There are several levels of poverty from an individual to national level and earthquake disasters impact at all levels. The 2010 Haiti earthquake struck in the most densely populated area of the country, As More than 78% per cent of Haitian residents live in poverty and Haiti is the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere the buildings in Port-Au-Prince and other areas of Haiti were in very poor condition in general and were not designed or constructed to be earthquake resistant. The primary earthquake hazard directly responsible for mortality is surface seismic waves which cause ground shaking. This poses a huge hazard as buildings and other structures collapse, killing or injuring their occupants. This was the case in Sichuan, China in 2008 where severe ground shaking was the direct cause of death, injury and the catastrophic destruction of hospitals, roads and other infrastructure.
It registered a 7.0 on the Richter scale. The earthquake’s epicenter was extremely shallow at only 8.1 miles below ground, which released the energy close to the surface and intensified the shaking. The increased level of destruction led to a high loss of life. The earthquake epicenter was only 15 miles from Port-au-Prince and was the strongest earthquake to hit the area since 1770. “The 7.0-magnitude earthquake would be a strong, potentially destructive earthquake anywhere, but it is an unusually strong event for Haiti, with even more potential destructive impact because of the weak infrastructure of the impoverished nation” (Thompson, 2010, p.1).
Discuss the view that the impact of earthquake hazards depends primarily on human factors. (40 marks) Although earthquakes are a manifestation of a physical process associated with plate tectonics the hazards they produce are partly determined by human factors such as population density, urbanisation of the population, poverty and earthquake mitigation strategies such as local building codes, education of the population. However, human factors are not the only factors that turn earthquakes into hazardous events. Physical factors such as earthquake magnitude, frequency, local geology and liquifaction are also important as well exposure to tsunami or on low lying coasts also play an important part. A hazard can be defined as natural phenomena that produce negative effects on life.
Haitis earthquake had casualties, a lot of damge, and their economy was weaker than it was. Both countries were threatened by these big earthquakes that came unexpectedly. These earthquakes could help us prepare for a possible bigger one. Japan was prepared for the big earthquake, but they did not know that the tsunami would come. “The Japan earthquake was500 times stronger than the temblor that hit Haiti in January 2010, which was followed by a catastrophic tsunami.” Japans earthquake was far more dangerous than
Discuss the view that the impact of the earthquake hazards depends primarily on human factors? An earthquake, a sudden violent shaking of the ground can be caused by a number of things from seismic activity and resulting in varying impacts. The cause of an earthquake are a result of built up pressure under the earth’s crust, the pressure comes from the movement of the tectonic plates, they can occur on any plate boundaries. Although the majority of the earthquake hazards come from the physical factors, human factors can determine the severity of the event. The impacts created from an earthquake can come from the physical factors of the size, the location of the epicentre and the surrounding areas such as a ground type and the lithology of the rocks.
This flood was induced by a typhoon that had hit the mountain ranges afterwards and led to surface run off. In this case the country was affected greatly and more than the Californian flooding disaster of 1996-7 because they has no risk management put in place for that particular disaster, meaning the water could simply run into the villages. Secondly they has been hit by a typhoon, many people’s homes had already fallen into disrepair or destroyed, and the flood just helped more to destroy. The people were already vulnerable, flooding helps pass around disease, more people were at risk, as they only had partial homes. On the other hand in California in 1996-7 they were experiencing sub-tropical storms, it had been the wettest December in a while.
“Hurricane Mitch was more destructive than Andrew because of a variety of factors.” Mitch is considered to be the most deadly hurricane in the last 200 years in the Atlantic, stronger and more intense than Hurricane Andrew, having caused the most serious material damage in history. In Mitch, 4 countries were affected (Nicaragua, Honduras, El Salvador and Guaternala) whereas in Andrew only a fraction of South America was seriously affected. In Mitch 10ml people were left homeless without shelter and aid, with mothers washed out to see and thousands trapped, as well as the possibility of more floods. In Andrew hundreds and thousands of people were without food but food and water were provided sooner than they were to the poor countries that Mitch affected. A
The scale or better known as magnitude of the earthquake effects these characteristics and determines the physical destruction. The local geology of the area such as whether building on reclaimed land can have huge toll on building destruction and impact on hazards. Along with this the proximity of the earthquake to the coast can have a huge impact on the hazards. If the earthquake occurs out at see the tsunamis can be just as devastating if not more destructive than the earthquake. It would result in services being unable to reach areas due to the flooding and many more lives could potentially be lost.
Initially, the earthquake was reported as having a 7.9magnitude (MW) and later it was raised to 8.8 then 8.9MW and finally to 9.0MW. About 60 seconds before the earthquake took place, it was felt in Tokyo and warnings of impending danger was sent all over Japan through as alarm sounding system by the Japan Meteorological Agency. This immediate action is believed to have saved many lives as everything that was in motion came to a standstill including vehicles, trains and even lifts all stopped moving. These warnings were sent after the first P wave that is the Primary wave was felt. Even though there were variations in the
Those who did survive now found themselves unemployed and possibly homeless. The nation’s economy relied on agriculture and certain industries, these two factors employed two-thirds of the labour force. As it was destroyed, the unemployment rate sky-rocketed. Grants and donations were sent to Haiti. The U.N. generated 2 million dollar to fund textile manufacturing as well as 130 million dollars invested in exports.