REMEMBERING 2O10’s EARTHQUAKES

AND TSUNAMIS

Walter Hays, Global Alliance for Disaster Reduction, University of

North Carolina, USA

IMPACTED NATIONS

• Haiti, Chile (Pacific Rim Nations), Turkey, Indonesia, China, Iran, …

SOCIETAL IMPACTS DURING 2010

• Over two hundred-twenty thousand people killed and even more injured.

• Millions of homes without power, damaged, or destroyed.

• Millions displaced, and their lives and livelihoods adversely affected.

• Importance of building codes with seismic design provisions highlighted.

• Infrastructure damaged and destroyed.

• Health care needs sharply increased.

• $ Tens of billions in insured and uninsured economic losses.

EARTHQUAKES

• HAITI

• CHILE

•TURKEY

•INDONESIA

•CHINA

•TAIWAN

•IRAN

M7.0 EARTHQUAKE STRIKES HAITI

THE WESTERN HEMISPHERE’S POOREST NATION WITH 8 IN 10 AT

POVERTY LEVEL

4:53 p.m.; JANUARY 12, 2010

THE HAITI EARTHQUAKE AND THE CARIBBEAN PLATE

PORT AU PRINCE: 1.8 MILLION IN A NATION OF NINE MILLION

DAMAGE DISTRIBUTION

SOCIETAL IMPACTS

• The lives of 3 million+ Haitians were adversely impacted.

• The Dominion Republic, Haiti’s neighbor, which experienced a M8.0 earthquake and tsunami in 1946 on a thrust fault, escaped with minimal impacts, but remains at high risk in future quakes.

CATASTROPHIC DEATH TOLL OF 220,000+

• The estimate of 220,000+ casualties became reality after burial in mass graves and search and rescue by Haitian and Int’l teams ended, and the rubble of thousands of collapsed buildings was cleared.

EXAMPLE OF DAMAGE: PORT AU PRINCE

COLLAPSE OF UN BUILDING; PORT AU PRINCE

DEATH TOLL REACHED AN ESTIMATED 220,OOO+

INFRASTRUCTURE DAMAGE

• Power was knocked out.

• Communication was disrupted.

• Utility service was interrupted.

• Roads were damaged.

• The airport’s control tower was badly damaged, limiting useage.

• The port was damaged.

PORT: TOPPLED CONTAINERS

HAITI’S POOREST OF THE POOR IN TENT CITIES FOR MONTHS

M8.8 EARTHQUAKE STRIKES CENTRAL CHILE:

3:34 am on February 27, 2010

Subduction Zone Quake 500 Times More Energy than the M7.0 Haiti Quake

800+ Deaths; 500+ Injured

Numerous Aftershocks

Tsunami Waves Travel Across Pacific

Estimated Loss: $30 Billion

LOCATION: 330 KM (200 MI) FROM SANTIAGO

LOCATION: 100 KM FROM CONCEPCION; 330 KM FROM SANTIAGO

The Chilean people had to cope with the demands associated with: 1) a mega-quake, 2) a vigorous aftershock sequence with large events, 3) tsunami wave run up, 4) looting by some of the affluent sector, and 5) recovery after the loss of 15 percent of the GDP.

DAMAGED BUILDING IN CONCEPCION

CONCEPCION: URGENT MASS CARE NEEDS

CONCEPCION: LOOTERS

CONCEPCION: ELEVATED HIGHWAY COLLAPSED

TSUNAMI(after the Chile earthquake)

• LOCAL AND PACIFIC- WIDE IMPACTS FROM THE FEBRUARY

27, 2010 CHILE EARTHQUAKE

TSUNAMI WAVES MOVE ACROSS THE PACIFIC

LOCAL TSUNAMI DAMAGE

M7.7 EARTHQUAKE STRIKES INDONESIA NEAR

EPICENTER OF 2004 QUAKE

SUBDUCTION ZONE OF SUNDA AND INDO-AUSTRALIA PLATES

5:15 AM, APRIL 7, 2010

This earthquake, although much less powerful than the 2004

earthquake, awakened memories of the December 26, 2004 earthquake

and Indian Ocean tsunami that killed over 216,000 people in 14 countries and caused losses of

over $10 B.

LOCATION

THE SLAB MODEL OF THE SUBDUCTION ZONE (USGS)

TOWN OF SINABANG (60 KM FROM EPICENTER)

The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center issued a watch for tsunamis

in Sumatra and Indian Ocean countries, but a destructive ocean

surge never happened.

M6.1 EARTHQUAKE STRIKES EASTERN TURKEY AT 4:32 AM

THREE VILLAGES DESTROYED ALONG WITH MANY FARM ANIMALS

AT LEAST 57 DEAD

MARCH 8, 2010

Turkey has a long history of damaging earthquakes.

The quake struck the in Elazig province at 4:32 am, leaving the

village of Okcular and two others devastated .

LOCATION MAP

The earthquake occurred near the intersection of the Northern Anatolian and the

East Anatolian faults.

NORTH AND EAST ANATOLIAN FAULTS

The pre-dawn earthquake struck as residents slept, shaking the poorly made buildings into piles of rubble and causing survivors to flee into the narrow streets to escape the aftershocks.

TRAPPED WHILE SLEEPING

OKCULAR: POOR CONSTRUCTION

AN INTRAPLATE, M6.9 EARTHQUAKE STRIKES

WESTERN CHINA

STRONG AFTERSHOCKS FOLLOWED THE MAIN SHOCK

7:49 AM OCCURRENCE WAS DEADLY FOR SCHOOL CHILDREN

APRIL 14, 2010

This earthquake didn't occur where the Indo-Australia and Eurasia plates meet; instead, it was an intraplate earthquake, occurring in the Tibetan plateau within

the Eurasian plate.

The Tibetan Plateau was created, along with the Himalayas, about 50 million

years ago, as part of the Indian subcontinent began to collide with

Eurasia.

The M7.9 Wenchuan earthquake that occurred on May 12, 2008 in

Sichuan Province, which was 32 x stronger, was generated on the

Longmenshan fault system.

The earthquake was centered in the township of Jiegu, in the county of Yushu, a rural, mountainous area that is part of the Tibetan Plateau

populated mainly by farmers, sheepherders, and trades people.

Qamdo, Tibet is the largest city near the epicenter.

LOCATION: QINGHAI PROVINCE NEAR TIBET

QINGHAI PROVINCE

YUSHU COUNTY: QAMDO, TIBET IS THE LARGEST NEARBY CITY

More than 90 % of the sun-dried mud brick and wood houses and buildings in the epicentral area

collapsed, killing an estimated 1,144 people and injuring about 10,000..

NO QUAKE RESISTANCE

An estimated 70 % percent of the schools were destroyed, and

residents, paramilitary, and soldiers used shovels in a frantic effort to

save children trapped in the rumble.

SEARCH AND RESCUE

TYPICAL DAMAGE

The minority nationalities living in the epicentral region don't normally

keep the dead overnight, so the funerals that occurred April 14th will

make accurate estimates of the death toll impossible.

Communication and transportation systems in the area were knocked

out, slowing local disaster assistance and search and rescue efforts, and limiting international assistance.

SURVIVORS FACED HARSH TEMPERATURES

Temperatures in the mountainous Tibetan plateau 5 km above sea level can reach

minus six degrees at night, so the government quickly arranged to send five

thousand tents and fifty thousand blankets for the homeless survivors.

The government allocated $30 million for relief and mobilized more than 5,000

soldiers, medical workers and other rescue workers to join with 700 troops

already on the ground.

TAIWAN: APRIL 26, 2010

APRIL 26, 2010

M6.5 EARTHQUAKE AND 3- DAYS OF RAIN CREATE

CONDITIONS FOR LANDSLIDES

LANDSLIDE

LANDSLIDE

SEARCH AND RESCUE

DECEMBER 21, 2010

M6.5 EARTHQUAKE STRIKES SOUTHEASTERN

IRAN

The M6.5 earthquake, centered near the location of the 2003 Bam quake in

southeastern Iran, killed at least 11, damaged 1,800 homes, downed phone

lines, and triggered landslides.

Almost exactly seven years ago in the same region, a M6.6 earthquake struck the

nearby city of Bam, killing more than 25,000 people and destroying a medieval

castle that was one of Iran's most treasured archaeological sites.