian Ocean – humanitarian aid needed, due to widespread damage
- Shortage of food, water
- Huge economic damage
- Nations provided US$14 billion
- Took years to recover

Environmental Disaster
- Severe damage to coral reefs, forests, animals, plant biodiversity and
groundwater
- Solid, liquid waste and chemicals
- Destruction of sewage collectors and treatment plants
- Freshwater and soil poisoned by saltwater
Japan – Tohoku 2011 Earthquake and Tsunami
- 9.0 Magnitude, aftershocks 7.2 M
- Subduction zone Pacific + North America
Preparation
- High tech warning system that wasn’t as good as it could have been
- Warning after 8 seconds
- Messages to 124 TV stations, 52 million phones
- Bullet trains and elevators halted = instant deaths
- No warnings to Tokyo
- Warning didn’t reach already evacuated and places of power outages
- 30-60 mins after most had n warning
After Effects
- 16,000 deaths
- 4500 missing
- 131,000 displaced
- Houses, buildings and bridges damaged
- $235 billion in damages, less than 4% of GDP
Responses
- It only took 6 days to repair the motorway
- Enormous capacity to cope, in less than 6 months the country was not
far from being back to normal.
Environmental Disaster
- Land subsidence
- Irrigation dam ruptured caused flooding
- Fukushima nuclear power plant went into meltdown
- Damage to crops and sewage quickly repaired
Christchurch – 2010
- 7.1 Magnitude, conservative plate margin
- NZs 2nd largest city, 367,700
- 12 degrees at 2pm
- 181 deaths
Economic
- Service sector
- High income trading
- Well connected
- Quality infrastructure and homes
Political
- Planning and Preparation
- Strict building regulations
- Quick reactions
- Services reinstalled
- Education and home survival kits
Social
- Literacy 99%
- Life Expectancy 82
- GDP $35,500
- Water 100%
- Health Care 100%
Environmental
- Regular seismic zone
- Alluvium floodplains
- Drained swamp

PAR Model
- Haiti is poor, resources spent on reducing poverty and not earthquake preparation
- High levels of corruption reduced improvements to infrastructure and living
standards
- Buildings poorly built because of lack of regulations
- Few people knew what to do due to a lack of education
 Haiti
- 7.0 Magnitude, Conservative plate boundary
- Caribbean, Port Au Prince with a population of 800,000 (dense)
- 27 degrees at 5pm (rush hour)
- Focus was very shallow (13km)
- Epicentre only 24km from capital Port-au-Prince

Economic
- Farming reliance
- Low income goods
- Poorly connected
- Poor infrastructure and homes

Political
- No planning/ Building regulations
- Reliance on oversea aid
- No government action for 5 days
- No education

Social
- Literacy 53%
- Life expectancy 62
- GDP $819
- Water 55%
- Health care 64%

Environmental
- First big quake for 200 years
- Regular hurricanes
- Poor soils
- Alluvium floodplains
 Philippines – 7107 Islands mainly mountains and coast
Population - 101 million
Wealth – GDP $7000, 25% population in poverty
A multi-hazard zone
- Volcanoes (47)
- EQ (ring of fire)
- Tsunamis = Pacific Ocean
- Typhoon (15 per year)
- Deforestation lead to landslides

Vulnerability
- Population, urbanisation and poverty
- Economical development = rapid urbanisation + high population density
- Poor mainly live in coastal areas

Mount Pinatubo - 1991

- Largest eruption in 50 years, caused evacuation and a 30km exclusion zone
- Two weeks before eruption, the government explained the risks of PF and lahars
- 4800 injured, 350 died (77 in lahars)
- 80,00h HA of farming land destroyed
- Losses $710 million

Guinsaugon Landsides – 2006

- Village in central Philippines
- Mudslides completely covered 3km2 and killed 1150 people
Causes Physical/Human
- 2000mm of rainfall in 10 days (dry season)
- 2.6 Magnitude Earthquake
- Deforestation reducing cover by 40% exposing soils
2006 Earthquake
- Hazard knock on
- Killed 5, injured 100 and destroyed 800 buildings
- 3-meter tsunami
- Landslides
- Flooding
Montserrat – 1993 Soufriere Hills (Caribbean)
Atlantic subducts beneath Caribbean

- Volcano began to erupt, ash and dust , this continued for 5 years. PF and
very little lava .
- Capital Plymouth still under 3 meters of ash
STILL ACTIVE

Impacts
- Dozens dead, 11,000 evacuated (perm)
- Capital destroyed
- 2/3 of houses buried in ash
- Tourist industry collapsed (unemployment)
- Farmland and rainforest destroyed
- Young emigrated, leaving an aging population

Eyjafjallajökull – Southern Iceland

- 13th April 2010
- Glaciated volcano
What happened?
- Atmospheric circulation caused ash clods that stopped flights in
Europe for one week
- 100,000 flights cancelled
- 10 million affected
- Loss $1.7 billion
- Kenya, green veg and flowers to Europe lost them US$1.3
million a day in revenue
Jokulhlaups
- 14th April = Eruption = Melted 200 m thick Ice Cap in hours
- 8.5 km high plume
- Rapid melting , Ring road damaged and Markarfijot evacuated
Nepalese Earthquake
- Nepal is very poor, half of its population lives in poverty
- The country’s infrastructure was severely damaged
- Many buildings collapsed in capital Kathmandu because they weren’t
built to withstand earthquakes
- Over 100 aftershocks followed, making rescue work more dangerous
- Mountainous areas had landslides making rescue in rural areas difficult
- Nepal’s emergency services were unable to cope and relied on overseas
countries and aid agencies
- Tourism fell after the earthquake, putting people out of work.
Chlie – MIC in South America
- GDP 2018 $24,500
- Nazca and SA plate (Ring of fire)
History of EQ
- A 5 Magnitude earthquake in Valdiria (1960)
- Left an estimated 5,000 dead
- This began a deep cultural appreciation for strict building codes, now has most
effective disaster relief infrastructures in the world, because of rigours building
codes, evacuation simulations and preparations
- Chile is now an example country on how to deal with earthquakes

- Strict building regulations = buildings less likely to fall down = less people likely to die

Coquimbo – September 16th, 2015, 8.4 Magnitude

- 4.5 Tsunami wave
- Debris in late evening in 150,000-person city
- 9 people killed in region, 4 else where
What did they do?
- Learn from experience
- 2010, more than 500 killed
- New warning system, costal areas rocked by sirenians
- 2010, an 8.8 Magnitude earthquake occurred, 6000 buildings were situated in the
affected area. Only 6 seriously damaged and only 4 need to be demolished.
- Minimum of 6 or 7 evacuations of entire regions prone to earthquakes and tsunamis
- Ambulances, FF and police arrive to help evacuate after a few minutes
- Mobile phones are targeted with a series of tsunami warning messages
- Buildings need to survive 9.0 Magnitude

Development isn’t always the main factor, governance however doesn’t always involve
wealth but involves coordinated and strong political will that learns to develop and improve
after each event
‘bounce back but bounce better’
Affects of an earthquake on a MEDC
- Northridge (LA)
- 4:30 AM, 17th January 1994
- Focus 18.4km
- Low death toll due to the earthquake occurring in the early morning
while people where still sleeping
Affects
- 57 deaths and 1500 injured
- 12,500 structures suffered serious damage
- 11 major roads closed due to damage
- Over 11,000 landslides triggered
- 20,000 people made homeless
- Around 700,000 applications to state assistance programs for financial
help.