Why did so many people die in the 2010 Haiti earthquake?
On the 12th January 2010, a tragic 7.0 magnitude quake on the Richter scale struck near Port au Prince in Haiti. This devastating earthquake was caused by a conservative plate boundary which had not caused an earthquake for 200years. 3,500,000 people were affected by the quake, 220,000 were estimated to have died, and over 300,000 people were injured. Over 188,383 houses were badly damaged 105,000 were destroyed by the earthquake (293,383 in total) and 1.5m people became homeless. After the quake there were 19 million cubic metres of rubble and debris in Port au Prince which was enough to fill a line of shipping containers stretching end to end from London to Beirut (The capital of Lebanon). Furthermore, 4,000 schools were damaged or destroyed and 60% of Government and administrative buildings, 80% of schools in Port-au-Prince and 60% of schools in the South and West Departments were destroyed or damaged. The impact of this was one of the most devastating anyone had ever witnessed. However, why did San Francisco earthquake (Loma Prieta) in 1980 which was magnitude of 6.9 in the Richter scale only cause 69 deaths compared to the death toll of 220,000 in Haiti? The area with the most damage, Port-au-Prince, was built on loose sedimentary rock, which amplifies the seismic waves and intensifies them. We can see how much extra damage the loose sediment does as houses that were
Earthquake in Kobe – A Natural Disaster Waiting to Happen
h/w Saturday, 05 October 2002 Earthquake in Kobe - A Natural Disaster Waiting to Happen Introduction It all happened on the morning of January the 17th 1995, the second most populated and industrialized city in one of the biggest economies of the world, was struck by a powerful earthquake causing thousands of injuries and hundreds of deaths. It was a disaster waiting to happen. Situated in the south-central region of Japan, Kobe was the second largest city in Japan people and industrial-wise, after Tokyo. It was the biggest earthquake to hit Japan, after the great Kanto earthquake of 1923, where around 140,000 people were killed, most after the impact. The strong shock occurred across the fault that runs through the city of Kobe, and the Awaji island. The earthquake lasted for around 20 seconds, with around 5,500 deaths resulting from it. The number of injuries reached about 35,000 in total, and nearly 180,000 buildings were said to have collapsed. The damage was recorded over a radius of 100 km from the epicentre. The earthquake also hit the cities of Osaka and Kyoto. The economic loss was worse than anything. It was the largest ever to be lost directly from a natural disaster. Directly from the shaking itself, around 13 trillion yen worth of damage was caused. This is around £100 billion and before, the loss of life, production, and business
Development Case Study - Dharavi, Mumbai, India.People want to redevelop in Dharavi as it is situated in the heart of Mumbai, very close to the CBD on extremely valuable ground. Which in their eyes is being "wasted" by using it as a slum.
Name Sean Tuffy Case Study - Dharavi, Mumbai, India. Two news articles and links to various websites related to Dharavi can be found on: http://www.geographyalltheway.com/igcse_geography/population_settlement/settlement/squatter_settlements.htm Where in the world is Dharavi? It is in Mumbai, India, located extremely close to the CBD on a very valuable 175 hectares of land. Describe the location of Dharavi? Dharavi is one of the largest slums in the world, with a populaton of about 800,000 spread over 0.67 square miles. It is sandwiched between two of Mumbai's suburban railway lines, the Western and Central Railways, it is also extremely close to Mumbai's CBD making it very valuable. Briefly describe the history of Dharavi? Dharavi was once an island in the 18th century, which was made up of mangrove swamp where fishermen lived, but in the 19th century the swamps began to vanish and consequently so did the fishing industry. Soon after several other separate islands in the region began joining together to form one big island, this was helped by a big dam at Sion which significantly slowed water flow down. These now dry marshes were perfectly suited for residential use and migrants soon established a colony, first the Gujarat, followed by many others. In the 1920s the area had a large influx in migrants. Dharavi's first ever school was built in 1924 and was the only
Decision Making how will we manage the Essex coastline?
Decision Making - how will we manage the Essex coastline? In February 1953 disaster struck Essex. The North Sea flood, a combination of high spring tide and a severe wind storm caused a storm surge. With the tidal surge of the North Sea the water level locally exceeded 5.6 meters. The flood and waves overwhelmed sea defences and caused extensive flooding. Essex, an area hit by subsidence and sea level rise relies highly upon sea defences. Most of the casualties occurred in the province of Jaywick, in Essex 307 people were killed and 22,000 made homeless. This flood also hit the Netherlands, which suffered 1,800 deaths. As subsidence and sea level rise grow worse due to global warming, there is a large chance that Essex if hit by a storm surge again will be very vulnerable. Essex is made especially defenceless as it has also been hit had by isostasy. And this is why I eager you to make a decision upon who we will defend our Essex coastline. There are several areas in Essex becoming increasingly susceptible to flooding. In order to protect these areas action must be taken. This plan provides a long term strategic view on how the balance between losses and gains to Essex can be maintained in the light of rising sea levels, and the flood defence response to it. The plan concludes that Essex cannot be maintained in its present form. Maintaining the present levels of flood
Marine Pollution
Marine Pollution I am writing to convince the UK Government that it is time to take action to protect the seas around us. The harm being done to our oceans is damaging in many ways - not least because with increasing speed, we are severely depleting the world's stock of fish. For four centuries the seas have been considered on inexhaustible resource from which people could take as much as they wanted. Now we have to face up to the fact that our oceans are not limitless - more and more people competing for less and less fish are which is making the existing crisis worse. Many marine ecosystems are at the point of collapse and will be destroyed unless we act quickly to protect them from the most serious threats. Pollution from ships Ships can pollute waterways and oceans in many ways. Oil spills can have devastating effects. While being toxic to marine life, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), the components in crude oil, are very difficult to clean up, and last for years in the sediment and marine environment. Discharge of cargo residues from bulk carriers can pollute ports, waterways and oceans. In many instances vessels intentionally discharge illegal wastes despite foreign and domestic regulation prohibiting such actions. Ships create noise pollution that disturbs natural wildlife, and water from ballast tanks can spread harmful algae and other invasive
Lognor Case Study
Longnor Longnor is a village in Staffordshire, 35 miles of SE Manchester. It has a population of 350 people and is in the Peak District National Park. It has numerous problems such as shortages of work, affordable housing and poor access to services. With the village of Longnor lying on the edge of the Peak District National Park, it attracts many tourists and holiday makers. These tourists and visitors travel long distances to visit the national park and need to stay somewhere when they arrive. There are no hotels in the village and very few bed and breakfasts, so one of the main sources of accommodation are holiday cottage rentals. Families and homeowners have second homes in Longnor, often which they rent out and visit. With many of the houses in Longnor being brought as holiday homes, second homes or retirement homes, there is a distinct lack of housing for the local people. As Longnor is within a commuting distance for Manchester and the houses are much cheaper than Manchester, villages like Longnor are attracting more and more YUPPIES and commuters. Also villages like Longnor are attractive to retirees as they are quiet and peaceful, they have places to walk and relax with lots of open spaces and greenery and clean air. They are far enough out of busy cities and younger generations but are within distance of local towns. With so many commuters and retirees buying
I am studying both the positive and negative impacts of tourism on the Lake District
GCSE Geography Geographical Investigation What are the impacts of tourism in a selected region of the UK? Tourism is the industry that looks after the needs and welfare of tourists and provides the things that help them travel to places where they can relax and enjoy themselves. I am studying both the positive and negative impacts of tourism on the Lake District because the Lake District is being overwhelmed with tourists each year but without the income that tourism generates the Lake District wouldn't survive. The Lake District is one of 15 National Parks across the UK which has 2 main purposes. - To enhance and preserve the natural beauty of the landscape. - To provide a place for recreation and enjoyment. A third aim is; - To protect the social and economic well being of people who live and/or work in the National Park. The positive impacts of tourism are associated with the economy and employment. Tourism can also start off a cycle known as the positive multiplier effect; the tourism industry locates in an area which provides jobs for locals. This gives workers more money to spend and so more local shops open and more jobs are created and so on and so on. But as well as positive impacts, there are also many negative impacts of tourism. The first is footpath erosion. This occurs when people (tourists in this case) are
Chinas One Child Policy: The good, the bad, and the ugly
China's One Child Policy: The good, the bad, and the ugly China's present population is approximately 1.2 billion, which is about one fifth of the earth's entire population. China has to feed 22% of the world's people on 7% of the world's land, which is a considerable task. China's one child policy was established by Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping in 1979 to limit communist China's population growth. The one-child policy means that couples are only allowed one child in rural and urban areas. Parents with multiple births aren't given the same benefits as parents of one child. Many times the parents have to pay money to the government in order to get permission to have another child. The aims of the policy were to reduce the population rate of China. In the mid-twentieth century the population rate was 55 million (about the same as the UK's total population) every three years. To do this, families were restricted to 1 per family and the marriageable age was raised to 22 for men and 20 for women. Couples have to apply to be married and to have a child. Parents who have only one child get a "one-child glory certificate," which entitles them to economic benefits such as an extra month's salary every year until the child is 14, free education, priority housing and family benefits. Among the other benefits for one child families are higher wages, interest-free loans, retirement
Volcanoes - Comparing Mount Fuji and Vesuvius
Volcanoes Location Page 1 Why did they erupt? Page 2 Human Impact Page 3 Physical Impact Page 4 Similarities & Differences Page 5 Conclusion Page 6 Bibliography Page 7 The volcano, Fuji, is found on the southern Honshu Island in Japan. It is the largest and most popular volcano in Japan, rising to 12,388 feet (3,776 m) above sea level and has a perimeter base of 50km. Fuji is a typical cone shaped volcano and has kept its shape for around 5,000 years. Fuji consists of three different volcanoes called Komitake, Ko-Fuji and Fuji which lie one upon the other. Mount Vesuvius is a volcano in the east of Naples in Italy. The volcano is over 17 000 years old and is still at this moment, active. It is only 4190 feet tall (1277 m) with a base of 48km (3 miles) but its past eruptions have been very dangerous, killing a vast amount. So far Vesuvius has had 50 eruptions and in only one of these eruptions, it has killed over 3 000 people. The volcano is moderately young but has erupted several times and most of these eruptions have been somewhat large in size, but overall, Fuji has had 2 mainly damaging eruptions. Any volcanic eruption is normally caused by plate boundaries. Mount Fuji is an island-arc volcano which means that three
Describe and explain the economic and social costs and benefits of ageing and youthful populations
Describe and explain the economic and social costs and benefits of ageing and youthful populations Ageing populations usually shows that a country is an MEDC, which of course is a good thing. It shows that medical care is very good, diseases are low, diets are nutritional and that there is a good standard of living. The benefits of having lots of elderly people is that the death rate is lower, some provide a service for the country if they are still working and often they are involved in politics using their wisdom to help the country, so in an MEDC an ageing population can be a good thing. However if they are too many elderly then problems start to develop. After all the elderly are part of the dependant population and most, although some do, don't have jobs and contribute to the country and its economy. They do not pay taxes because they are not earning and so just take money from the country in the form of state pensions and other social security benefits. The young and active population therefore has to work hard to support the dependant population so that they can obtain their pensions. However if there are too many elderly people then the country, for example the United Kingdom, which has an ageing population will become very strained. They are too many elderly dependant people to support, this occurs when the active population cannot equal by working the amount of
