Geography Case Studies

• Mount Pinatubo

  • composite volano, 12 June 1991
  • 600 years of inactivity
  • andesetic lava (thick and explosive)
  • pyroclastic flows 200km/hour
• Mount Pinatubo

  • predicted and evacuated thousands of people
  • 847 deaths
  • 5000 homes destroyed, 70,000 damaged -> displacement
  • lahars up to 3m
• Mount Pinatubo

  • global temps -0.5°C from 1991 to 1993
  • 800,000 farm animals killed
  • Disease in evacuation camps
• Mount Pinatubo

  • tiltmeters
  • PHIVOLCS detected earthquake swarms
  • gas-monitoring helicopters
  • dykes and dams to prevent Lahars and flash floods
  • moved farms, towns, villages and employment away
• Kilauea


  • erupting since 1983

  • shield hotspot, effusive basaltic lava

  • Pahoa village evacuated in 2014

  • covered 100km2

  • destroyed 200 buildings, blocked roads, vog
• Kilauea

  • 2000 tones per day sulphur dioxide released
  • 2.6 million tourists
  • fertile soil earning $30 million
  • 17 webcams
  • satellites, gas emissions monitored, seismometers
• Hurricane Katrina

  • 29 August 2005
  • 1800 deaths
  • $100 billion cost
  • tracked and monitored as C3
  • evacuation only 80% (no cars)
• Hurricane Katrina

  • superdome shelter (limited supplies, overcrowded, spread of disease)
  • 6m storm surge, 80% New Orleans flooded
  • not well maintained levees and barriers overwhelmed
• Hurricane Katrina

  • FEMA (federal emergency management agency) not well prepared, unable to cope
  • poor people were worse affected
• Typhoon Haiyan

  • 7 November 2013
  • assisted tracking by Japan (C1)
  • evacuations of areas most at risk
  • PSWS (public storm warning signal) increased warning to 1-5
• Typhoon Haiyan

  • 7 provinces in national calamity
  • relief blocked by road damage and airports closed created panic
  • isolated areas had no supplies or clean water and electricity