Every card in Maps and place knowledge, Year 10: earthquakes, eruptions and living with tectonic risk
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- An effect caused directly by the earthquake or eruption itself, such as buildings collapsing as the ground shakes
A primary effect of a tectonic hazard
HintIt comes first, with nothing in between the event and the damage.
WhyDeaths and injuries from falling buildings, roads cracked by shaking and farmland buried by lava or ash are all immediate and direct. In an exam answer on your own case study, sort every effect into this group or the group of knock-on effects.
- An earthquake under the sea sets off a tsunami, and shaking on steep hillsides sets off landslides. What kind of effect are the tsunami and the landslides?
Secondary effects
HintThey are knock-on results, one step removed from the shaking.
WhyA knock-on effect happens because of the direct damage or the shaking, sometimes hours or weeks later. Fires from broken gas pipes, disease from dirty water, homelessness and lost jobs belong in the same group.
- Action taken in the first hours and days after a hazard strikes, such as search and rescue, emergency medical care and temporary shelter
An immediate response to a hazard
HintThe name means 'straight away'.
WhyThe aim is to save lives and meet basic needs: rescue, first aid, food, clean water and shelter. Work that goes on for months and years afterwards, such as rebuilding homes and improving building rules, belongs in a different group.
- Earthquakes in higher income countries (HICs) usually kill fewer people, yet the cost of the damage in money is often far greater. Why is the cost greater?
The buildings, roads and businesses destroyed are worth more
HintCompare the price of what stands on each piece of ground.
WhyAn HIC has expensive property, factories, power stations and transport links, so the bill for the same shaking is larger. In a lower income country (LIC) the cost in money may be smaller, but it is often a bigger share of the country's wealth and far more lives are lost.
- In the weeks after a major earthquake, diseases such as cholera can spread among survivors. What damage makes this likely?
Broken water pipes and sewers, so drinking water is contaminated
HintThink about what runs under the streets and what happens when it cracks.
WhyCholera spreads through water polluted by sewage. When pipes burst and treatment works fail, people drink whatever water they can find. Crowded temporary camps make the spread faster. This is a classic secondary effect.
- Farmland close to volcanoes is often very productive, because weathered ash and lava break down into ____ soil.
fertile
HintThe word describes ground that is rich in the minerals crops need.
WhyVolcanic rock and ash contain elements such as potassium and magnesium. As they weather, these are released into the soil. Harvests are good, so farming families have a strong reason to stay despite the danger.
- Volcanoes attract millions of visitors each year. How does this give local people a reason to go on living near one?
Tourism provides jobs and income
HintThink of the guides, hotels, cafés and coach drivers.
WhyVisitors pay for places to stay, food, transport and tours, which supports the local economy. Volcanic areas can also offer geothermal energy and valuable minerals. For many people these benefits outweigh a risk that seems distant.
- A volcanic eruption can often be forecast days or weeks ahead, but an earthquake cannot. Why is the eruption easier to forecast?
Rising magma gives warning signs that can be measured
HintSomething is on the move under the mountain before anything comes out.
WhyAs magma rises it causes many small earthquakes, makes the ground swell and releases more gas, especially sulfur dioxide. Instruments can record all three. Before an earthquake there is no reliable signal, so scientists can only give the probability of one in a region over a number of years.
- An instrument placed on a volcano to measure tiny changes in the slope of the ground as magma rises beneath it
A tiltmeter
HintIts name comes from a short verb meaning 'to lean'.
WhyRising magma makes a volcano swell like a slowly inflating balloon, so its sides become very slightly steeper. Recording that change, along with small earthquakes and gas emissions, helps scientists decide when to warn people to leave.
- Monitoring, prediction, protection and one more: which of the four ways of managing tectonic risk covers evacuation routes, earthquake drills and stores of emergency supplies? (one word)
planning
HintIt is what you do when you work out in advance who goes where and when.
WhyThis strategy is about being ready: hazard maps that keep new building away from the most dangerous land, practised evacuation routes, drills in schools and workplaces, and stockpiles of food, water and medicine. It is cheap compared with engineering, so it matters most where money is short.
1★ GCSE-GEOG-MAP-0017
2★ GCSE-GEOG-MAP-0018
3★ GCSE-GEOG-MAP-0019
4★ GCSE-GEOG-MAP-0020
5★ GCSE-GEOG-MAP-0021
6★ GCSE-GEOG-MAP-0022
7★ GCSE-GEOG-MAP-0023
8★ GCSE-GEOG-MAP-0024
9★ GCSE-GEOG-MAP-0025
10★ GCSE-GEOG-MAP-0026
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