Earthquakes: Disaster mitigation

Will Haiti trigger more efforts in disaster mitigation?



Cartography: Nordpil

You are probably sick and tired of earthquakes by now. :-) I am not. Because earthquakes will not stop happening just because we move on to next hot thing in media. And as you can see from the map above, we are more vulnerable than ever since we urbanize in faster and faster pace.

Haiti Special and Earthquake Week-end

Stellare's Haiti Special and Earthquake Week-end




The Haiti earthquake is a disaster, there is no doubt about that. Unfortunately it seems like the relief is partly a disaster too, judging from the evidence of human greed surfacing in the wake of the joint global efforts to help Haiti.

This is not what Stellare's Haiti special is about. Except for a few cats and cars Stellare is all about science. And it is the science behind the Haiti earthquake that will be covered in this week-end special.

Natural hazards is one of my fields of expertise. I was a co-convener at the American Geophysical Union 2009, at the Natural hazard section. My recent scientific work includes the development of real-time GPS for early warning systems. I'm up to date on the state-of-the-art technologies developed for natural hazards early warning systems.

As a volunteer and idealist (I do this is my spare time), I am a producer and reporter for Astrocast.TV. This channel for astronomy and space news is a non-profit endeavour and rely on contributions from people like me. The crew there is nevertheless top notch professional led by former CNN director Richard Mathews.

Norwegians (me) are direct. This Earthquake Week-end is created to promote the great work of Astrocast.TV and I bluntly ask for your support to spread the word. In return you learn more about science and of course in good ol' Stellare style, you can enjoy plenty of illustrations.

By helping me you help mitigate future disasters. Public knowledge is one element in preventing natural hazards to become disasters of the dimension we witness in Haiti. Based on direct contact with leading experts, Astrocast.TV educates and entertains and thus contributes to increase the public (you) knowledge.



Stellare's A Green Space - A Green Earth (you can find all episodes of my segment here. Haiti on top)
Presentation of The Science Behind the Haiti Earthquake (directly from the horse's mouth interviews with links to the leading expert's websites and articles)

I need you to spread these links in your network and create as much fuzz as ever possible. I will be utterly grateful if you also provide me with feedback (bentebye@astrocast.tv), both on the Haiti show and ideas for future shows.

Thanks! Love you! Peace!

Stellare

PS Link love will get link love in return :-)

Thanks to BestOfStumbleUpon!

Haiti Post Quake

Haiti Post Quake



Credit: NASA/JPL

Here you see how Haiti looks from the air after the Haiti earthquake. The epicenter at the end of the fault (black arrow). And the capital Port-of-Prince (yellow arrow).





"This image will be combined with other images of the same area to be acquired later this month and in the future in order to measure the motion of Earth's surface during the time between images using a technique called interferometry. The interferometric measurements will allow scientists to study the pressures building up and being released on the fault at depth."

Haiti in Red

Haiti in Red



Credit: NASA/GSFC/METI/ERSDAC/JAROS, and U.S./Japan ASTER Science Team

With the help of satellite images before and after we can identify wound in the soil.

"Tiny dots of white against the plant-covered landscape (red in this image) are possible landslides, a common occurrence in mountainous terrain after large earthquakes. The possible landslides were identified by carefully comparing the new image with an image acquired one year ago.

Port-au-Prince, Haiti's capital, is silver in the false-color image. The rivers are pale blue, while the ocean is dark blue. Exposed soil is white."

The Science Behind The Haiti Earthquake

The Science Behind The Haiti Earthquake



Here you see a map of all the tectonic plate boundaries on this planet. In Haiti, we find the Enriquillo-Plantain Garden Fault (part of tectonic boundary) and the earthquake took place very close to the Haitian capital Port-of-Prince.

I had the honor of talking with some of the best experts on the Enriquillo fault as well as other leading scientists. This is the first time I do interviews with people, and it made me almost feel like a journalist. Funny, since the executive producer worked for years at CNN. That's right! I'm lucky to work with the best of the best. :-)

My video made it to the front page of The Global Geodetic Observing System. :-)

Read more and watch the video The Science Behind The Haiti Earthquake

Earthquake in Haiti and ClimateGate

Earthquake in Haiti and ClimateGate



The February show of A Green Space - A Green Earth provides you with in-depth coverage of the science behind earthquakes, in particular the recent Haiti quake, and Earth observation data sharing with a special focus on the so-called ClimateGate.




The Caribbean island Hispanola with Haiti and Dominican Republic More.
Credit: NASA

This information is provided by specialists, communicated by another specialist and wrapped up by a professional TV- producer, former CNN director Richard Mathews.

Stay tuned - the show airs 1. February 2010.


Earth Observation Data: To Share Or Not To Share

Geodesists in Haiti

Geodesists in Haiti



The earthquake, and particularly the aftermath of the earthquake, in Haiti is a terrible disaster. From a scientific point of view (leave out the human in the scientists) the Haitian earthquake is an excellent and unique opportunity to study our planet up close. Geodesists are now on their way to Port-au-Prince with their GPS equipment. Measuring the change in the shape of the Earth, or rather how much did the two tectonic plates (the Caribbean and North American one that is) move since the main shock, and aftershocks.

I will tell you later why I am DEAD INTERESTED IN THIS PARTICULAR JOURNEY. Help me cross your fingers for getting the geodesist from Santo Domingo to Port-au-Prince, will ya! :-)

Oh! This is geodesy.

InSAR in Wenchuan - China

Funky 'Seismic' Pattern



Credits: Jianbao Sun, IGCEA, Seismology and Geology, No.3, 2008

Wenschuan, China, May 2008




InSAR is the hottest tool to use from space - look how totally hippie the Wenchuan earthquake looks like using interferometry.

Using InSAR and GPS data, scientists are able to measure and monitor where and how stress changes in the crust as well as how any associated deformation is distributed.

We are definitely going to see more of these kind of maps! :-)

And oh, yeah. I dedicated an episode of A Green Space - A Green Earth to natural hazards. There you can see equivalent maps of L'Aquila after the earthquake this April. It has absolutely nothing to do with G8 in case you wonder...:-)

Earth Shaking

Shake Ya A..ahem..Earth!



Credit: James Canvin



I give you the next episode of A Green Space - A Green Earth where I talk about earthquakes and how space based Earth observations are saving our a...es. Well, some of us and even more in the future. When I'm not surfing the social internets, I'm contemplating over how the hell we can use GPS to spot a naughty fault before it starts shaking...Sort of. :-)

Earthquakes

Prediction of Earthquakes



Credit: National Science Foundation (USA)

Seismic waves were generated in the pilot hole of the San Andreas Fault Observatory at Depth, near Parkfield, Calif., and detected in the main hole, at depths of approximately one kilometer. An inverse correlation was found between changes in wave travel time and barometric pressure, causing increased stress in the rock.


Wouldn't we all like to know beforehand when an earthquake would strike? Scientists all over the world explore various ways of using technology to support earthquake early warning.

SAFOD finds evidence that seismic waves can be detected before major earthquakes.

Earthquakes

Big Quakes Make the Whole World Tremble




Credit: Aaron Velasco

This map of the world shows seismic stations that detected more than twice the normal number of small, nearby earthquakes after the passage of what are known as "surface waves" from major quakes that were centered hundreds to thousands of miles away and occurred from 1992 through 2006. A new study co-authored by University of Utah seismologist Kris Pankow found that at least 12 of the 15 major earthquakes (greater than magnitude-7) during 1992-2006 triggered small quakes in distant parts of the world. Scientists once believed big quakes could not trigger distant tremors.

China: Sichuan Earthquake

Never ending series of earthquakes...



Source: US Geological Survey (USGS)

This is the area that is expected to experience some 1000 afterquakes after the major 7,8 hit China on Monday 12. May 2008. Follow the quakes by the hour from USGS at the bottom here.

China: Sichuan Earthquake

Earthquake in China



Read the article in Australias Couriermail.

A computer-generated image from the US Geological Survey showing the intensity of the Chinese quake.
Red indicates extreme shaking with potentially very heavy damage. The yellow indicates strong shaking.

7.8 on Richter's

According to the State Seismological Bureau (SSB) a major earthquake measuring 7.8 on the Richter scale jolted Wenchuan County in southwest China's Sichuan Province at 2:28 p.m. local time, 12. May 2008.

Many parts of China, even the remote southern island province of Hainan, felt the quake. So did Bangkok, the capital of Thailand.




US Geological Survey detailed map of Earthquakes in the area around Chengdu.

Earthquakes in Norway

Small Country, Small Earthquakes



Stourragurra fault in Finnmark, Northern Norway


I know what I'm made of; organic material or biomass if you like. As such I cannot distinguish myself from the other biomass composing the biosphere of the Earth and therefore not the Earth itself. However, for the sake of my point I will talk about the Earth as opposed to humans and human activity and of how we can protect both Earth itself and what we as humans construct out of and on the Earth.

There is nothing we can do about earthquakes, volcanoes, tsunamis and other natural hazards on Earth. What we can do is to understand and try to predict this violent behavior of the planet, and by that protect both ourself and the planet from the consequences.

I am particularly thinking of how we can avoid building nuclear plants and the likes on top of a volcano or in a earthquake prone area. We can also calculate the expected shaking and construct our houses so that they can at least last smaller quakes.

Norway is prone with earthquakes. It is not only the fact that the country is small and remotely situation up north that might make you feel ignorant not knowing the first thing about Norway (perhaps :-)), it could also be the fact that the earthquakes are relatively small and therefore less talked about.

However small Norway is population wise with its less than 5 million people, it is a big oil, shipping and fishing nation. Norway has therefore obtained substantial information about its earthquakes. Imagine what could happen with oil and gas pipelines etc if the Earth shook them hard enough?

Understanding earthquakes and other natural hazards is therefore of out most importance also in an environmental perspective.



Earthquakes in and around Norway. Read more about them by clicking on the map. (NORSAR)

This is a post in the Earth Day series.