June Holidays

Before the June holidays, Miss J gave us an article and some notes related to some measure to adapt and respond to earthquakes. There are five components to these measures. They are, the planning the location of infrastructure, education, earthquake and monitoring systems, designing new infrastructure and strengthening the existing infrastructure. Moreover, the first measure that we are going to start with will be the planning location of infrastructure. One of the measures to be taken is to plan for buildings to be further away from areas that are prone to earthquakes. Next, we can implement guidelines on where buildings can be constructed. Lastly, we can access the risk of earthquakes using factors like population density and distribution, technological hazards and amount of expected ground shaking. These measures have advantages but they also have disadvantages. They are difficult to landuse, especially in developing nations where rural-urban migration and population growth is rapid and secondly, illegal houses or slums built in regions that are prone to earthquakes are difficult to manage.

Secondly, we need education measures to reduce chaos, injuries and deaths during earthquakes. We could do that by regulating drills, so that people will know and will be familliar with the safety measures to take when an earthquake occurs, and put up posters and signs to warn people of earthquake-prone areas like areas with soft soil or low-lying coastal areas where tsunamis occur. Furthermore, to inform people of steps to take when earthquake occurs, example: going to high ground or going inland, staying away from coastal areas. These measures are able to educate complacent people who may not see the importance of earthquake education which could be due to rare occurrences of earthquake in an area. For an example that Miss J gave us, Tokyo had not had a major earthquake since 80 years, hence they are less prepared for earthquakes compared to other parts of Japan.

The third measure we are going to explain will be earthquake monitoring and warning systems. Chrystal personally thinks that this measure is most important as we are not able to escape if we do not know roughly when there will be an earthquake. This measure is to prevent deaths, prepare people and reduce damage. There is a seisometer and computers to measure movements of Earth's surface and determine earthquake occurrences.

A seisometer is an instrument measures motions of the ground, including those of seismic waves generated by earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and other seismic sources. Records of seismic waves allow seismologists to map the interior of the Earth, and locate and measure the size of these different sources. There are also different types os seismometers. Some are as of shown below:

We can also track the rise in water levels of seas and oceans before alerting relevant authorities. The authorities will then inform people of the necessary actions to take through media broadcasts or sirens, mass evacuation procedures. This measure is effective on a local scale. For example, in 1975, Haicheng, China, scientists detected tremors and informed authorities to warn people to evacuate the city. 90 000 people were saved but 90% of the buildings were destroyed. Some may choose to ignore the warnings given to avoid disruption to businesses or tourism and some may not trust the predictions of the scientists as they are not always accurate.

Fourthly, we come to designing new infrastructure. We could apply this measure by adding steel bars to the infrastructure to strengthen them or add shock absorbers in the building foundations to absorb the tremors of earthquakes. However, this makes the cost of the materials higher for building infrastructure.

Question time! Now, lets all think about two questions: Can poorer nations afford to adopt such a measure? Why or why not?

The poorer nations definitely cannot afford such measure. We think that the poorer nations are too busy themselves to afford for the rising prices of food and rising prices of houses that they are able to afford such measure.

Lastly, the strengthening of existing infrastructure is to reduce fire occurrences and collapsing of infrastructure. We are able to wrap steel frames around pillars of buildings and pillars or place steel rods in existing structures. Most importantly, using fireproof materials and the installation automatic shut-off valves into gas pipes and electricity supplies are able to minimise the risk of fire. These measures will achieve high cost and these strengthen infrastructure are not as strong as the new infrastructure which leads to them being prone to damage. For example, in 1994, the Northridge Earthquake in USA where strengthened buildings were still badly damaged.

Question time!
Hmmm...Can poor countries afford to strengthen their existing infrastructure? Do they have the financial resources to do so?

We all know that if the countries are poor, they cannot afford the fourth and the fifth measures we had explained. To sum it all up, the people need to heed the warnings of the scientists and involve themselves in regular drills.

Happy Holidays!@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@