Impact or seismic activity

• The consequences of an earthquake would depend on

  • The magnitude and depth of the earthquake.
  • Geological conditions.
  • The distance from the epicentre
  • Population density, preparedness and education
  • The design and strength of buildings
  • The time of day
  • The impact of indirect hazards such as fires, landslides and tsunamis
• Primary impact - ground shaking causes:

  • Buildings and bridges to collapse
  • Windows to shatter
  • Power lines to collapse
  • Road and railway damage.
  • Water/gas mines and sewers to fracture.
• Primary impacts

  • Schools colleges and universities destroyed
  • Immediate deaths and injuries from crushing falling glass fire and transport accidents
  • Shocked, hungry people forced to sleep outside
  • Slope failures set off landslides and avalanches
  • Liquefaction of saturated soils
• Secondary impacts

  • Fires caused by broken gas pipes and power lines are difficult to put out
  • Education suspended for immediate future
  • Body is not buried or cremated.Spread diseases such as Cholera
  • Power cuts
• Long term impacts

  • Higher unemployment as not all businesses recover
  • Trauma and grief may take months or years from which to recover
  • Loss of farmland and food production
  • Repairs to buildings are difficult and reconstruction expensive
• Liquefaction occurs when compacted sediments loses strength and stiffness in response to an applied stress such as shaking during an earthquake. Material that is ordinarily a solid behaves like a liquid
• dLiquefaction requires a degree of soil saturation to occur
• •Liquefaction can cause buildings and infrastructure to collapse as well as a significant risk to life as it acts like quick sand