The Natural Environment

Earthquakes and volcanoes

An Earthquake: Christchurch, New Zealand

 Causes:

o An earthquake struck New Zealand’s South Island on 22nd February 2011 at 12.51pm.

o New Zealand is located on the plate boundary between the Australian (continental
crust) and Pacific plates (oceanic crust).

o The plate boundary moves in two ways- destructive and conservative.

o The epicentre was 10km away from Christchurch; the second highest populated city in
New Zealand

o Magnitude 6.3 on the Richter scale with a shallow focus earthquake (5km below the
surface)

 Short-term effects:

o 181 people were killed; over half of the deaths occurred in the 6-storey Canterbury
Television building when it collapsed and caught fire.

o Approximately 2000 people were treated for minor injuries.

o 80% of the city was without electricity.

 Long-term effects:

o Although many buildings did not collapse, some were demolished because they were
unsafe. Ten thousand houses would need to be rebuilt.

o Could no longer host the Rugby World Cup

o Overall economic cost = NZ$ 3.5billion

 Short-term Management:

o A full emergency response plan was in place within 2 hours of the earthquake
happening

o The Australian and New Zealand police enforced cordons and organised evacuations

o 27,000 chemical toilets were flown into the area as sanitation and sewerage works
were damaged.

 Long-term Management:

o Insurance companies paid $898 million in building claims.

o Text message alert systems in place.

 o Buildings reinforced with flexible steel that moves with the ground during an
earthquake

o Monitoring equipment is used to detect the movement of plates.

A Volcano: Eidfell, Iceland

 Causes:

o Iceland is located on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge.

o The North American and Eurasian plates move apart- called constructive plates.

o The disruption caused by Eidfell resulted from a series of small volcanic eruptions,
starting on the 20th of March and ending in October 2010.

 Short-term effects:

o The 150m thick ice cap melted, which caused major flooding to much of Iceland’s
infrastructure.

o 0 reported deaths.

o Airspace closed across Europe, with at least 17,000 flights a day being cancelled.

 Long-term effects:

o The eruption cost insurers £65million to customers with cancelled flights.

 Short-term management:

o The emergency services were prepared with advanced equipment.

o Iceland had a good warning system, with texts sent to residents with a 30-
minute warning.

o Large sections of European airspace were closed down due to ash spreading over the
continent.

 Long-term management:

o Eidfell has often triggered her larger sister volcano, Katla, to erupt after. As a result,
scientists are monitoring her closely.

o Insurance companies and airlines have reviewed their customers' policies.

o Some airlines have built ash monitoring equipment onto their aircraft for safety.

An Earthquake: Kobe, Japan

 Causes:

o An earthquake hit Japan’s main island on the 17th of January, 1995, at 05:46.
 o Japan is located near the plate boundary between the Pacific Plate (Oceanic Crust), the
Philippines Plate (Oceanic Crust), and the Eurasian Plate (Continental Crust).

o The plate boundary is convergent. The Pacific Plate subducts under the Philippine Plate,
while the Philippine Plate subducts under Eurasian Plate.

o The epicentre was 20 kilometres from Kobe, Japan's seventh-largest city.

o The magnitude was 7.4 on the Richter scale with a shallow focus (17 kilometres under
the epicentre).

 Short-term effects:

o Over 6000 lives were lost.

o The majority of the deaths happened in the cities and suburbs.

o 35000 people were injured.

o The earthquake caused nearly 300 fires.

o Over 80% of the citizens were left without gas.

 Long-term effects:

o The buildings were burned down gradually by the numerous fires

o Over 300,000 people were left homeless

o Over $100 billion worth of damage

o Many of the ports were destroyed, which led to a steep decrease in trading.

 Short-term management:

o Citizens swiftly evacuated from their homes and their city

o Many emergency services spent many days looking for survivors

o Rations were given to the citizens and the survivors

o The Japanese firefighters worked hard to put out the fires in the buildings

 Long-term management:

o Many people permanently moved out of Kobe into other cities

o Multiple jobs were created to rebuild the city, jobs such as builders, architects, and
many more

o The Japanese government made it mandatory for the new buildings to be more resistant
to earthquakes, including building shear walls and cross braces.

o More seismometers were built so that people could detect plate activity and predict
future earthquakes.
An Earthquake: Kashmir, Pakistan

 Causes:

o In 2005, an earthquake measuring 7.6 on the Richter scale hit Kashmir, Pakistan.

o The Indian and Eurasian plates collided, causing an earthquake.

o Had a shallow focus (15 km below the surface)

 Short-term effects:

o Large cracks in the ground were formed

o Many buildings collapsed throughout the whole city

o Many fires were ignited

 Long-term effects:

o The sewage pipes exploded and contaminated the water pipes

o Since it was in the middle of the winter, the hard temperatures killed many people due
to the freezing temperatures.

 Short-term management:

o The government sent the army, firefighters and the police to help rescue people.

o Other countries sent food and shelter to help the victims.

o The citizens were evacuated out of the city.

 Long-term management:

o Many of the public buildings were rebuilt.

o The government invested money into rebuilding buildings to make them earthquake-
proof.

o Multiple jobs were created to rebuild the city.

o Many seismometers were built to detect any future earthquakes.

Rivers

The opportunities presented by a river or rivers, the associated hazards and their management: River
Ganges, Bangladesh.

 Opportunities at the River Ganges:

o Fertile land – agriculture of rice and jute that is the 4th largest products in Bangladesh as
an economy.

o Water supply – enough for a population of 1101 per km2

 o Fish supply – Food can feed the dense population and provide jobs for the locals

o Flatland – that can be suitable for builds.

 Hazards (flooding):

o Human causes:

 The dense population of the area causing some people to live on floodplains

 Deforestation caused by the dense population.

o Physical causes:

 The river is located next to high winds from monsoons from the Indian ocean (a
major flood every 5 years)

 Tropical cyclones cause torrential rain, high winds and flooding

o Management of the River Ganges:

 Dhaka Integrated Flood Protection Project that protects helps with flood
protection works, drainage system improvements, urban environment
improvement and capacity building. With a total cost of $115.9 million. $15
million got funded by OPEC.

 Rescue boats located at flood points and new flood shelters.

Coasts

The opportunities presented by an area or areas of coastline, the associated hazards and their
management: Lyme Regis, England.

 Location and background:

o Lyme Regis is a town in West Dorset, England. It lies at Lyme Bay on the English Channel
coast and the Dorset Devon border.

o The cliffs of Lyme Regis are unstable and especially open to landslides and slumps. Many
properties have already been destroyed or damaged due to foreshore erosion over the
years.

 Opportunities:

o Lots of fossils located in that area attracts tourists and fossil collectors

o Museum about fossils that could provide an educational value for kids at school.

 Hazards at Lyme Regis:

o Landslides where waves are undercutting the cliff.

o Coastal erosion with longshore drift with a fetch of 5000 km and little protection as the
beach is very wide.
  Management:

o Recurved sea wall that is 150m tall that protects from easterly winds and helps stop
strong storms that can influence the coastline to erode further.

Climate and natural vegetation

An area of tropical rainforest: The Amazon Rainforest

 Location and background:

o It has a land area of 5.5 million km2 which makes it the largest tropical rainforest on
Earth

o Sits between the Amazon river basin

o Land for agriculture, houses and roads

o Jobs for local workers in road building, logging, agriculture, mining and construction

o Covers around 40% of the South American continent

o It is home to 1,000 species of birds and 60,000 species of plants

o Scientific investigation into rainforest may provide new food sources and medicines.

 Deforestation:

o The people’s attention was caught when multiple reports in the 1980s suggested huge
deforestation of the rainforest (size of Belgium every year)

o Deforestation occurs to this day

o The Amazon Rainforest has lost about 20% of its area in the last 30-40 years.

o Deforestation can cause the soil and the environment to become drier

o Causing multiple animals to become extinct

 Advantages of human intervention:

o Improved transport; new roads and airports (access to raw materials).

o Infrastructure, hospitals and education can be improved from the money gained from
selling natural resources;

o Large-scale farming brings money into the country and provides food and jobs for
people.

 Disadvantages of human intervention:

o The new roads divide up the rainforest and can cut off connections between different
biotic and abiotic systems.

o Land clearance for farming, transportation and mining can lead to deforestation.
 o Fertile soils that make farming possible are quickly washed away when the forest is
cleared.

An area of a hot desert: The Thar Desert: Rajasthan, India

 Location and background:

o Located in northwest India.

o It is one of the major hot deserts of the world with the highest population density.

o Most people living in this desert are subsistence farmers.

 Opportunities:

o Tourism as the Thar Desert National Park attracts many visitors who want to see some
of the 120 species found there.

o Farming – Irrigation has made commercial arable farming practicable.

o Energy generation – energy is produced in the Thar Desert using solar panels.

o Mining – Thar desert has valuable reserves of minerals containing feldspar, phosphorite,
gypsum and kaolin that are minerals that are used to produce a range of things from
cement to fertilisers.

 Challenges:

o Inaccessibility as the desert covers a huge area of 200,000 km2, it is mostly inaccessible
due to the extreme environmental conditions and poor infrastructure.

o Water supply that is precious and limited

o Extremely high temperatures that can reach 50 °C in the summer months.