The number of tectonic hazards is not increasing, but their impact has become more disastrous.

Discuss.

Earths crust is divided into plates that move due to convention currents produced in the earths
mantle. This process is known as plate movement. In terms of plate tectonic boundaries, these can
be subdivided into four main types. They consist of divergent (plates moving apart), an example of
which is the mid-Atlantic Ridge, convergent (Oceanic plate sub-ducting under a continental plate)
an example is the Nazka plate, which sinks under the South American plate. Another plate
movement, a transform margin, is where two plates move side to side, and land is neither moved
nor destroyed. An example of this is the San-Andreas fault line in California. A final plate movement
is known as a collision plate boundary, where two continental plates meet and force each other
upwards (The Himalayas Mountain range is an example of this). These movements result in
tectonic hazards such as earthquakes and volcanoes. A hazard can be defined as an event or
process that has the potential to cause damage to people and their settlements (Edexcel A Level
Geography Revision Guide). In addition, a hazard can also cause harm or cause destruction to the
environment. A disaster, however, is where the threat of the hazard is realised and the impacts are
felt by a set of people. The focus of this report is to explore the range of factors that make tectonic
activity increasingly hazardous and how the impact of disasters change. The case studies I will be
using to analyse the impacts of earthquakes and volcanoes from social, economic, environmental
and political viewpoints are Montserrat (The Caribbean), the Sendai Earthquake
(Japan, 2011), the Haiti Earthquake (2010), Mount Pinatubo (The
Philippines), the Mexico City Earthquake (1985), and the Indian
Ocean earthquake and tsunami (2004).

Figure 1 Dreggs model of defining a disaster which shows

how some kind of overlap is required before a hazard becomes
a disaster. Dreggs model shows how the impact of a disaster
can be measured by evaluating how devastating the geophysical event is and
comparing this with how susceptible the area is to human
and/or economic loss. Therefore, it can be assumed that the
worst disasters occur when there is a large natural hazard in a location with a vulnerable
population.

A hazard profile is a description and analysis of a specific type of local hazard. It is performed for
each natural hazard and based of of criteria such as
frequency, duration, and speed of Figure 1
onset. Understanding the various hazards
risks and consequences is the first part of
mitigating the adverse efects of future
events.

Figure 2 shows the Park model is also known

as the disaster response curve. Its aim is Figure 2
to show the efects of a hazard on quality of
life over a sequence of time.

Methodology Table
Source Use Pros Cons
Edexcel A2 Geography Textbook General A textbook May not
informatio provides a provide
n, case balanced, all
studies, chronological details
models presentation of about a
information. topic
It is factual and is May be
written by outdated
geographers and
therefore unbiased therefore
and a more no
objective source of longer
information relevant

Websites General Provides readily Owner of

https://www.texasgateway.org/ informatio available and a wide website
http://www.sln.org.uk/ n, case range of data could
https://www.youtube.com/ studies,
https://www.google.co.uk models Many websites to lack
get information from credibilit
https://geographyiseasy.wordpr y
ess.com/ therefore can
provide an overview websites
https://www.mytutor.co.uk can
www.nationalgeographic.com/ can be cross
referenced provide
http://www.bbc.co.uk/ inaccurat
www.coolgeography.co.uk/ e data
www.open.edu Reduced cost of and can
www.acegeography.com/ therefore
conducting research
ww.llantwitschool.org.uk be
unreliabl
e

Multimedia - Youtube Document Visuals - help in Can be

ary, time
understanding the
General consumi
present world
informatio ng
n, case Documentaries are
compare
studies based on an
d to
individual region or
other
country hence, the
methods
people who cannot
of
travel to these
research
countries can watch

the documentary
normally
films and get the
lasts for
knowledge they
more
require about the
than an
place
hour

Earthquakes are large and violent vibrations in the Earth's crust, normally caused by tectonic
activity. Death is one impact which earthquakes can bring. E.g., the Sendai (2011) and Mexico City
(1985) earthquakes, in which 15,000 and 10,000 people died. These deaths were caused by the
initial earthquake and aftershocks and by secondary hazards such as the tsunami caused by the
2011 Sendai earthquake. Another impact is damage caused to people's property (houses, cars and
possessions). The total property damage for both of these earthquakes was $300billion+ (Sendai)
and $3.5million (Mexico City). The impacts were huge as they were both in highly populated, urban
areas. The result meant higher population and higher value of property would be efected by a
tectonic disaster. Sendai was worse from the efects of the earthquake, possibly due to the larger
power of the earthquake (9.0 (Sendai) compared to 8.1 (Mexico City)), which in efect would cause
more damage, resulting in more deaths and a higher amount of damage costs. With other, more
recent, incidents such as the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake (a 9.1 on the Richter scale) being
more powerful, it could be suggested that earthquakes are becoming stronger and as a result,
more disastrous. Aftershocks may also prove to be a factor in the amount of damage that is caused
in an area. The Sendai earthquake has had 9 notable aftershocks (over a magnitude of 6.3) since
the initial quake, whilst Mexico City has only had 2. A factor which may have efected the amount
of property damage inflicted on these regions could be the development of higher quality and more
expensive innovations over time. Development has not only led to a more technologically
developed world however. Due to the innovations which technology has provided, the planet has
been capable of becoming more interconnected. This means that more information can be shared
around the world at a much faster rate and news (such as earthquakes) is quickly sent to all
regions. 200 years ago this may not have been the case. Without technologies such as the internet
or planes it would be near enough impossible to know about an earthquake that happened in the
Indian Ocean or Sendai as they were too far away. Now that the planet is interconnected and
globalised people are capable of finding out about tectonic activity from all over the globe in a
matter of minutes.
The Haiti earthquake in 2010 has a massive death toll of 220,000 for a 7.0 earthquake. Compared
to earthquakes such as Mexico City (<10,000) and Sendai (10,000) this seems like an anomaly.
Magnitudes of 8.1 and 9.0 are much higher than a magnitude of 7.0 so they are expected to cause
more damage. A reason for this anomaly occurring is the poor quality of buildings within Haiti. The
average home in Haiti is built from mud and sticks, making for a very weak structure. An
earthquake would be capable of destroying these houses, leaving people homeless and possibly
injuring anyone inside them when they collapse. A lack of education is also a factor. In Japan all
schools are required to teach their students earthquake and volcano safety as to reduce the
casualties when an event occurs. Haiti does not have this and its population sufer as a result of
not knowing what to do. It can thus be concluded that a poorer standard of life in some areas
efects how disastrous tectonic activity is on an area.

Volcanic eruption is the outburst of molten rock (magma) onto the surface of the Earth or a solid-
surface planet or moon, where lava, pyroclastic and volcanic gases erupt through a break in the
surface called a vent. Major volcanic eruptions such as the 1991 Mount Pinatubo eruption in the
Philippines can release excessive amounts of volcanic ash into the atmosphere which can reflect
sunlight back into space before it reaches the Earth's surface. Between 1991 and 1993 the Earth's
average temperature was lowered by 0.5C due to Mount Pinatubo's eruption. The eruption also
released greenhouse gases contributing to the enhanced greenhouse efect. However, these sorts
of eruptions have always occurred over time, suggesting these events are no more disastrous than
ever before. Due to the lowering of global temperatures, sea temperatures also lowered which
afected the coral reefs. As coral reefs require a minimum temperature of 18C a fall in global
temperatures would be fatal to some. In 1992 coral in the Gulf of Aqaba began to die from the low
temperatures of the sea. However, this may only be an issue as we are now more aware of it as it
has occurred in the past. This means that this impact has not become more disastrous over time.
A recent volcanic eruption was the 2010 Iceland volcano. This volcanic eruption is another example
of ash being released into the atmosphere from tectonic activity. The major impact from this
eruption difered massively from the Pinatubo eruption however, with there being more social and
economic impacts than environmental ones. The ash released into the atmosphere spread over
Europe prevented 100,000 airline flights to enter the EU as there were concerns over how safe the
conditions were to fly. This left 10 million people stranded, stopping them from flying to work
places or holidays. This left some companies understafed and they lost large amounts of money
from this. Airlines and airports were also massively afected, as they were unable to make money
due to so many flights being cancelled. Overall airlines lost $1.7 billion, airports lost $250 million
and the European economy lost an estimated $5 billion. However, this was only an issue due to the
development of people, rather than the frequency of the volcanoes. If this eruption were to happen
300 years ago then people would have been unafected by the result. This shows that the efects of
volcanic eruptions have become more disastrous from the development of technology and people.

Volcanoes also have some political impacts. Montserrat is a volcanic Caribbean island which was
dormant for 350 years. It became more active and eventually erupted, releasing pyroclastic flow
onto the islands capital, Plymouth. All of the islands major political establishments were based
there and needed to be evacuated, leaving the island without political leadership for a while. 85%
of the population was evacuated to other regions. But it is arguable if this would have not afected
the region in a previous time period, as half the island still would have been covered in ash.
Although with a higher quality of technology in a modern period of time the damage costs would be
a lot higher. Therefore it can be concluded that this impact has become disastrous over time.

It can be concluded from that tectonic activity may not be becoming more disastrous, it is only
being reported more with the development of an interconnected world. Also, impacts of
earthquakes appear to be less due to a higher frequency of tectonic activity and more due to the
actions of the people living near the hazards themselves. However, stronger quakes (such as the
Indian Ocean and Sendai earthquakes) have increased in frequency during recent times,
suggesting that tectonic activity is becoming more powerful. In the case of recent earthquakes
such as the Indian Ocean earthquake and the Sendai earthquake, a recent increase in high
magnitude (9.0-10.0) earthquakes have made it more difficult to combat the impacts faced from
earthquakes. This increases how disastrous they will be on areas.

From the evidence shown it is also conclusive that the impacts of volcanic activity have become
more disastrous over time. This, much like earthquakes, is due to the development of people on
the planet and new innovations in technology. However, volcanoes that have been dormant for
hundreds of years have recently become active again (Pinatubo and Montserrat) which could be a
suggestion that there could be a future increase in volcanic activity. Overall, I feel as though it is
our own development which makes us think that tectonic hazards are becoming more frequent as
we are able to get ourselves into worse situations and we are capable of finding more hazards
using technology such as seismographs. So, globalisation, population growth and increased density
and the diference between ability to cope has not only made tectonic events more hazardous but
has also created an increasing need to further adapt and mitigate to cope with the growing danger
of tectonic hazards.

JhennaLlanes