Tectonics Case Studies

Tectonics Case Studies

1. Fold Mountains Andes Range

   • Uses of Mountain Range
     • Mining (Yanacocha Gold Mine)
     • Farming
     • Hydroelectric Power
     • Tourism (Ancient Inca settlements & scenery)
   • Adapted to living on Mountain Range
     • Terraces for farming
     • Donkeys & Llama for transport
     • Jobs in mining to make money
     • Money from tourism - tours, souvenirs

2. Volcanic Eruption Chances Peak, Montserrat

   • Causes
     • Carribean-North American Destructive Plate Boundary
   • Effects
     • 19 died from Pyroclastic Flow
     • Infrastructure destroyed - hospital, homes, businesses
     • The year's harvest destroyed
     • Evacuation from South to North of island
     • Tourism increased long term due to famous attraction
     • Land became more fertile
     • Ruined development
   • Responses
     • Immediate evacuation
     • St Lucia sent nurses
     • MEDC's gave aid.
     • Infrastructure rebuilt slowly
     • Now they have built a volcano observatory and use animals for detection
     • South is an exclusion zone

3. Supervolcano Yellowstone, USA

   • Characteristics
     • Caldera - Huge depression to mark collapsed magma chamber
     • Fissures - Extended openings along lines of weaknesses for magma to escape from.
     • Geysers - Geothermal feature in which water erupts from when under pressure.
   • Likely Effects!
     • 87,000 die almost instantly
     • Pyroclastic flow would destroy everything in a 100 mile radius
     • Eject 2.5 trillion tonnes of ash - enough to cover ash.
     • Ash would spread globally killing 1 in 3 people.
     • Ash would affect transport, water, farming and electricity so more people would die from starvation

4. Tsunami Indian Ocean

   • Cause
     • Earthquake from destructive plate boundary on the sea-bed, displaced water causing tsunami wave to travel at 800km/h towards shore
   • Effects
     • 220, 000 died
     • 650, 000 injured
     • 1500 settlements destroyed
     • 2 million homeless
     • Farm land lost
     • Tourism fell
     • Fishing industry destroyed
     • Disease spread
   • Responses
     • LEDC's so no resources
     • Immediate aid from MEDC's - water purification tablets, medical supplies, temporary housing and millions in money aid. (Britain alone gave £370 million)
     • Only 1 in 20 homes rebuilt in first year
     • Now planting mangroves to absorb impact of tsunami.
     • Education
     • Warning systems between countries on the Indian coast

5. LEDC Earthquake Haiti

   • Cause
     • North American-Carribean conservative plate boundary
   • Effects
     • 220,000 died initially. Cholera killed 6000 more
     • Infrastructure destroyed
     • 3.5 million affected overall
   • Responses
     • Local civilians helping each other
     • Aid sent from MEDC's in the form of medical (doctors), money (£100 million), food and shelter
     • Now they've set up over 200 teams to build earthquake proof buildings.
     • Trained teachers to educate on earthquakes

6. MEDC Earthquake L'Aquilla, Italy

   • Cause
     • Eurasion-African destructive plate boundary
   • Effects
     • 308 died
     • 65 000 homeless
     • 1500 injured
     • Thousands of buildings destroyed - worth over £16 billion
     • Tourism reduced initially
   • Responses
     • Immediate and effective search and rescue
     • 40 000 homeless put in tented camps and 25 000 put up in hotels
     • Telephone companies provided free communication
     • Use of NASA motion detection
     • 880 Seismometers in the area
     • New earthquake proof buildings
     • Evacuation plan to citizens

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