GEOLOGICAL DISASTERS

SEISMIC HAZARDS
 Seismic Hazards
• Hazards that are associated with the movement of
the earth’s plates are called tectonic or seismic
hazards.
• The lithosphere (the planet’s outer shell) is broken
up into a pattern of constantly moving oceanic and
continental plates, each of which slides over the
underlying asthenosphere.
• Where the plates interact along their margins, many
important geological processes occur: mountain
chains are formed and lifted, magma is released in
volcanic eruptions, and earthquakes are generated.
Tectonic Plates
 Seismic Hazards
• Seven major crustal plates, which are further divided
into a number of smaller sub-plates.
• They are about 80 kilometers thick and in constant
motion relative to one another at rates varying from
10 to 130 mm per year.
• Interaction between plates, including collision,
subduction (one plate sliding under another), and
separation, determines the kinds of tectonic hazards
generated.
• The most devastating hazards most often strike at the
boundaries of the great plates where direct
interactions occur.
Tectonic Plates
Tectonic Plates
 Earthquakes
• Sudden movements of earth caused by an abrupt release of
strains that have accumulated over time along fault lines.
• The reverberation of energy through the plate from the
point where the plates had become snagged is the
earthquake.
• Seismic waves are generated by the jolting motion of the
plates.
• They extend outward from the origination point, or
epicenter, like ripples formed by a stone thrown into a
pond.
• The March 11, 2011, earthquake in Japan was so strong
that it increased the Earth’s rotation and permanently
shortened the length of each day by 1.8 microseconds.
 Faults
• Fractures within the crust of the earth along which
the plates have slipped with respect to each other
are called faults and are divided into three
subgroups as determined by movement:-
– Normal faults occur in response to pulling or tension; the
overlying block moves down the dip of the fault plane.
– Thrust (reverse) faults occur in response to squeezing or
compression; the overlying block moves up the dip of the
fault plane.
– Strike-slip (lateral) faults occur in response to either type
of stress; the blocks move horizontally past one another.
Divergent Plates
Convergent Plates
Transformational Plates
 Earthquakes
• The depths of earthquakes vary considerably and have a
strong influence on how the resulting events manifest.
• The focal depth is the distance below the earth’s surface at
which energy from the event is released
• The energy release point is called the focus of the earthquake.
• The earthquake’s epicenter is the point on the earth’s surface
directly above the focus.
• Earthquakes can be of three types based on the focal depth:
– Deep:- 300 to 700 kms from the earth surface
– Medium:- 70 to 300 kms
– Shallow: less than 70 kms
• The shallower an earthquake is, the more damaging its
consequences will typically be.
Transformational Plates
 Earthquakes
• Earthquake vibrations occur in a variety of frequencies and
velocities.
• The actual rupture process may last for a few seconds to as
long as one minute for a major earthquake.
• The ground shaking is caused by ‘body waves’ and ‘surface
wave’.
• Body waves (P and S waves) penetrate the body of the earth,
vibrating fast. ‘P’ waves travel about 6 kilometers per hour
and ‘S’ waves travel with a speed of 4 kilometers per hour.
• Surface waves vibrate the ground horizontally and vertically.
These long period waves cause swaying of tall buildings and
slight waves motion in bodies of water even at great distances
from the epicenter.
 Body Waves
• Earthquakes radiate seismic energy as both body
and surface waves.
• Traveling through the interior of the earth,
body waves arrive before the surface
waves emitted by an earthquake.
• Body waves are of a higher frequency than
surface waves.
• The first kind of body wave is the ‘P’ wave or
primary wave and ‘S’ wave is secondary wave.
 P Waves
• P waves are also known
as compressional waves,
particles move in the
same direction that the
wave.
• The P wave can move
through solid rock and
fluids, like water or the
liquid layers of the earth.
• This is the fastest kind of
seismic wave, and,
consequently, the first to
'arrive' at a seismic
station.
 S Waves
• S waves are transverse
waves, particles move in
a direction perpendicular
to that of the wave.
• It is the second wave
that one feels during an
earthquake.
• It can only move through
solid rock, not through
any liquid medium. It is
this property of S waves
that led seismologists to
conclude that the
Earth's outer core is a
liquid.
 Surface Waves
• Travelling only through the crust, surface
waves are of a lower frequency than body waves,
and are easily distinguished on a seismogram as a
result.
• Though they arrive after body waves, it is surface
waves that are almost entirely responsible for the
damage and destruction associated with
earthquakes.
• This damage and the strength of the surface
waves are reduced in deeper earthquakes.
 Love Waves
• Named after A.E.H.
Love, a British
mathematician who
worked out the
mathematical model for
this kind of wave in
1911.
• It is the fastest surface
wave and moves the
ground from side-to-
side.
• Confined to the surface
of the crust, Love waves
produce entirely
horizontal motion.
 Rayleigh Waves
• A Rayleigh wave rolls
along the ground just
like a wave rolls across a
lake or an ocean.
• Because it rolls, it moves
the ground up and
down, and side-to-side
in the same direction
that the wave is moving.
• Most of the shaking felt
from an earthquake is
due to the Rayleigh
wave, which can be
much larger than the
other waves.
 Richter Scale
• Earthquakes are generally measured according to their
magnitude and intensity.
• Richter Scale is an open-ended logarithmic scale that
measures the magnitude of energy released by the
earthquake as detected by a seismograph.
• Most events measuring below three on this scale are
imperceptible to humans, whereas those above six tend to
cause damage.
• Very few earthquakes exceed nine on the Richter scale.
• An earthquake with a magnitude 7.5 on the Richter scale
releases 30 times the energy than one with 6.5 magnitudes.
• The largest earthquake that has been recorded with this
system is 9.25 (Alaska, 1969 and Chile, 1960).
 Modified Mercalli Scale
• The United States Geological Survey (USGS) utilizes a
crowdsourcing system for measuring earthquake
intensity that provides incredibly rapid and highly
accurate assessments almost anywhere in the world.
• This web-based program, called “Did You Feel It?”, can
provide responders with information about which specific
areas experienced the most shaking and therefore the
most potential damage, even in areas with few or no
technical instruments.
• This information provides an almost immediate post-
earthquake response tool and helps improve the
methods by which future earthquake losses are
estimated.
 Modified Mercalli Scale
• Citizens who felt the earthquake log on to this site
and select the event matching their location.
• They are presented with a survey that asks their
specific location (often by postal code) followed by
questions that provide a Modified Mercalli Intensity
(MMI) rating.
• Examples of questions include, Did the earthquake
wake you up? and Did objects fall off shelves?
• Within minutes, a map with micro-zoned intensity
begins to take shape. This map, called a Community
Internet Intensity Map (CIIM), shows where and how
strongly an earthquake has been felt.
 Modified Mercalli Scale
• Is based on observations rather than scientific
measurements.
• Uses Roman numerals ranging from I to XII.
• With an intensity of VI and below most of the
people can feel the shake and there are cracks on
the walls.
• With an intensity of XII there is general panic with
buildings collapsing totally and there is a total
disruption in normal life.
Modified Mercalli Scale
 Risk Profile : India
• A magnitude 4.0 earthquake is only equivalent to
about 6 tons of TNT explosives, but because the
Richter scale is a base-10 logarithmic scale, the
amount of energy released increases quickly.
• A magnitude 5.0 earthquake is about 200 tons of
TNT, magnitude 6.0 is 6,270 tons, 7.0 is 199,000
tons, 8.0 is 6,270,000 tons,
 Risk Profile : India
• Globally, earthquakes result in a loss of about 50,000 lives
every year.
• Earthquakes over 5.5 magnitude on the Richter scale are
progressively damaging to property and human life.
• Massive earthquakes generally occur near the junction of
two tectonic plates, along the Himalayan range, where the
Indian plate goes below the Eurasian plate.
• The Indian sub- continent situated on the boundaries of
two continental plates is very prone to earthquakes.
Fortunately, none of these have occurred in any of the
major cities.
• Nearly 59 percent of India’s territory is vulnerable to
earthquakes.
 Risk Profile : India
• The last three major earthquakes shook Gujarat in January
2001, Jammu and Kashmir in October 2005 and Sikkim in
2011. Many smaller- quakes have been occurring in various
parts of India.
• Seven states in North East (Assam, Arunachal Pradesh,
Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram, Tripura and Meghalaya), the
Andaman and Nicobar Islands, parts of three states in the
North/North-West (Jammu and Kashmir, Uttarakhand, Bihar,
and Gujarat are in Seismic Zone V.
• Wide-spread human and material losses, collapse of
infrastructure and services may be the major consequences of
the earthquake. Hundreds of thousands may be displaced,
often in remote mountainous areas in the North and North-
East.
List of significant Earthquakes in India
Zoning Map of India
 Secondary Hazards
• Landslides, rockslides (rockfalls), and avalanches. In
the 2001 El Salvador earthquakes, the vast majority of
the 1,100 victims died from a series of resulting slides.
• Tsunamis. Undersea earthquakes triggered both the
December 26, 2004, Indian Ocean tsunami and the
March 11, 2011, tsunami in Japan.
• Dam Failures.
• Fires.
• Blocked waterways.
• Industrial fallout.
• Biological and Industrial hazards.
 Effects
• Secondary and tertiary hazards.
• Damage human settlement, buildings.
• Infrastructural damage. Roads, bridges, railways,
water towers, pipelines, electricity generation
stations.