Geography Project Sichuan Earthquake

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Geography ProjectSichuan Earthquake

• China should learn from Japan to minimize
  earthquakes destruction in China in the future
• Group 2
• Fiona Kam F.4A(19)
• Agatha Ng F.4A(30)
• Vanessa Pang F.4A(31)
• Joanne Li F.4C ( 22 )

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China should learn from Japan to minimize
earthquakes destruction in China in the future

1. Which plate movement led to Sichuan Earthquake?
2. What were the physical factors that led to such
   disastrous impact?
3. What were the human factors that led to such
   disastrous impact?
4. What has the government done to minimize
   earthquakes destruction in future?
5. What can we learn from developed countries to
   minimize earthquake destruction?

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(No Transcript)
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Which plate movement led to Sichuan Earthquake?
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Which plate movement led to Sichuan Earthquake?

• China is located along the destructive plate
  boundary( circum-pacific belt).
• Because of compression force generated from
  sinking convection current in the asthenosphere,
• The Indo-Australian plate( continental plate)
  collided with the Eurasian Plate( Continental
  plate). When the two plates converge, the denser
  Indo-Australian Plate subducted,
• compression force would create friction and
  stress in the crust.

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Which plate movement led to Sichuan Earthquake?

• Cracks are developed
• Faulting occurred due to the cracks.
• Earthquake occurred along the Longmenshan fault.
  
• When the accumulated stress was larger then the
  strength of rock mass,
• energy was then released and sent out at seismic
  waves through the crust causing violent vibration
  in the crust.
• Sichuan Earthquake occurred

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What were the physical factors that led to such
disastrous impact?

• High magnitude
• -Richter scale 8
• Shallow focus
• -19km to 20km
• Long duration
• -80s to 120s
• More aftershocks
• -six aftershocks measured 6 or over on the
  Richter scale
• ? caused the collapse of weakened structures
  
• ? led to further loss of life and property
• Short distance from epicenter (Wenchuan)
• -it is 80km away from Chengdu, the capital
  centre of Sichuan
• Large affected regions
• -over 100000 sq.km

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What were the physical factors that led to such
disastrous impact?

• Relief
• -hilly, mountainous 1) led to landslide
• the landslide materials blocked roads
• the communication links was broken down
• there were damages to hospital and utility works
• ? caused difficulties in sending relief
  supplies to the affected areas
• ? make relief work more difficult
• ?slowed down relief work

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What were the physical factors that led to such
disastrous impact?

• Time
• -afternoon 228 lots of indoor activities
  e.g. children were learning at schools
  adults were working
• Related hazards are caused1)landslide2)
  flooding
• -due to the serious landslides in many hill
  slopes
• that cause by the Sichuan earthquake,
• -The slope materials blocked the rivers,
  forming dams.
• -These created 34 huge lakes behind these
  dams could be breached at any time.
• and thus flooding occurs.

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What were the human factors that led to such
disastrous impact?

• High population density
• -population around 84million
• -area around 480000km sq.
• ? population density 84million/480000
• 175
• Therefore, the population density of Sichuan is
  high.

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What were the human factors that led to such
disastrous impact?

• Low social awareness
• 1) education
• Sichuan had 42 institutions of high learning
  schools 
• 5000 specialized, regular and coeducational
  secondary schools with 450 000 students and
• 250 000 teachers 
• Normal Schools with 250 000 students and
  20000 teachers

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What were the human factors that led to such
disastrous impact?

• -the proportion student who could receive
  education is low
• - even if they were sent to school, they
  might not be taught about what they should do
  before, during and after a hazard, especially
  about earthquakes.
• -regular large-scale earthquake drills for the
  general public were hardly held

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What were the human factors that led to such
disastrous impact?

• Low government efficiency ( but improved
  compared to 7.28 Tongshan Earthquake) it took 4
  days and nights to start the rescue work for
  Tongshan Earthquake but it took less than an hour
  for to start the rescue work for the Sichuan
  Earthquake
• No efficient monitoring/ warning system
• - cannot predict the time and place of
  occurrence accurately as well as the scale of
  possible earthquakes.
• ? Therefore, the government cant immediately
  take action to warn the people to escape to a
  safer place

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What has the government done to minimize
earthquakes destruction in future?

• Eliminated the tofu-dregs schoolhouses
• ?as there were corruption on the resources
  allocation on building the schools
• ?Implemented laws governing the height and
  structure of buildings

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What has the government done to minimize
earthquakes destruction in future?

• Increased the number of rescue team
• Planned to hold more earthquake drills
• assigning round-the-clock workers
• ensuring open routes of transportation to the
  areas devastated by the earthquake
• asking people to donate money or material
  supplies

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What can we learn from the MDC to minimize the
damages of earthquake?

• - Improve the transport network as to improve
  the relief work
• as rescue helicopters had trouble landing into
  the epicenter area in Wenchuan,
• ?we can propose a landing spot online as the
  first touchdown place for the helicopters
• as the soldiers found it very difficult to get
  help to the rural regions of the province,
• ?gov. can build more roads on the rural region in
  order to improve the relief work with an
  evacuation route with adequate road signs should
  be established at urban-planning stage

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What can we learn from the MDC to minimize the
damages of earthquake?

• Provide more education to the people and drills
  to increase the social awareness
• In Japan, students are taught about what they
  should do before during and after a hazard
• ?the teachers in Sichuan and China can teach the
  students how to do when earthquake occurred

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What can we learn from the MDC to minimize the
damages of earthquake?

• Education
• Japan provides schemes for the residents to join
  that provides the information of how to evacuate
  when earthquake occurred
• ?China can also provide schemes
• For example
• ltltTo Protect Your Family from Injurygtgt
• ltltDiscuss Evacuation Plans with Your Family in
  Advancegtgt
• ltltPrepare Items to Take Out in Case of
  Emergencygtgt

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What can we learn from the MDC to minimize the
damages of earthquake?

• Education
• The officials should educate the village heads in
  Sichuan how to evacuate when earthquake occurred
• ? the village heads can teach the residents
  (farmers)

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What can we learn from the MDC to minimize the
damages of earthquake?

• Education
• Put some Big Characters or propaganda with how to
  prepared for the earthquake on the notice board
  of the villages
• Train the rescue team more frequently
• China can learn from Japan that have regular
  large-scale earthquake drills with the residents
  in Sichuan for the evacuation of earthquake

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What can we learn from the MDC to minimize the
damages of earthquake?

• Improve land use planning
• -build/reserve for large open spaces for
  evacuation
• For Example
• Build a recreational park
• ?for people to relax and play
• ?in case of emergency (e.g. earthquake happen),
  people can evacuate to the park

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What can we learn from the MDC to minimize the
damages of earthquake?

• Improve land use planning
• -build earthquake-proof buildings for school
  instead of tofu-dregs schoolhouses
• In order to avoid to build tofu-dregs
  schoolhouses
• Implement laws governing the height and structure
  of buildings should be imposed
• Each building has to pass tests for hazard such
  as earthquakes
• In Japan and USA build earthquake-proof
  buildings for schools, houses and universities

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What can we learn from the MDC to minimize the
damages of earthquake?

• In Japan,
• - Government buy insurance for the residents
  that live in a particular area which always
  happen earthquake
• ?China can also buy insurance for the residents
  in Sichuan

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Difficulties in implementing the measures

• China is a less developed country
• - It has to use a large part of capital to
  develop industries
• ? Government may not put capital on
  minimizing the damages of earthquakes

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Reflection

• Through this project, we had learnt more about
  earthquakes, especially the Sichuan earthquake.
  We can know more about why the earthquake
  happened, the physical and human factors that
  caused such serious dangers in the earthquake.
  Besides, we have also thought of some measures
  that Sichuan and the Chinese government can take
  to minimize dangers caused by earthquakes.
  However, Chinese government may not be able to
  carry out all these solutions since some of them
  are costly and require a longer time.

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• The End
• Thank You