Earthquake

• Eurasian Plate
• Pacific Plate
• Indo-Australian Plate
• Antarctic Plate
• North American Plate
• Nazca Plate
• South American Plate
• African Plate
• Philippine Plate
• Cocos Plate
• Caribbean Plate
• Scotia Plate
• Arabian Plate
• Indian Plate

• Constructive Margin - The two oceanic plates move away from each other, and magma comes up from the below, creating new land.
• Destructive Margin - The oceanic crust hits the continental crust and sinks down underneath it.
• Collision Plate Margin - The two continental plates hit each other and rise up to form mountains.
• Conservative Margin - The two pieces of crust slide past each other and get stuck, causing earthquakes.

Short term impacts:

Social = • People may be killed or injured.
• Homes may be destroyed.
• Transport and communication links may be disrupted.
• Water pipes may burst and water supplies may be contaminated.

Economical = • Shops and business may be destroyed.
• Looting may take place.
• The damage to transport and communication links can make trade difficult.

Environmental = • The built landscape may be destroyed.
• Fires can spread due to gas pipe explosions.
• Fires can damage areas of woodland. Landslides may occur.
• Tsunamis may cause flooding in coastal areas.

Primary effects:

• The ground moved horizontally by 50 cm and vertically by 1 m.
• 35000 people injured.
• 150 Buildings and bridges collapsed or were structurally damaged, despite their earthquake proof design.
• A tidal wave reached a major town - S. - destroying 50 houses and 76 boats.
• A huge landslide engulfed the town.
• The main free-way that runs through the city collapsed - S. - killing 5 people.

Secondary effects:

• Buildings destroyed by fire when the gas mains fractured.
• 316000 people left homeless and refugees moved into temporary housing.
• 1130 people were admitted to hospital suffering from the effects of shock.
• The collapsing of buildings killed 50 people in the centre of town.
• People were forced to drink water from the streets, unaware that it is likely to be infected.

Lessons learnt / Precautions:

• Precautions were put in place the following months and years.
• It was the middle of winter so survivors had to be given refuge camps fast to avoid hypothermia.
• Building zones: restricting the type of buildings allowed on reclaimed land. New housing has to be built on solid ground and use fire-resistance materials.
• New building regulations were introduced (to make building more resistance to earthquakes).

Conservative Margin =

The Caribbean and the North American plates (continental crust) slide past each other and gets stuck, causing an earthquake.
On 12th January 2010, a magnitude 7 earthquake struck Haiti at 16:53 (4:53 pm) local time. The earthquake’s epicentre was 25 km west of Port-au-Prince, the capital..

Haiti impacts:

• The public telephone system was not available.
• Roads were blocked with road debris and roads were broken.
• Vital infrastructure necessary to respond to the disaster was severely damaged or destroyed.
• 8 aftershocks in 2 hours struck Haiti, after the big earthquake, with magnitudes of 4.3 and 5.9.
• 90% of the town's buildings had been destroyed.
• 250,000 residences and 30,000 commercial buildings were severely damaged and needed to be demolished.

Secondary responses:

• Money was pledged by organisations and governments to assist in rebuilding, but only slow progress had been made after one year.
• After one year, there were still 1,300 camps.
• ‘Cash for work’ programs are paying Haitians to clear rubble.
• Small farmers are being supported – so crops can be grown.
• Schools are being rebuilt.