2.2 Landslides, Earthquakes & Tsunami's

1. A Landslide is when a mass of earth moves due to gravity.

2. Landslides are caused by heavy rainfall, earthquakes, or undercutting of banks and cliffs from waves or rivers.

3. Human actions can cause landslides due to buildings, roads or train tracks being made on hillsides as well as man-made hills.

4. Earthquakes are caused by the movement of the tectonic plates and are measured using the Richter scale.

5. The cause of earthquakes in Australia is intra-plate tension where movements occur along cracks and faults in the Earth’s crust.

6. In Australia, an earthquake or magnitude 5.5 or greater occurs every 15 months. Earthquakes have little impact on Australian communities as they are built in safe areas.

7. The Newcastle Earthquake:

·                     - Killed 13 people, injuring 120

·                      -35,000 homes and 3000 other buildings were moderately the seriously damaged

·                       - 70,000 buildings sustained minor damage

8. A landslide is when a mass of rock moves and an earthquake is when a plate moves.

9. A tsunami occurs when the ocean bottom moves forcing water to the surface creating waves.

10. Three events which will cause a tsunami are:

·         Earthquake

·         Volcano Eruption

·         Landslide

11. A tsunami is formed when a sudden shift in a plate causes sea water to be forced upwards. Waves move rapidly at speeds of 800km/h and soon hit land destroying everything in it’s path.

12. Three signs of a tsunami are:

·                        -An earthquake

·                         -A sudden retreat in sea level

·                         -A load roar

13. The Indian Ocean tsunami of 2004 was caused by an undersea earthquake between the Indo-Australian plate and Eurasian plate.

14. The Indian Ocean Tsunami took 20 minutes to be picked up by one of Australia’s 23 automated earthquake monitoring stations.

15. When a tsunami enters shallow water, it slows down and compresses making the waves bigger and stronger.

16. The United Nations responded by coordinating the development of a tsunami warning system for the Indian Ocean.

17. Ted Bryant is a geoscience professor and warns as of the possibility of a tsunami hitting Sydney from the Alpine Fault off New Zealand.

18. a.) The epicentre was located at 95’E and 5’N

      b.) i. India – 2hr

           ii. Africa – 7hr

           iii. Australia – 5hr

           iv. Tasmania – 9.5hr

2.1 Natural Hazards in Australia

1. A Natural Hazards is when the forces of nature combine to become destructive

2. A Natural Disaster affects a community and a Natural Hazard does not.

3. The two broad categories of natural hazards in Australia relate to weather and climate and the movement of the earth’s crust.

4. Weather/Climate: Drought, flood, heatwaves, bushfires, strong winds, storms, tropical cyclones and tornadoes

Movement’s in the Earth: Landslides, earth tremors, earthquakes and tsunamis

5. Natural Hazards that occur in densely populated areas are more noticeable than hazards that occur elsewhere because the impacts on communities are far more severe and costly.

6.Two specific impacts droughts have on rural communities are that farmers loose crops and animals and the fact that droughts occur over many years and affect large areas of the continent.

7. The three categories geographers use to classify the impacts of natural hazards are:

Social Impacts: When they effect the community. E.g. When a flood takes away a town.

Economic Impacts: When they effect the economy. E.g. When a tornado takes down a factory.

Environmental Impacts: When they impact they environment. E.g. When a cyclone takes down a grassland.

8. It is essential that Australian communities study natural hazards so we can find better ways for communities to survive the threat of living with them.

9. GIS is used to map the threat of natural hazards in Australia by recording all the natural hazards that have occurred in a certain postcode.

10. a.)The three most costly natural hazards in terms of building damage in Australia are:

·         Tropical Cyclones

·         Floods

·         Bushfires

b.) The natural hazard which caused the greatest loss of human life in the 20^th century were heatwaves.

11. a.) Local Councils:

·         It helps the Local Councils to prepare evacuation plans

·         It helps them to provide supplies and information to residents

·         It helps them to establish help centres

b.) State Governments:

·         They can prepare State evacuation plans

·         They can supply up to date information to Local Councils

·         They can make plans for emergency power and water supply

c.) Emergency Services:

·         They can focus their services in high risk areas

·         They can work with both state and local government to establish coordinated  evacuation centres/plans

d.) Insurance Companies:

·         They will use the map to structure appropriate insurance policies for people living in a range of high to low risk areas. E.g. Areas of high risk flooding will have a higher charge for their home and contents insurance.

The Earthquake & Tsunami in Japan

On March 11, 2011, an earthquake struck the north east coast of Japan measuring an astonishing 8.9. The epicentre of the quake was about 80 miles off the east coast of Honshu, Japan and caused deadly tsunami’s, mud slides, agricultural devastation and building destruction. The tsunami reached 10km inland at a height of 10m as it swept away cars, houses and people. So far the tsunami has taken at least 2,000 lives. The Fukishima Nuclear Power Plants have been severely damaged and millions are left without food and power and hospitals have no medicine.

 

The most devastated areas of the earthquake are located on the north east coasts. Towns like Sendai and Tsumi have taken the hardest hit of the earthquakes destructive force.

1.11 Australia’s Energy Resources

1. Three non-renewable energy resources are:

·         -Coal

·         -Oil

·         -Gas

2. Three renewable energy resources are:

·         -Solar

·         -Wind

·         -Hydro-Electricity

3. Australia is looking to develop clean energy sources due to the concern of the environment and climate change.

4. The top four coal produces in the world are: China, USA, India and Australia.

5. Australia’s coal reserves are up to 76 billion tonnes.

6. Australia is rich in natural gas resources

7. The Solar Power Plant to be built in Mildura, Victoria will cover 0.8 square kilometres. It will use technology developed to power satellites and consist of fields of mirrors. Because of the size and the mirrors, the Sun’s energy will be concentrated using cells that produce 1500 times more energy than a typical rooftop solar panel.

8. Electricity can be generated by the wind using large turbines. The wind will blow the 

turbines around causing friction to generate electricity.

9.

Advantages	Disadvantages
·         Provides 18,000 households with their energy needs, 2% of SA’s residential customers ·         Will reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions by around 2 million tonnes. ·         Will hold 23 turbines	·         Will cost $65 million ·         Will last 25 years ·         It will ruin the views of the country.

10. Hydro Power, Wind Power and Solar Power are all Renewable Energy Sources and give of no greenhouse gasses. They don’t hurt the environment and are easy to make.

13. The Gas Fields of Australia are located on the West Coasts, inland and the South Coasts covering 1,000’s of kilometres squared. The pipelines are directed to the main cities and towns around Australia most of them located in Victoria & NSW.

14. a.) i. AU $15 billion approx.

          ii. AU $5.05 billion approx.

          iii. AU $3 billion approx.

b.) i. AU $25 billion

     ii. AU $ 5.3 billion approx.

     iii. AU $ 3 billion approx.

c.) Coal has the greatest increase in export value.

1.10 Australia’s Natural Resources

1. Resources are any material that can be used by humans.

2. Renewable Resources: A material which can be reproduced within a human lifetime.

Non-Renewable Resources: A material which takes thousands or even millions of years to form.

3. Renewable Resources can become Non-Renewable from over-exploitation.

4. Soil is a very valuable resource as it is very old and fragile. Soil provides nutrients to organisms and allows successful agriculture industries.

5. Silviculture is the practice of controlling the growth of forests to reach people’s needs.

6. The area of forest in Australia is 164.4 million hectares, 21%.

7. Australia’s fishing and agricultural industries are highly important. The fishing industries are worth more than $2 billion as we have high-value species like tuna and lobsters. We have the 3^rd largest fishing zone. The agricultural industries supply many types of wood to the country as well as the rest of the world. We also supply some of the best vegetables and beef in the world.

8. To protect the fish species, The Australian Fisheries Management Authority set a limit of 5265 tonnes for the southern blue fin tuna catch in 2006.

9. The mineral Black Coal is Australia’s largest reserve.

10. Australia’s mineral reserves are increasing due to improved prospecting and extraction technologies.

11. Australia has a forest area of 164.4 million hectares, 21% of the land area and if split up, every person would receive 8.2 hectares. This land is divided equally between national parks and farms. The Native Forest area is 162.7 hectares, the Plantation Forest area is 1.7 million hectares and the Forest area in Nature Conservation Reserves is 21.5 million hectares.

12. Uranium is a valuable resource as it holds a lot of energy. Uranium has the potential to create weapons and power in small doses.

13. World Heritage sites are highly valuable as they attract tourists. Because of this, countries receive economic benefits.

14. Uranium mining impacts the landscape as it requires digging up the ground. Because of this, animals, plants and other life will be killed or moved.

15. Australia has a wide spread fishing zone expanding around the coasts and Islands. Around Australia, the fishing zones expand from 400-800km around the coast most of this being around the east coast. The fishing zone is also spread around Islands off Australia. These include Molfolk Island, Macquarie Island, Heard Island, the McDonald Islands, the Cocos Islands and Christmas Island.

16. a.) The Mine’s and Concentrator’s are found in the Northern Australia and South Australia. The Prospective Mines are found in Western Australia, the Northern Territory, Queensland and South Australia. The Former Mines are found in Queensland, the Northern Territory and South Australia.

b.) The Former Uranium mine found in South Australia is called Radium Hill.

c.) The Uranium mine in the Northern Territory is called Ranger.

17.

As shown, Australia has the world’s most Uranium at 1, 074, 000 tonnes. Kazakhstan, Canada and South Africa are the next three ranging from 158,000t to 298,000t. The last countries are found in the Americas, Russia and parts of Asia ranging from 93, 000t to 213, 000t.

18. a.) i. AU $300,000,000 approx.

          ii. AU $240,000,000 approx.

          iii. AU $550,000,000 approx.

b.) AU $350,000,000 approx.

c.) From 1986-92, the exports of uranium were doing fairly well averaging AU $300,000 approx. From 1993-06, the exports increased each year reaching an amazing AU $530,000,000 approx.