GE 8071 DISASTER MANAGEMENT

Unit I

INTRODUCTION TO DISASTERS
Lecture 2

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 Types of disasters
Disasters are of two types :
Natural disasters
Man-made disasters

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 Types of Natural Disasters
 Natural Disasters are of the following types:
 Earthquakes
 Landslides
 Volcanic eruptions
 Cyclones
 Floods
 Droughts
 Fire
 Tsunami

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 Earthquakes
 An earthquake is a shaking of the ground caused by the sudden breaking and
movement of tectonic plates of the earth's rocky outermost crust.
 The edges of the tectonic plates are marked by faults. Most earthquakes
occur along the fault lines when the plates slide past each other or collide
against each other.
 The shifting masses send out shock waves that may be powerful enough to
alter the surface of the Earth, thrusting up cliffs and opening great cracks in
the ground and cause great damage like collapse of buildings and other
man-made structures, broken power and gas lines, landslides, snow
avalanches, tsunamis.

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 Types of Earthquakes
 BASED ON LOCATION:
Interplate Intraplate

An interplate
earthquake is one that An intraplate earthquake is an earthquake that occurs in the interior of
occurs at a plate a tectonic plate
boundary

Recurrence time is less Recurrence time is longer

Intraplate earthquakes are rarely recognized at the surface. This is

Interplate Earthquakes
because the faults are buried under several kilometers of surface
are recognized at
materials & the longer recurrence intervals allow any surface
surface
expression of faulting to be eroded.

Interplate earthquakes Intraplate earthquakes release more stress. The ground motion caused
release less stress & are by intraplate earthquake seismic waves dissipates more slowly. The
dissipated quickly strong, coherent rocks that make up the interiors of plates transmit
because of weaker rocks seismic energy more efficiently over longer distances than the less
near plate boundaries. coherent, weaker rocks near plate boundaries.

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 Types of Earthquakes
 BASED ON FOCAL DEPTH:

Shallow Earthquake Deep Earthquake

Shallow-focus earthquakes occur at Deep-focus earthquakes occur at

depths less than 70 km greater focal depths of 300 – 700 km.

Deep focus earthquakes occur within

Shallow focus earthquakes are found
the deeper subduction zones of the
within the earth’s outer crustal layer
earth

Shallow focus earthquakes are of Deep focus earthquakes are of higher

smaller magnitudes, of a range 1 to 5 magnitudes, 6 to 8 or more.

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 Types of Earthquakes

BASED ON THE CAUSE:

 Non Tectonic Earthquakes: These are due to volcanic activities and man
made reasons e.g, nuclear testing, blasts, construction of large dams,
deforestation etc.
 Tectonic Earthquakes: These are due to sudden slip in the fault of the
tectonic plates of the earth.

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 Types of Earthquakes
 BASED ON THE MAGNITUDE OF THE EARTHQUAKE:

Class Magnitude

Great 8 or more

Major 7 – 7.9

Strong 6 – 6.9

Moderate 5 – 5.9

Light 4 – 4.9
Minor 3 -3.9
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 Types of Earthquakes
 BASED ON EPICENTRE DISTANCE:
 Epicentral distance, commonly measured in ° (degrees) and denoted as
Δ (delta) in seismology.
 Local Earthquakes: Affected area is very less, within 1 degree of the
epicenter of the earthquake
 Regional Earthquakes: 1 degree to 10 degree
 Teleseismic Earthquakes: greater than 10 degrees

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 Volcanic Eruptions
 Volcanoes can cause widespread destruction and consequent disaster in

several ways.

 The effects include the volcanic eruption itself that may cause harm following

the explosion of the volcano or the fall of rock.

 Second, lava may be produced during the eruption of a volcano. As it leaves the

volcano, the lava destroys many buildings and plants it encounters.

 Third, volcanic ash may form a cloud, and settle thickly in nearby locations. In

sufficient quantity ash may cause roofs to collapse under its weight but even

small quantities will harm humans if inhaled.

 A specific type of volcano is the super volcano.. The main danger from a super

volcano is the immense cloud of ash which has a disastrous global effect on

climate and temperature for many years.

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 Types of Man-made Disasters
 Man-made Disasters are of the following types:
 Industrial Accidents
 Nuclear & Chemical Disasters
 Transportation Accidents
 Terrorism

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 Greatest Man-Made Disasters
 Three Mile Island Accident (1979) - resulted from a nuclear reactor's
partial core meltdown at 3MI's Unit 2 Nuclear Generation Station, in
Dauphin County near Harrisburg on March 28, 1979.
 Exxon Valdez Oil Spill Disaster (1989) - an American oil tanker
collided with the Bligh Reef in Prince William Sound, Alaska on
March 24, 1989.
 Dust Bowl or Dirty Thirties (1930s-1940s) - excessive farming and
natural drought combined to create massive dust storms or "black
blizzards) across the Great Plains states.

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 Greatest Man-Made Disasters
 Seveco/Meda (Italy) Dioxin Disaster (1976) - a reactor at the ICMESA
chemical plant exploded releasing a toxic cloud of dioxin on July 10,
1976 near Sevesco and Meda Italy.
 Minamata Disease / Mercury Poisoning (1932-1968) - first discovered
in 1956, caused by the long time release of mercury into the Shiranui
Sea by the Chisso Corp. Cases of mercury poisoning resulted from
eating contaminated fish and shellfish.

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 Greatest Man-Made Disasters

 Love Canal (1940s-50s and again 1976-78) - Work began on the canal
to connect the Niagara River with Lake Ontario in the late 1890s but
only a mile was ever dug. So in the 1920s Niagara Falls NY started
using it as a municipal garbage dump site. Hooker Chemical used it
for chemical waste drums between 1942-53 before donating to the
city. In the late 1970s investigative newspaper reporters began
documenting the toxic neighborhood and health problems.

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 Greatest Man-Made Disasters
 Great Smog of '52, London (1952) - the "Big Smoke," Between
December 5-9, 1952, a severe air pollution event affected London. It
was caused by airborne coal pollutants, combined with cold weather,
windless conditions and an anticyclone (inversion).
 Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill The April 20, 2010 explosion and subsequent
fire on Transocean's Deepwater Horizon semi-submersible Mobile Offshore
Drilling Unit (MODU), resulted in the massive BP offshore oil spill in
the Gulf of Mexico. It is considered the largest accidental marine oil spill in
the world, and the largest environmental disaster in U.S. history. The
explosion killed 11 workers and injured 16 others.

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 Greatest Man-Made Disasters

 Chernobyl Disaster, Ukraine, Russia (1986) - Four hundred times more

radioactive material was released from Chernobyl than by the atomic
bombing of Hiroshima. This catastrophic nuclear accident occurred on 26
April 1986 at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in Ukraine (then officially
the Ukrainian SSR). The explosion and fire released large quantities of
radioactive particles into the atmosphere, which spread over much of the
western USSR and Europe.

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 Greatest Man-Made Disasters

 Bhopal Disaster or the Bhopal gas tragedy (1984) -Often considered the
world's worst industrial disaster, this gas leak incident at the Union Carbide
India pesticide plant in Bhopal India occuried on the night of 2–3 December
1984. Over 500,000 people n and around the nearby shanty towns were
exposed to toxic methyl isocyanate (MIC) gas and other chemicals.

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