First Long Exam – April 7

Module 1 submission – April 14

Only Module 1 would be answered, Modules 2-4 would no longer be required to answer – only
exams after

Plate Tectonics

Lithosphere

- The lithosphere is divided into plates; not solid but fragmental

o Pacific plate is the largest plate, North American plate is equally large
o Naming of the plates is based on the continent that it carries.
o The Philippines is located at the boundary of the Eurasian plate and the Philippine Sea
plate. As such, we expect a lot of volcanoes and earthquakes
- The lithosphere floats on the asthenosphere (part of the mantle)
- The lithosphere is rigid
- 1. Divergent plate boundary (opening up or moving apart)
- 2. Subduction plate boundary (going under another)
- 3. Transport boundary (displaces the mid-oceanic ridges)
- 90% of volcanoes are seen in mid-oceanic ridges
- You can form magma within plates

Plate Tectonics

- A synthesis of the Continental Drift theory and the Seafloor Spreading

o Exemplifies the scientific method

Continental Drift

- Alfred Wegener : 1912

- Multi-disciplinary evidence
- Met with skepticism (skepticism is healthy for scientists)
- Not new
o Abraham Ortelius; 1596
o A. Snider Pelligrini; 1858
- Evidence:
o Gonwanaland
 South America and Africa
o Pangaea
 Single land mass comprising
 Eurasia, the Americas, Africa, Australia, Antarctica, and India
o Distribution of fossils
 Glosopetris
  Fern-like plant
 Seeds too large to be airborne for long distances
 Found in Southern America,
o Matching rocks, mountains, and structures
o Paleoclimate indicators
 Coal deposits in Antarctica
 Coal from abundant plant life
 Present Antarctica covered with 1 km thick ice
 Fossil coral reefs in North America, Eurasia
 Marine, warm, clear waters
o Glaciation
o Apparent Polar Wandering Curves
 Assumption: The Earth has had only one North and South pole at any given time
- The Earth’s Magnetic Field
- Seafloor Spreading Theory
o Harry Hess and Robert Dietz
 By 1960’s, more and more data on seafloor topography became available (used
sonar)
 Hess and Dietz’ “geopoetry”: midoceanic ridges as site where seafloor spreads >
no supporting evidence
o F.J. Vines and D.H. Matthews, and L. Morley and A. Larochelle
 Teams working independently
 Paleomagnetic patterns as evidence for seafloor spreading
o Evidence
 Magnetic anomalies
 Polarity reversal
o For still unknown reasons,

Phanerozoic Era (540 – 245 Ma)

- Preservable body parts

- Dominance of marine invertebrates
- Plants colonize land by 540 Ma
- Animals colonize land by 450 Ma, insects
- Massive extinction towards end

Cambrian (540-505 Ma)

- Burgess Shale (Canada): well preserved soft-bodied animals

- Dominantly arthropods
- Most diverse and well-preserved fossil localities in the world
 - 1909 by Charles D. Walcott of the Smithsonian Institution
- Horse stopped in front of a rock which he cracked and opened, discovering the fossils
- Fossil-bearing unit; received little attention until 50 years later
- Alberto Simonella saw the importance of the Burgess Shale fauna
- 1967; the Cambridge project was initiated by Harry Whittington

Burgess Shale Fauna

- The locality reveals the presence of creatures originating from the Cambrian explosion, an
evolutionary burst of animal origins
- Comprised of more than 140 species in 119 genera
- Majority of species are benthic (bottom-dwelling)

Burgess Shale

- Excellent preservation has resulted in a large number of soft-bodied organisms being found
(about 60%-80%)
o Don’t have preservable hard parts
- Have been preserved because of a giant submarine landslide; buried alive by sediments being
deposited
- Mostly arthropods but worms, crinoids, cucumbers, and chordates are abundant; fossils are
extinct forms and represent an evolutionary experiment in design and diversity

Life was restricted to the world’s oceans. During this period, the breaking up of Rodinia happened. Land
was barren. Sediments were deposited in a deep-water basin adjacent to an enormous algal reef with a
vertical escarpment several hundred meters high.

Burgess Shale Fauna (examples)

Anomalocaris

- Largest soft-bodied predator (0.5 m in length)

- Body was flanked by 11 pairs of fins which were used to propel the animal through water
- Was probably a swimmer but could have rested on the seafloor at times

Marrella splendens

- Small “arthropod” somewhat reminiscent of a trilobite, but with several distinctive features
- One of the most common fossils in the Burgess Shale and was possibly the first soft-bodied
organism noticed by Walcott
- Smaller than a cockroach

Trilobites: early arthropod representatives

Ottoia
 - Priapulid worm
- Carnivorous and lived in a burrow like modern priapulids (probably)
- One of the largest and most abundant worms in the Burgess Shale
- Also called “penis worms”

Aysheaia pedanculata

- Soft-bodied, caterpillar-shaped organism with an average boy length of 10-60 mm

Burgess bella

- Averaged 10 mm in diameter and contained a branching system in the caraprace that was
composed of a series of canals

Sidneyia inexpectans

- One of the largest arthropods found and was named by Walcott after his oldest son, Sidney

Opabinia

- Small animal (4 cm in length)

- May range from 40-70 mm
- Five eyes found on the dorsal surface of the head
- Because of its flexible body, it is unclear if it was pelagic or benthic

Hallucigenia

- Only 40 specimens are known

- The name refers to its bizarre and dream-like appearance
- Seven pairs of walking spines, seven tentacles on the dorsal surface were used to grasp food
with

Wiwaxia

- Resembles a mollusk in having a well-developed radula

- Does not really fit the conchifera because of its selerites (armor of flattened, chitinous spines)
but rather the class Aplacophora
- Actual classification is controversial

Pikaia gracilens

- Regarded as the earliest known primitive chordate

- 40 mm in length and swam above the sea floor
- May have filtered particles from the water as it swam along
- Only 60 specimens have been found to date

Why diversification/extinction in Cambrian?

- Rising oxygen levels

- Absence of predators
- Genetic innovation
 - Artifact of the fossil record
- Extinction due to glaciation

What is so remarkable about the Vendian and Cambrian events?

- In a short span of geologic time, complex and mobile creatures appeared in the rock record
- These animals have differentiation of cells each with distinct form and function which was not
present in earlier unicellular life which existed for most of the first billion years of earth history

Paleozoic Era
Index Fossils

- A fossil that identifies and dates the strata which it is found; especially any fossil taxon that
combines morphologic distinctiveness with relatively common occurrence and that has a broad,
even worldwide geographic range and a narrow or restricted stratigraphic range
- Best samples include swimming or floating organisms that evolved rapidly and were distributed
widely

Ordovician Period (505 – 436 Ma)

- Diverse marine invertebrates (e.g., trilobites, brachiopods)

- Appearance of coral fossils, but reef ecosystem is dominated by algae and sponges
- Jawless armored fish became common (ostracoderms – appeared during the Late Cambrian)
- Colonization of land: cells, cuticle, and spores of early land plants (first non-vascular plants)

Silurian Period (436 – 408 Ma)

- Widespread radiation of crinoids and brachiopods

- Oldest known coral reefs (Silurian and Devonian Period were times of major reef building)
- Reefs are dominated by tabulate and colonial rugose corals and stromatoporoids
- First jawed fish (acanthodians; Lower Silurian); jawless armored fish became abundant
- First known freshwater (non-marine) fish fossil
- Colonization of land
o First land animals (arthropods; millipedes are the oldest land animals)
o First vascular plants and widespread non-vascular plants

Devonian Period (408 – 360 Ma) “Age of Fish”/ Rapid diversification in fish

- Abundant acanthodians; placoderms (heavily-armored jawed fish) also became abundant

- Besides the two fish groups, cartilaginous and bony fish also evolved during the Devonian
- Extinction of ostracoderms at the end of Devonian
- Coral reefs: tabulate and rugose corals
- Colonization of land
o Many new kind of insects (e.g., scorpions, flightless insects)
o Amphibians: ichthyostega
 o Diverse seedless vascular plant flora (first seedless forests)
o First seed plants (seed ferns: Late Devonian)

Carboniferious Period (360 – 286 Ma)

- Rich deposits of coal in North America, China, Russia (from prolific plants)
- Lower Carobiferous – Mississippian; Upper Carboniferous = Pennsylvanian
- Coal swamps with flora of seedless vascular plants (club mosses, horsetails, and ferns) and
gymnosperms
- Gymnosperms appear (Mississippian, although may have evolved during the Late Devonian)
- First winged insects (note: some very large)
- First reptiles (evolution of the amniote egg); amphibians became common
- Armored fish became extinct
- Gshelia sp. (rugose coral)

Permian Period (286 – 245 Ma)

- Gymnosperms diverse and abundant

- Many new species of insects
- Amphibians and reptiles dominant
- Atmospheric levels of oxygen reached modern-day values
- Formation of the supercontinent Pangea
- Largest mass extinction event at the end
- Continents were joined together as the supercontinent Pangea
- Large Panthalasa (ancient Pacific) ocean and the Tethys Ocean
- Vast deserts covered western Pangea during the Permian as reptiles spread across the face of
the supercontinent

What was life in the Permian?

- Animals and plants were happy

- Permian reef scene teemed with a wide variety of invertebrates such as sponges, corals,
gastropogs (marine snails), and brachiopods (unequal bivalveS). Ammonids, nautiloids (both,
nautilus relatives) and fish comprised the nektons (animals that live in the water column
- The warm shallow Permian oceans provided a nurturing environment for many types of marine
life
- Extensive reefs were built by sponges, bryozoans, and brachiopods instead of corals like today
- Life was flourishing on the Earth about 250 mya, then during a brief of geologic time, nearly all
of it was wiped out

Mass Extinction

- 90-95% of all species

- No clear cause for extinction
- Permo-Triassic extinctions were concentrated initially on the marine biosphere
- Land organisms seem to be less affected by the event
 Mesozoic Era (245 – 65 Ma)

- Dominance of reptiles and dinosaurs

- Start of split up of Pangea by Jurassic period
- Climate cooler and wetter as Pangea splits

Triassic Period (245 – 208 Ma)

- Seas are repopulated by invertebrates that survived the Permian extinction event
- Mollusks (bivalves) became the dominant aquatic invertebrates
- First dinosaurs; flying and marine reptiles also evolved
- Evolution of modern corals
- First mammals (evolve from mammal-like reptiles called therapsids; Late Permian)
- Fragmentation of Pangea begins in Late Triassic

Jurassic Period (208 – 144 Ma)

- Ammonites and belemnoid cephalopods increase in diversity

- Appearance of rudist bivalves; scleractinian coral reefs became common
- Dinosaurs became dominant on land; time of giant sauropod dinosaurs
- First birds (although may have evolved in the Late Triassic)
- First flowering plants (Late Jurassic – Early Cretaceous)
- Fragmentation of Pangea continues

Archaeopteryx

- Solnhofen Limestone in Germany

Important Mesozoic Calcareous Microplankton

Coccolithophores (Calcerous Nannofossils)

Planktonic Foraminifera

Cretaceous Period (144 – 65 Ma)

- Continued diversification of ammonites and belemnoids

- Rudists became major reef builders
- Placental and marsupial mammals diverge; dinosaurs still dominant
- Seedless plants and gymnosperms still common but angiosperms evolved and diversified rapidly
- Co-evolution of flowering plants and insect pollinators
- Opening of the Atlantic Ocean
- Extinction of ammonites, rudists, planktonic foraminifera, dinosaurs, flying and marine reptiles,
and some marine invertebrates

Dinosaurs

- “terrible lizards”
- Land reptiles that lived from the Late Triassic to the Cretaceous (65 – 230 mya)
 - Arose from the thecodonts of the archosaur group of reptiles to become the most dominant
vertebrates on land in the Mesozoic
- Evolution of the archosaurs (“ruling reptiles”) is a very significant event in the history of life on
land, since they not only led to the evolutions of dinosaurs and birds, but also to the pterosaurs
and crocodiles

The dinosaurs are divided into two groups based on the differences of their pelvic bones:

- The Ornithischian (bird-hipped) dinosaurs

- The Saurischian (lizard-hipped)
- Notice that the birds (Aves) arose from the lizard-hipped line and not the bird-hipped line

Ornithischian Dinosaurs

1. Stegosaurus (Tiled Lizard or Armed Lizard)

a. Late Jurassic and Cretaceous
b. 7 to 9 meters
c. 2 tons
d. North America (Colorado, Oklahoma, Utah, Wyoming)
2. Triceratops
a. Cretaceous
b. 9 to 11 meters
c. Between 6 and 8 tons
d. North America
3. Ankylosaurus
a. Late Cretaceous
b. 10 meters
c. North America (Alberta, Canada & Montana, USA)
4. Hadrosaurus
a. Late Cretaceous
b. 9 meters
c. North America (South Dakota, Montana, New Jersey, New Mexico)

Saurischian Dinosaurs (Lizard-Hipped Dinosaurs)

1. Tyrannosaurus
a. Late Cretaceous
b. 12 to 16 meters in length
c. 6 meters tall
d. 7 tons
e. North America (Alberta, Montana, Saskatchewan, Texas, and Wyoming) and Asia
(Mongolia)
2. Apatosaurus = Brontosaurus
a. Late Jurassic
b. 20 to 25 meters in length
c. 4 meters in height
d. 30 to 40 tons
 e. North America (Colorado, Oklahoma, Utah, and Wyoming)
f. First genus was named in 1879 by Othniel Charles Marsh but Elmer Riggs saw that the
Brontosaurus was the same as the older Apatosaurus so the rules of scientific
nomenclature dictate that the oldest name be used.
g. New study suggests that a Brontosaurus is different since it has a longer and more
slender neck
3. Compsognathus
a. Jurassic
b. 60 cm
c. 30 kg
d. Southern Germany and France
4. Oviraptor
a. Late Cretaceous
b. 1.8 meters
c. Asia (Mongolia)

Earliest known bird: Archaeopteryx

- Late Jurassic
- 35 cm
- Sonhofen, Germany
- Clear immediate between small predatory theropod dinosaurs and more advanced birds
- Almost identical with small dinosaurs in its skull, long tail, and hind limbs, and details of the
wrist and ankle
- True bird relations are shown in its wishbone, elongate fingers, and feathers

The term dinosaurs is not used for flying reptiles which are called (pterosaurs)

Pterosaurs

1. Pteranodon
a. Late Cretaceous
b. 7 meters spread
c. 17 kg
d. North America (Kansas) and Europe (England)
2. Pterodactylus
a. Late Jurassic
b. 75 centimeters spread
c. Africa (Tanzania) and Europe (Germany, France, and England)
3. Rhamphorhyncus
a. Late Jurassic
b. 1 meter in length
c. Africa (Tanzania) and Europe (Germany)
4. Pterodaustro
a. Late Jurassic
b. 1.2 meters spread
c. South America (Argentina)
Nor is the term “dinosaurs” used for the large marine reptiles that lived during that time

Marine Reptiles

1. Plesiosaurus
a. Jurassic
b. 2.43 m
c. Europe (Germany and England)
2. Ichthyosaurus
a. Jurassic
b. 2 m
c. Europe (Germany and England)
3. Mixosaurus
a. “mixed reptile”
Geohazards

Geology and Society: Challenges

- Dwindling non-renewable resources

- Environmental degradation
- Human survival and the threat of geologic hazards

Geohazard

- Potentially destructive process that could harm man and his resources
- Natural or man-made

Disaster

- Function of hazard, people and resources at risk

- No people and risk means no disaster
- No hazard means no disaster

Earthquakes

- The vibration of the earth, caused by the rupture and sudden movement of rocks that have
been strained beyond their elastic limits
- Elastic Rebound Theory
o Elastic strain is recoverable portion
o Stress --> rupture or slip and elastic rebound
o Slip on old fault when stress > friction
o New fault when stress > strength
o Slip rate and recurrence interval
 Rate of motion
 Friction or strength
- Classified if the focus is shallow, mid depth, or deep. The most destructive is the shallow
earthquake.
- As Palawan is located on an midcontinental block that split from mainland Asia, earthquakes are
uncommon and so are trenches

Earthquake Generators

- For tectonic earthquakes

o Plate boundaries (subduction zones, mid-oceanic ridges, transform faults)
o Active faults (have shown movement in the last 10 000 years)
o Volcanic earthquakes
 As magma rises, it displaces rocks, fractures rocks, and may cause frequent
earthquakes
 However, the magnitude of these earthquakes is weak and do not necessarily
cause damage
- Philippines is being squeezed due to dipping subduction zones formed the Philippine fault
o The Philippine Fault is an active fault
  People look at the valley fault system which has not been moving for a long time
meaning that it is storing elastic energy (Big One)
o If all the earthquake epicenters (last 100 years) are plotted on the map, the Philippines
would look peppered with dots

Earthquake Hazards

1. Ground rupture
2. Ground shaking
a. Collapse of structures
b. Pancake effect for multistory buildings
3. Liquefaction
a. Occurs in areas underlain by soft and unconsolidated materials containing water (water
is remobilized due to the shaking and the material acts similar to quicksand)
4. Fire
a. Indirect effect
b. Can be devastating
i. Underground gas pipes
5. Landslides and related downslope movement
6. Subsidence (similar to liquefaction)
7. Flooding due to dam failure

Tsunamis

- Earthquakes may produce tsunamis when occurring at a sea especially when vertical movement
is involved
- Sea water recedes when a tsunami approaches
- Can also be generated by submarine landslides, underwater volcanic activity, and bolide impacts
- Engineering solutions:
o Shear wall and use of reinforced concrete and steel
o Redundancy/regular shape in architecture
 Intelligent buildings?
 Computer controlled dampeners
 Shock absorbers between buildings
 Design: natural ground vs building frequency
o Building “heart beat” and resonance
 High frequency means more shaking of small buildings
 Less frequency means more shaking of tall buildings

Earthquake Prediction

- Preparedness is emerging as an alternative

o Seismic risk map
o Strict building code
 o Zoning and land use
- Unusual animal behavior can function as an earthquake warning
- Use of Side Aperture Radar (SAR) interferometry and GPS which looks into the deformation of
rocks and the ground
- Precursors
o Stage I – Buildup of elastic strain
o Stage II – Dilatancy deformation of rocks
o Stage III – Influx of water
o Stage IV – Earthquake
o Stage V – Sudden drops in stress followed by aftershocks

- Use of seismic gaps (earthquakes are more likely to occur in areas without any recent
earthquakes due to build up of elastic energy)

Issues and Problems

1. How to evacuate megacities?

a. Transport for millions of people
b. To where? How far?
c. Evacuation route?
d. Traffic jam management?
e. Food and drink for millions? How long? (Emergency bag containing money, water, food,
flashlight, radio, and other important things)
2. Who will be left behind?
a. Security of properties?

How do you measure the strength of an earthquake?

1. Earthquake Intensity – qualitative measure (descriptive); effects on the Earth’s Surface and on
humans and their structures (post-earthquake); for the same earthquake, intensity varies with
distance from the epicenter and type of underlying rock (the less solid, the more shaky)
2. Earthquake Magnitude – quantitative measure, in terms of absolute amount of energy released;
for any one earthquake, there is only one magnitude
Volcanoes

- Are formed along plate boundaries

- Convergent and divergent plate boundaries
- Some are not formed along plate boundaries but in the middle of places such as the volcanoes
in Hawaii which are hotspot volcanoes
- Around 1500 potentially active volcanoes globally excluding volcanoes on the ocean floor and
along mid-oceanic ridges
- Form when tectonic plates collide and one plate is pushed beneath the other (convergent)
o Partial melting occurs when water from the subducted oceanic sediment lowers the
melting temperature of the mantle giving rise to melt
- When tectonic plates move away from another (divergent)
o The compression occurs when confining pressure is released due to plate separation.
Hot magma rises from the mantle at the mid-oceanic ridges pushing the plates apart as
molten rock rises to the surface and erupts in volcanoes.
- In the middle of plates, some areas of the mantle have anomalously high temperatures which
give rise to hotspots or hotspot activity.
o Some of the voluminous eruptions were formed from hotspot volcanoes such as the
Deccan Traps associated with the extinction of the dinosaurs as well as the Siberian
Traps

Hotspots

- Plates move as hotspots remain stationary on top of a magma source

- Hawaii islands are formed from a hotspot (Emperor Seamound)
Volcanoes are compared not by the number of casualties but by the amount of magma released in a
single episode

What causes volcanic eruptions?

- Internal factors
o Vesiculation or degassing of magma (buoyancy and pressure of magma)
o Influx of fresh magma supply
- External factors
o Load pressing
o Tectonic pressures
o Ocean tides and earth tides

What comes out of a volcano?

- Lava
- Pyroclasts = tephra (fragments) [ejected through air] e.g., pumice
- Volcanic gases
- Si, O. Al. Fe. Mg, K, P

Eruption products

- Pyroclast (fire-broken)
- Explosive eruptions
- Volcanic bombs as large as a car or house or as fine as sand
- Pumice – lava with very high-water content is discharged from a volcano and cools and hardens
- Volcanic gases
o Water, CO2, H2S, N, Ar, He, methane, carbon monoxide, H
 Most toxic among them is hydrogen sulfide (H2S) which can be fatal when
inhaled in large quantities
 May be released silently without a magmatic eruption

Types of Eruptions

1. Explosive
a. Gas driven explosions that propels magma and tephra (i.e., Mt. Pinatubo)
2. Effusive
a. Outpouring of lava without significant explosive activity (i.e., Kilauea in Hawaii)

*types of eruptions were traditionally named after the name of the volcanoes where the processes were
initially observed* (Hawaiian, Strombolian, Vesuvian)

*other types were based on the modes of eruption (phreatic, creatic, Plinian [from Pliny the Younger,
Vesuvius])
Scientists (especially in the 1980s) found it more convenient to classify eruptions into the two
aforementioned types

Volcano Explosivity Index (VEI) to classify volcanic eruptions

June 15, 1991

- Mt. Pinatubo Plinian eruption

o Plinian is the most explosive type of eruption in which a stream of ash and gas is
violently ejected over 25 km above the crater of the volcano
o Diameter of the plume at 1600 hours was roughly 600 km across (this was the peak)

Caldera

- Volcano with a crater greater than 2 km in diameter (e.g., Taal, Laguna de Bay, Crater Lake,
Oregon)
- Largest volcanic landform on Earth
- Large depression formed by the collapse of a large area due to the emptying of the magma
chamber in a short period of time (days to weeks), a result of a large volcanic eruption
- Only the middle lobe of Laguna lake is being claimed as a caldera; Laguna caldera is much older
than Taal
- Latest caldera activity of Taal was 5000 years ago

Huge Rhyolitic Eruptions

- Volcanoes can be classified based on the volume of magma released

Volcanic Hazards

- Lava flows
o Mainly by burial wherein land may be useless for decades
o Hawaii has used this as a tourist attraction
- Tephra fall/ash fall and ballistics
o Collapse of roofs
o Crop damage
o Eye irritant
o Respiratory problems
o A volcanic eruption beneath glacial ice in Iceland in 2010 produced a lot of ash which
was carried into some of the busiest airspaces of Europe
o Global cooling as ash particles absorb the sunlight. The 1991 Pinatubo eruption
increased aerosol optical depth levels in the stratosphere by a factor of 10 to 100 times
normal levels measured prior to the eruption. Over the next 15 months, scientists
measured a decrease in global temperatures of about 0.6 C
- Pyroclastic flows and pyroclastic surges (PDCs)
o Also known as pyroclastic density currents (PDCs)
o Hot solid (+/- liquid) in gas dispersion
o As fast dense currents
o Burial and erosion
o May reach speeds of up to 700 km/hr
- Volcanic gases
o August 21, 1986, Lake Nyos, Cameroon
 Slow release of dormant volcano
  Bottom of lake in crate suddenly overturned and released CO2 (100 000 - 300
000 tonnes) which is heavy and hugged the ground suffocating
 Gas cloud initially rose at 100 km/hr but descended due to being
heavier than air
- Lahars
o Burial and erosion
 Nevado del Ruiz
 Mayon Volcano
 Lahar flow along with typhoon Reming
- Debris avalanches, landslides, and tsunamis
o Mt. St. Helens
 Collapse of the northern flank of the mountain
 Magma pushed it at around 5 meters per day
 Magnitude 4.2 earthquake, morning of March 20, 1980 signaled the
reawakening of Mt. St. Helens
o Signature topography of an avalanche is called Hummocky topography
- Crater lake/mountain lake breaching
o Mt. Pinatubo Maraunot notch broke releasing 6.5 x 10^7 cubic meters of water
 Locus of a fault line so this may be the reason why

Recent eruptions

1. Taal Volcano – January 12, 2020

a. Second most active volcano in the Philippines
b. 34th historic eruption
c. More than 30 vents clustered in the volcanic island excluding the submarine vent found
at the base of the lake
d. Phreatic eruption centered around its main crater
e. Spewed ash around 15 km high above the crater going to CALABARZON and Metro
Manila and some parts of Central Luzon and the Ilocos Region

Philippine Volcanoes

- 23 active volcanoes and more than 400 inactive

- Most active is Mayon with 58 historical eruptions
- 7 active volcanoes are being monitored by PHILVOLCS
- Most active volcanoes are subduction related; exotic types also exist (e.g., Amoguis volcano in
Palawan)

Volcano Monitoring

- Volcano observatories are set up on all active volcanoes that threaten the human population.
These are designed to monitor and potentially to predict the eruptive behavior of the volcano in
question
o Seismicity*
 Earthquake activity commonly precedes a volcano
 Result of magma pushing up towards the surface
  Increase volume of material in the volcano shatters the rock
 This causes the earthquakes
 Measured by seismographs stationed at the flanks of the volcano
 Record frequency, duration and intensity of the earthquakes and report
it back to the volcano observatory
o Ground deformation*
 Tiltmeters are used to measure the deformation of a volcano
 The tiltmeters measure changes in the slope as small as one part per million. A
slope change of one part per million is equivalent to raising the end of a board
one kilometer long with only one millimeter
 Tiltmeters can tell scientists when new material enters the magma chambers
 Note the presence of earthquakes in relation to the deformation. Often
it is a combination of events that fore-warns of an eruption. Sometimes
manifest in the cracking of rocks
o Geophysical measurements
o Hydrology
o Gas monitoring*
 Commonly, gas output from a volcano increases or changes composition before
an eruption
 As magma rises to the surface it releases (exsolves) much of its gas
content
o May come from the main vent or from surrounding vents
o A dormant volcano may vent gas even when there is no
eruption as the magma deep down in the crust still releases gas
but not in the position to erupt
o New magma may release different types of gas which signals
that an eruption may occur
 Collected from fumaroles and active vents
 Gas levels may also be monitored by remote sensing techniques
o For example: The amount of sulfur dioxide released by a
volcano can be measured directly by correlation spectrometer
or cospec as the spectrometer measures the light coming
through the volcanic plume to a known spectra of sulfur dioxide
therefore measuring the SO2 levels of the plume
Mass Wasting

Landslide

- General term for rapid downslope movements/failure

Mass Wasting

- General and includes slow movements (creep, slow flows)

o Mass Wasting / Slope Failure / Landslides
 All downslope movements of rock and sediment that occurs at the surface of
the Earth (also underwater) in response to gravity
 Speeds range from extremely fast to extremely slow

Classification of Landslides

- Based on the type of materials involved, the speed (velocity) of movement, and the type of
mechanism of downslope movement
- Downslope movement
o Gravity-driven
o Types
 Fall
 Topple
 Flow
 Slide
 Subsidence
- What types of material are involved?
o Rock – a hard or firm mass that was intact and in its natural place before the initiation of
movement
o Soil – an aggregate of minerals and rocks that was either transported or was formed by
the weathering of rock in place
 Earth – 2mm particles > 80%
 Debris – 2mm particles < 20%

How fast does a landslide move?

- Very slow (creep)

- Moderate (slumps and earthflows)
- Rapid to very rapid (rockfalls and avalanches)
Fall

- Common in rugged terrains where slopes are oversteepened by processes such as wave erosion
and undercutting by streams and rivers or road cuts
o Examples are the rock falls along the Colorado river, and Halsema highway
Topple

- Involves the forward rotation and movement of rocks which could be ice out of the slope at a
point or at an axis
- Common where there is a pronounce vertical or steeply dipping discontinuity in a rock
formation
- Example is the Chaco canyon

Slide

- Two types are rotational and translational

- Rotational type
o Rotation is involved
o Usually on surfaces concavely upward, parallel to the ground
- Translational type
o Movement is along a shear plane with little rotation or back tilting
o Usually falling material is intact as it moves down the slope (a single unit or a group of
clustered units as a relatively coherent mass)
- Occurs when there is a distinct zone of weakness that separates the slide material from the
more stable underlying material

Spread

- Landslides that form on gentle slopes or flat slopes that have rapid, fluid-like movement similar
to water
- Common with lose sediments consisting of sand, clay, and silt, that are found along fluvial and
coastal environments

Flow

- Can be wet or dry

- involve the movement of material down a slope in the form of a fluid
- often leave behind a distinctive upside-down funnel shaped deposit where the landslide
material has stopped moving

Creep

- slowest kind of landslide

- definite steady movement of soil under the direction of low shear stresses
- can occur in gentle slopes
- when clay in the soil on a hillside absorbs water, it will expand causing the soil to swell. As the
clay dries and contracts, the particles settle slightly in the downhill direction in which slow creep
movements can proceed an initial failure of a slope (may be a precursor to a large landslide)

Complex Types

- different mechanisms (can be a combination of the aforementioned types)

- can transition from one type to another (sliding to falling to avalanching)
- commonly those of large volume
The largest landslides are those that occur underwater near the borders of the volcanic chain islands of
Hawaii. Mauna Kea rises at 4205 meters above sea levels but extends around 6 000 meters under sea
water

Angle of Repose

- maximum slope angle at which the material is stable

- landslide involve driving forces and resisting forces
- driving forces – mass, gravity, pore pressure
- resisting forces – inertia, friction, cohesion

The effect of water

Water plays an important role in controlling the stability of a slope. A small amount of water in a
pore space that is mostly occupied by air produces a capillary force which holds particles together,
resulting in more cohesion, and allowing a greater angle of repose A large amount of water occupying all
the pore space exerts pressure on the particles (pore pressure), keeping them apart and allowing them
to flow more readily, reducing cohesion.

Slope stability

- determined from the Factor of Safety (F.S.)

F.S.

- resisting force/driving force of RF/DF

RF

- measured in the lab and DF calculated using trigonometry

If F.S. > 1, then RF > DF and the slope is stable

Most building codes require a F.S. of 1.5 or greater

Triggers: Water Input

Water infiltrating into unstable slope increases pore pressure (“loosens” particles) and adds more
weight to the slope, favoring failure

Triggers: Earthquakes

Ground shaking due to earthquake activity can facilitate slope failure. The Nevados Huascaran, Peru,
1970 is considered the deadliest avalanche with around 70 000 dead. Another example of a landslide
triggered by an earthquake is the Northridge earthquake in California last 1994. October 16, 2019
magnitude 6.4 triggered the Barangay Bato landslides in Cotabato (earthflow). The Iburi-Tobu
earthquake (magnitude 6.6) on September 6, 2018 triggered hundreds of landslides in Hokkaido.

How do human activities increase the frequency of landslides?

1. Deforestation, cultivation and construction

2. Construction/earthwork (e.g., by altering the shape of a slope, oversteepening of slopes)
3. Road cuts, blasting and quarrying (open-pit mining operations)
4. Vibrations from machinery or traffic
5. Buildings and structures on a naturally unstable slope (adding load)
6. Irrigation, watering the lawn, using septic tank for sewage disposal
7. In shallow soils, the removal of deep-rooted vegetation that binds colluvium to bedrock
8. Agricultural or forestry activities (logging), and urbanization, which change the amount of water
infiltrating the soil

Human activities can increase the risk of landslides in a number of ways.

Slope over-steepening to produce more level surfaces is one mechanism which can lead to slope
instability and mass wasting.

Addition of water through irrigation, septic systems, artificial ponds, or leaky in-ground pools, etc.,
loosens up slope material and adds weight, promoting slope failure.

Devegetation concentrates surface runoff and enhances erosion, resulting in sleeper slope. Reduced
interception and evaporation increases the amount of water in ground.

Living with landslides

- 25 to 50 lives are lost as a result of landslides in the US every year

- In the Philippines, many landslides are associated with tropical cyclones and monsoon rains;
casualties probably of the same range except for massive single-event landslides which resulted
to more than 1000 deaths
- Landslide-related property damage in the US is on the order of $1-2 billion each year
Recognizing past mass movements/landslides

- Scars; barren or lack of vegetation

- Disrupted topography
- Historical records of past avalanche
- Records of the character of past volcanic activity – debris avalanche
- Tilted vegetation (in creep)
- Cracks in driveways, garage floors, freestanding brick or concrete walls, or buildings; cracks in
walls or ceilings

What can be done to prevent (or correct) landslides?

1. Identify potential hazard

a. Map unstable areas; consult a geologist
b. Avoid landslide-prone areas; zoning
2. Slope reduction and revegetation
3. Use of retention structures
a. Vertical piles on the toe of landslides
b. Buttress such as gabions or retaining walls
c. Rock bolts to stabilize rocky slopes
4. Removing fluid
5. Chemical treatment
a. Reconstitution of materials in the slope
Landslide Hazard Maps

- Indicate the possibility of landslides throughout a given area

- It may be as simple as a map that uses the locations of old landslides to indicate potential
instability, or as complex as a quantitative map incorporating probabilities based on variables
such as rainfall thresholds, slope angle, soil type, and levels of earthquake shaking
- An ideal landslide hazard map shows not only the chances that a landslide may form at a
particular place, but also the chance that it may travel downslope at a given distance

Mitigation Measures

- Keeping water out

o Short-term precaution against further water input and erosion
o Drains and trenches keep water from infiltrating the top of a slump
o Revegetation and drainage
- Revegetation
- Retaining structures
- Ground anchoring
o Bolting across a plane of weakness
o Drilling to install rock bolts and water pressure monitors (piezometers)
 - Shelters
o In some landslides or avalanche-prone areas, slope stabilization is impractical due to the
scale of the unstable slope. This is particularly true for roads in mountainous areas. In
this case, sheds are used to divert slides from the roads (and people on it).

Some people use Vertiver grass in Tagaytay highlands for slope stability

Vertiver is a sterile seeds usually used for soil and water conservation. The grass forms a dense and
permanent hedge that prevents soil erosion. The roots are useful for treating contaminated land and for
slope retention

Flooding

River Flooding

- Occurs when the water from a river overflows

Drainage Basin Watershed

At the top of the system (near the mountains) water moves fast (higher competence) which tends to
form v-shaped channels while they move slower when nearing the coast. Near the coastal channels (or
the main river channel), it would usually be u-shaped with extensive floodplains. Channels upstream are
relatively straight but those closer to coastal areas tend to meander due to the loss of velocity.

Floodplains are frequently flooded

Causes of River Flooding

- Excessive rainfall
- Limited river channel capacity
o Width
o Depth
o Gradient
- Dam failure

Run off

- Water from rainfall that remain on the surface of the Earth and eventually flows into streams
- Run off = precipitation – infiltration – interception – evaporation
Natural Levees

- Build-up along the river bank due to deposition of suspended sediment during floods with each
flood levee is built higher and discharge must be higher for the next flood to occur
- Unfortunately due to siltation, the river channel could be filled with sediments which could
increase the chances of flooding

Floodplains

- Alluvial surface adjacent to a channel that is frequently flooded

Flooding

- Riverine flooding
o Overtopping of river banks
- Precipitation = Infiltration + Evapotranspiration + Runoff
- Why urbanization and flooding go together?
o Lot of concrete therefore less infiltration and no trees for evapotranspiration
Community Based Disaster Risk Management Process

1. Organizing the technical working group

2. Training community leaders and members
3. Early warning system preparation
a. Prepare hazard maps before doing so
4. Community drills
5. Community reforestation and revegetation
Disaster Risk Reduction: Problems and Challenges in the Philippines

- Mitigation and preparedness

- Prediction and forecasting hazards

Organizational Issues

- Minimal institutional linkages between government agencies, academe, and other sectors
- National government programs (led by NDCC-OCD)
- E.g., geohazards mapping – mainly government agencies are involved (MGB, PHILVOLCS,
PAGASA, NAMRIA)
- Uncoordinated efforts

Capabilities and Capacities

- Very few research scientists

- Government agencies have very few research scientists
- E.g., some government agencies tasked in certain geohazards have limited capabilities
- Only four universities offer geology courses
- Geoscientists is not an attractive career
- Many engineers but few are engaged in research
- Engineers are not tapped to help in geohazard assessment

Public Awareness

- Disaster science has not permeated to grassroots level

 - People continue to live in hazardous areas – socio-economic condition, cultural (most vulnerable
are the marginalized)

Hazardous Earth Materials

- Asbestos - cancer
- Radon – cell damage
- Zeolite - cancer
- Cinnabar – Minamata disease

Extraterrestrial Hazards: Meteorites

- Mass extinction at 65 Mya involved in the extinction of the dinosaurs

Dealing with Geologic Hazards: Preparedness

Science-side

- Correct forecast
- Effective warnings
- Hazard maps

Socio-political side

- Implementation of land-use plans

- Public awareness
- Willingness of public officials and public to follow precautions