CASE STUDIES:

EARTHQUAKE:

GORKHA EARTHQUAKE
● Nepal (landlocked country)
● April 2015, 11:26am
● Magnitude: 7.8
● Epicentre 80km off of Kathmandu in Gorka District
● Over 300 aftershocks after earthquake

CAUSE

● Nepal is located on a collision boundary between the Indian and Eurasian plate

EFFECT
● Approximately 9000 deaths
● Over 20,000 people injured
● Electricity and water supplies cut
● 7000 schools and 1000 health facilities damaged or destroyed
● Almost 3.5 million people made homeless
● Offices, shops and factories destroyed, meaning people unable to make a living
● UNESCO world heritage sites destroyed, as well as many temples
● A loss of tourist income, which Nepal is reliant on
● Avalanches on Mount Everest and in the Langtang Valley
● Landslides, which blocked roads and rivers
● Damages estimated at between $7 and $10 billion

SOLUTIONS

Short term
● There were donations of money and aid from around the world totalling $3 billion,
including $3.3 million from China and $51 million from the UK
● Many countries sent aid in the form of:
● Temporary shelters, Medicines, Food, Water, Clothing, Search and rescue teams, etc
● 90% of the Nepalese army were mobilised
● Tent cities were set up in Kathmandu for those made homeless
Long term
● Landslides were cleared and roads repaired to restore access to remote rural
communities
● Schools were rebuilt
● Earthquake drills were introduced to provide people with education about what to do in
the event of an earthquake
VOLCANO:

MOUNT ETNA
● Sicily, Italy
● 26 October 2002 - 28 January 2003.
● The eruption occurred from fissures on two sides of the volcano: at about 2750 m on the
southern flank and at elevations between 2500 and 1850 m on the northeastern flank.

CAUSE
● a hot spot or mantle-plume origin for this volcano, like those that produce the volcanoes
in Hawaii.
● subduction of the African plate under the Eurasian plate.
● A scientists believes that rifting along the eastern coast of Sicily allows the uprise of
magma.

IMPACTS
● The Italian Government declared a state of emergency in parts of Sicily, after a series of
earthquakes accompanying the eruption of forced about 1,000 people flee their homes.
● A ship equipped with a medical clinic aboard was positioned off Catania - to the south of
the volcano - to be ready in case of emergency.
● Emergency workers dug channels in the earth in an attempt to divert the northern flow
away from the town of Linguaglossa.
● Schools in the town have been shut down, although the church has remained open for
people to pray.
● Villagers also continued their tradition of parading their patron saint through the streets
to the railway station, to try to ward off the lava flow.
● Civil protection officials in Catania, Sicily's second-biggest city, which sits in the shadow
of Etna, surveyed the mountain by helicopter and were ready to send water-carrying
planes into the skies to fight the fires.
● The tourist complex and skiing areas of Piano Provenzana were nearly completely
● devastated by the lava flows that issued from the NE Rift vents on the first day of the
eruption.

SOLUTION

● Monitoring and Early Warning Systems This includes the use of seismometers, gas
monitoring, satellite observations, and ground deformation measurements.
● Evacuation Plans and Emergency Preparedness: Developing comprehensive evacuation
plans and emergency preparedness strategies is essential to ensure the safety of
nearby residents and tourists.
● Infrastructure Protection: This can include designing structures to be more resilient to
ashfall, establishing protective barriers, and implementing maintenance and cleanup
protocols.