Q3 EARTH AND DISASTER READINESS

ORIGIN AND STRUCTURE OF THE EARTH

- 4.5 billion years ago

- Buckminister Fuller – “Spaceship Earth”, 3rd planet from sun
- Planetesimal Hypothesis and Hot Origins
- Proto Earth – object same size of Mars (Theia) bombarded it
- 1522 - when Magellan circled the Earth
- Distance around earth is 40, 000 km approx. (distance around equator is greater
than distance around poles)

Nebular Hypothesis - all bodies formed from nebula or cloud of gasses and space dust

Planetesimal Hypothesis - small celestial bodies fused together through gravitational

force to form planets

EARTH PROCESSES
- 7,640 islands
- Geomorphology - major subfield of physical geography devoted to the scientific
study of landforms

ENDOGENIC PROCESS
- Geomorphic processes that originate within the Earth
- Tend to increase amount of surface relief
- Tectonic and igneous processes
- Folding - bending or crumpling of rock layers, applied to rocks that are
ductile
- Faulting - slippage or displacement of rocks along a fracture surface (fracture
along which movement occurred is a fault)

EXOGENIC PROCESS
- Originate at Earth’s surface, work to decrease relief
- Rock breakdown, weathering, removal, movement, relocation of weathered rock

- Weathering - process that breaks down rock into smaller pieces

- Erosion - earthen materials are worn away and transported by natural forces
such as wind or water

- Sedimentation - natural process in which materials are carried to the bottom of

bodies of water

- Mass Wasting - movement of rock, soil, and regolith downward due to the action
of gravity
TECTONIC FORCES
● Cause bending, warping, folding, and fracturing of Earth’s crust and
continental, regional, and even local scales

● STRIKE - compass direction of the line that forms at intersection of tilted

rock layer and a horizontal plane

● DIP - inclination of rock layer, always measured at right angles to the strike,
in degrees of angle from horizontal

Compressional tectonic forces (CONVERGENT) - push crustal rocks together (Pacific Ring
of Fire)

Tensional tectonic forces (DIVERGENT) - pull parts of the crust away from each other
(Mid-Atlantic Ridge)
- Typically faulting
- Commonly cause crust to break into discrete blocks (fault blocks)

- GRABEN - blocks that slide downward between two normal faults / remained in
place as blocks on either side slide upward

- HORST - moved upward or stayed in place as other blocks moved downward

- ESCARPMENT/SCARP - steep cliff

Shearing tectonic forces (TRANSFORM) - slides parts of the earth’s crust past each
other (San Andreas Fault)
- DIP-SLIP FAULTS- up or down along dip of the fault plane extending into earth
- STRIKE-SLIP FAULTS - direction of slippage parallel to surface trace or strike
of the fault, horizontal motion

CONTINENTAL DRIFT

1905: ALFRED WEGENER (German climatologist) - proposed continental drift theory

- evidence for continental drift included the close fit of continental coastlines
on opposite sides of oceans and the trends of mountain ranges that also
appeared to match across oceans
- comparable geographic pattern of fossils and rock types found on different
continents
- Single supercontinent: Pangaea, later split into two large ladmasses (Southern
Hemisphere – Gondwana → South America, Africa, Australia, Antarctica and India
||| Northern Hemisphere (Laurasia) → North America, Europe and Asia)
SEAFLOOR SPREADING

- new oceanic crust forms along the mid oceanic ridges, oceanic crust moves
slowly in opposite directions away from the axis of the ridge
- Movement of ocean floor in both directions away from mid oceanic ridge
- Symmetrical pattern of increasing with age and paleomagnetism

SUBDUCTION

- Earth material moves down to the subsurface in these zones

➔ Years after WW2, studying and mapping of the ocean floor, aided by sonar,
radioactive dating of rocks and improvements in equipment for measuring earth’s
magnetism, yielded some surprising results
➔ in the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans that basaltic seafloor displays matching
patterns of magnetic properties in rocks of the same age but opposite sides of
mid oceanic ridges
➔ old, rocks on the ocean floor are all geologically young, having been in
existence less than 250 million years
➔ oldest rocks of the seafloor lie in trenches beneath the deepest ocean waters or
close to the continents, rocks become progressively younger toward the mid
oceanic ridges where the youngest basaltic rocks exist
➔ temperatures of rocks on the ocean floor vary significantly, being the hottest
near the mid oceanic ridges and becoming progressively cooler farther away

ELEMENTS OF DISASTER

Natural Hazard - naturally occurring event / phenomenon which has negative

anthropogenic and environmental effects, refers to the probability of occurrence at a
given magnitude

Disaster - any natural hazard or threat that causes fatality or damage to property,
when the probable destructive, the hazards, hits a vulnerable populated area

Vulnerability - refers the factors, such as physical, social, economic and

environmental, that increase the susceptibility to the impact of a hazard

CHARACTERISTICS OF DISASTERS

- Inherently unexpected or come quickly with little or no warnings

- Can be man-made or natural
- Cause widespread death, injury, and property damage
- Knows no political boundary
- Requires restructured and new responding organizations
- Creates new tasks and requires more people as disaster responders
- Renders inutile routine emergency response equipment and facilities
- Worsens confusion in understanding roles of peoples and organizations
- Exposes lack of disaster planning, responses and coordination
 - Inexperienced disaster organizations often fail to see what their proper roles
are

IMPACTS OF DISASTERS

Medical Effects - include traumatic, injuries, emotional stress, epidemic diseases,

and indigenous diseases

Disruption of transportation - disrupted by broken bridges, roads, and streets that

are rendered impassable by landslides or floods, restricted mobility of vehicles makes
rescue and other emergency operations are doubly difficult.

Economic impact - normal business operations and other economic activities are
curtailed

Global environmental change - more severe cyclonic storms, an increase in both

flooding and drought and a trend towards desertification, changes could result in a
wide range of more hazards such as wildfires and mudslides, reduced productivity in
the oceans, and weakened immune systems of people and animals

Social and political impact - the poor are most prone to disasters like earthquakes
and typhoons because of the structures they live in which are unreinforced and poorly
built, often located in marginal lands / developing countries, social and political
inequities are usually exposed (formation of the state of Bangladesh from Pakistan,
breakaway was triggered by a disaster from a tropical cyclone and storm surge which
exposed inequities in the treatment of East Pakistan (Bangladesh now) by the more
affluent West Pakistan)

GEOLOGICAL HAZARD
Risk (R) = Hazard (H) x Vulnerability (V) x Exposure

RA 10121 - “Philippine Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Act of 2010”

RISK ASSESSMENT - involves the identification and mapping of the elements at risk and
the assessment of vulnerability, most of the focus is on reducing vulnerability

When a disaster strikes, casualties and property losses and damages are the first to
be reported in tri-media. These are the consequences that cannot be measured or
quantified as easily as property losses or damages:

SOCIAL - demography (most important aspect), migration, social groups, health and
well-being, education, culture, institutions

ECONOMIC - business interruptions due to accessibility problems, loss of jobs and

access to work and loss of government income due to inability of business and people
to pay taxes at a time when more funds are needed for relief and rehabilitation, may
also significantly affect the gross domestic product (GDP)

ENVIRONMENTAL - physical aspects of exposure and vulnerability refer to location and

built structures

EARTHQUAKES
EARTHQUAKE – vibration produced by the rapid release of energy, caused by slippage
along a fault line in earth’s crust

FOCUS – point of earth’s interior where the energy is released and radiates in all
directions

EPICENTER – location on earth's surface that lies directly above the focus

FAULT – large fractures in earth’s crust

COMPRESSION STRESS - type of stress that causes the rocks to push or squeeze against
one another

TENSION STRESS - type of stress that causes the rocks to pull apart with one another

SHEAR STRESS - occurs when the force of the stress pushes some of the crust in
different directions

SEISMOLOGY – the study of earthquake waves

SEISMOGRAPH – instrument that records earthquake waves

INTENSITY – measures the strength of shaking produced by the earthquake at a certain

location, determined from effects on people, human structures and the natural
environment, Mercalli scale created by Giuseppe Mercalli

MAGNITUDE – measures energy released by fault movement, Richter Scale

FORESHOCKS – small earthquake often precede a major earthquake by days or in some

cases by as much as several days

AFTERSHOCKS – smaller earthquakes that follow after the main quake

TYPE OF EARTHQUAKES

TECTONIC – ground vibrations produced by energy released after a sudden

dislocation of a pre-existing fault or a rupture at a weak point within or below the
earth’s crust because of large deforming (or tectonic) forces operating on the rocks

VOLCANIC – ground vibrations associated with volcanic activity, are confined in the
vicinity of volcanoes and are of weaker magnitude and intensity than those of tectonic
earthquakes
EXPLOSION – man-made (technological) earthquakes produced by detonation of high
explosives like nuclear bombs, spherical cavity with a diameter of several meters is
created and enlarges outwards as its surface continues to vaporize

ELASTIC REBOUND THEORY (Harry Fielding Reid)- suggests that elastic strain energy
builds up in the deforming rocks on either side of the fault until it overcomes the
resistance posed by any irregularity on the fault plane

THREE TYPES OF SEISMIC WAVES

P (primary) [Compressions and Dilations] and S (secondary) [Wavelength] waves - body

waves, travel in the rocks below the surface of the earth, radiate out from the
rupturing fault

Surface waves - on the surface, travel outwards from epicenter, travel slower than the
other two seismic wave types