Plate Boundaries

Destructive (convergent) –
• Oceanic meets continental = Nazca plate is forced underneath the South American
plate.
• Oceanic meets oceanic – Pacific plate subducts underneath the Philippine plate.
• Continental meets continental –

Constructive ( diverging) -
• Eg – Somalian and Nubian plate moves away from the Arabian plate

Conservative plate –
• San Andreas fault – Pacific plate moves faster than the North American plate.

Collision –
• Himalayas – Indio Australian collides with the Eurasian plate.
Hot Spots
• Hawaii – Volcanic region formed in the middle of the pacific ocean and
made up entirely of islands.
• Hawaii is in the middle of the largest plates – pacific plate (intra plate)
• Kauai – Oldest main Hawaiian island formed over 5 million years ago.
• Kilauea – Active shield volcano and sits above the Hawaiian hotspot. In
May 2018 the worlds most active volcano had heated up. Eruptions have
been spewing lava into residential areas, destroying homes and roads.
• These eruptions are a result of an increase in pressure of the magma
chamber that fuels the volcano in addition to the intrusion of magma into
the side of the volcano.
Nepal Earthquake
• Location – Kathmandu (central Nepal).
• Magnitude – 7.6 with 2 aftershocks (6.6 and 6.7 magnitude)
• Depth of focus – 8.2km = shallow focus.
• Deaths – 8,964
• Destruction - $10 billion which is 50% of Nepal’s GDP.
Social impacts -
• Many people were working outside = More lives lost
• 700,000 pushed into poverty
• 3.7 million receiving humanitarian aid
Economic impacts –
• Tourists flows decreased by 72% after 2015 earthquake.
Preparedness –
Expecting a large earthquake for a long time but were not prepared.
Buildings constructed without the oversight of a trained engineer. – not strong enough
 Hospital retrofitting – Hospital was able to withstand the pressure of earthquake due to them enforcing roof bracing and installing
seismic belts prior to the earthquake.
Relief – India – within 15 min send medical and relief team , China $9.3 million in tents, blankets and medical generators.
Red cross – 8000 staff and volunteers for search and rescue, first aid and evacuations. + cash grants to over 50,000 families who had
lost their businesses or homes.
 Mexico Earthquake
2017 magnitude of 7.1
Focus 51km deep
225 killed
Buildings collapsed and power cut affected millions
Gas mains broke – fires
Since Mexico’s large earthquake in 1985 its more prepared. They have built more extensively and got smarter about
earthquake preparation.
Updated building codes and high regulations
Partnered with US and Japan to improve knowledge
Evacuation drills
Mexican football team – crowdfunding page – raised $175,000
Boxing day Tsunami – Indian Ocean
• December 26th 2004
• Earthquake in Indonesia caused a tsunami between 9.0 and 9.3 Mg.
• Indio Australian subducting underneath the Eurasian plate.
• Hit 12 countries – Worst effected = Indonesia as it killed over 236,000 people.
Nature of tsunami –
• Epicentre = close to densely populated area and gave people no time to react to tsunami.
• Low lying coastlines – waves travelled several m’s and caused lots of damage.
• No early warning systems in the Indian Ocean.
• Many countries hit were LIC – resources not available.
• Sri –Lanka – Mangrove trees had been destroyed to allow for tourist development – less natural
protections as the waves struck.
Impacts –
• 70 % of villagers killed in coastal villages
• Sri – Lanka – 50% of fishing industry was destroyed.
• Thailand’s tourist industry lost $25 million.
• Fresh water supplies and agricultural soil was contaminated by salt water.
Indian Ocean – monitoring system
• The German human aid program for the Indian Ocean region started immediately after
the disaster with substantial funding of 45M Euro for the proposed German Indian
Ocean Tsunami Early Warning System
• Steps - When an earthquake strikes in the Indian Ocean region, data is transmitted to
the Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre (PTWC) based in Hawaii.
• The job is to locate and determine the size of earthquakes, determine whether they
have the potential to produce tsunamis and predict tsunami wave arrival times
wherever possible.
• The responsibility of each national agency to alert its population,
•
Tectonic vulnerability
• Complicated fault – Eurasian and African continental plate.
• Bam (2003) – Mg 6.6, Mercalli 11 = killed 31,000 when unbaked clay houses collapsed.
• Lack of understanding of the tectonic situation + how to be prepared.
• Turkey – Seismic mitigation has evolved in rural communities with aseismic building
practices. Urbanisation has replaced traditional building materials + methods with
reinforced concrete.
• Young adults move away – opportunity to pass on knowledge and understanding of
aseismic building practices is lost.
• Infrastructure built on Palaeozoic rock
• After Izmit (mg 7.4) – which killed 17,000 people there was a focus on training local
people within communities to reduce the impacts of earthquakes. Eg – Leaflet for
advice on making homes safer.
Haiti – Developing country
• Located on the fault between North American + Caribbean plate
• 2010 – Eq Mg 7.0 near capital
Physical factors –
• Shallow focus – 13km
• Liquefaction – caused buildings to sink
• Epicentre – close to densely populated area
Political, social and economic factors –
• Developing country, poor = limited resources which are spent more on immediate issues like disease rather than eq preparedness.
• High levels of corruption
• Lack of building controls and regulations meant buildings were poorly built + couldn’t sustain the ground shaking.
Impacts on Haiti
• Airport and aid supplies not distributed = more death
• ¼ of gov officials killed – couldn’t organise recovery and relief efforts.
• 2010 –outbreak of cholera – lack of medical resources + supplies health
• 39% Haitians had access to safe water, 24% sanitation
• 30 – 40% of gov budget came from aid
5 years later – still recovering
US $13 billion donated
2015 – 80,000 still living in informal houses or camps
Philippines – Multiple hazard zone
• Sits across a major convergent plate (prone to eq and volcanoes)
• Northern and eastern coasts face pacific ocean (world’s most typhoon prone area)
• 47 volcanoes – 30% live within 30km of a volcano
• 25% live in poverty
• Landslides due to steep photography
• Rapid urbanisation and growing population = increased vulnerability.

Challenges or a multiple hazard zone =

Philippines 2013 , eq killed 233 people.
Destroyed 800 buildings
Eq generated a tsunami which triggered landslides and floods
Typhoon killed 6201.
2 months later in January a typhoon killed 64.
String of disasters left them in a near constant state of emergency.
Japan tsunami 2011 – Eq – mg 9
• 20,000 deaths – 56% were over 65 years
• People couldn’t return to area due to high radiation levels – Fukishima radiation reactor
exploded
• Radiations levels too high – affected fishing – low levels of radioactive chemicals have seeped
into pacific . Radiation found in 11 different vegetables near Fukishima – starving people
• Economic – loss $130 billion
• 2017 – 50,000 still living in temporary housing
• One min early warning – phone. DART = linked to automatic SMS
• Countries stringent building codes and early warning systems prevented many deaths
• EQ – s waves only took 90 seconds to reach
• Initially criticised for issuing a warning that underestimated the severity of the tsunami
• After 2011 tsunami, improved early warning system – Broadband strong motion metre
(BSMM) – designed to detect low sensitivity levels
• Life long battery to avoid the problem of stations cutting out due to electricity blackouts.
• Had to increase imports of crude oil (spent $35 bi as they couldn’t rely on nuclear energy
(25% of energy came from this before the tsunami)
Christchurch – New Zealand
• Liquefaction – CPT – cone penetrometer test
• Mercalli 12
• Magnitude of 6.2
• Epicentre was close to the city
Eyjafjallajökull
• Composite volcano
• Interaction between glacier ice and magma resulted in cooler lava with a high silica level
• Predicting / early earning systems – 11 weeks prior to it erupting there had been magma flowing from deep underground into shallower
compartments under the mountain.
• Future Volc project create after the eruption – real time data and better sensors. Studies all volcanoes in Iceland
• 10,000 flights delayed
• Kenya – rotting fruits that couldn’t get to UK
• 7 million damage to tourist industry
• Airlines lost 1.7billion
• Ash – aeroplanes affected

Montserrat –
Plymouth – destroyed by pyroclastic flows – all services here
5 years – pyroclastic continued to flow
2/3 housing destroyed
19 people killed
Farmland destroyed
7,000 moved out
Philippines
• Natural (physical ) – Location
Located in the ring of fire – subduction zone between Philippine plate and Sunda.
Geophysical hazard - Earthquakes likely – had over 154 earthquakes this year.
1900 – Luzon island – killed 1500 (mg 7.8)
• Volcano – Mount Pinatubo – landslide on a volcano – 8 months later erupted after 500
years of dormancy . During the eruption of Mt Pinatubo the Philippines was also hit
with Typhoon Yunga. Heavy rainfall turned volcanic ash into lahars.
• Hydrometeorological hazard (60% of land affected by this ) -Typhoons / tropical
storms - Lies within south east Asia’s typhoon belt- has 15 annually and 5 are said to
be the deadliest. Due to monsoon
• But also climate change – caused by increase in greenhouse gases
Human – Vulnerable settlements – Eg near Mount Pinatubo – urban sprawl increased
settlements . 2.5 million live in Manila
Deforestation – 1900- 2005 lost 1/3 of its forest cover. Logging – despite bans on timber
harvesting. Deforestation blames for soil erosion, flooding and droughts
Diverse places
Population structure
• Inner city – Newham
Male majority
High fertility
Internal migration from uni students.
• Outer London – Kingston Upon Thames
London’s wealthiest borough
Accessible
Expensive housing (mostly protected by greenbelt)
• Highland Scotland
Sparsely populated + remote
Accessibility is poor – mountainous
1 airport - inverness
Immigrants
Hereford – Fed up of eastern Europeans “flooding the area”
• Migrants putting pressure on schools and other services.
• Religion, food and fashion not the same.
• Empty shops have been reopened as foreign food stores and as a result Polish is
one of the most common languages spoken on the street.

Enfield – 40% residents identify as white British

• Attitudes to migration is mixed – some people are comfortable with it and saw
it as part of everyday life. Many people in Enfield have a family history or
heritage from foreign countries.
• Media = role in negative portrayal of migrants.
• Locals concerned with migrants cheating on English language tests and
benefits.
Rural area – Cornwall
Superfast broadband – 92% connected.
Peaceful
Scenery.

Lack of transport links – No motorway (isolated from rest of UK as it takes

6 hours in rail from London)
High transport costs (pay 20% more than in urban areas)
Tourism – negative issues
Low wages – lowest weekly wage in Britain (£329 which is 25% lower
than average)
Traditional employment – eg fishing
Cornwall – Key players In managing rural areas
Least divers – 95% white
Investments – Eden project
2001 – built 2 large conservatories with major plant types, youth hostel and educational
centre.
Transformed landscape from a quarry
£140 million – came from National lottery and EU objective one funding
• Superfast broadband
2016- 95% had access to fibre broadband (first area to achieve this)
Encourages business, especially In knowledge economy + working from home
2000 jobs created – economic impact of £200 million
• Newquay Aerohub – Enterprise zone for Newquay business port
Aim – attract investment
Aircraft related industries included, 2 helicopter and aircraft training centres, search and
rescue helicopters and air ambulance
Globalisation
Factors that have accelerated globalisation
 FDI – China example
• China – second largest recipient of FDI.
SEZ – china
• After political isolation they opened their doors as they needed western
technology to revolutionise.
• Advantage to relocate in one of the zones because its cheap labour – later
known as ‘export processing zone’
• 50% of exports comes from foreign companies with connections in these
zones.
• China has no unions (can’t strike or complain), Tariff / quota free, low taxes,
all profits sent to HQ company, environmental regulations are limited
 Types of FDI – examples
• Off shoring
• Foreign mergers
• Foreign acquisition – Cadbury take over US food giant in 2010
• Transfer pricing – Starbucks channel loans by subsidising companies in low
income countries
 NAFTA
• NAFTA – USA, Mexico and Canada
• Allows free trade to benefit all countries involved.
• Cheap goods = economic growth
• High tariffs = expensive goods = less trade
Trade has quadrupled – increased to 1.14 trillion in 2015
Lowered prices – US imports Mexican oil for less due to loss of tariffs. This decreases the
reliance on oil from the middle east and also means food can be transported at lower
costs, reducing the food bill.
 Reduced gov spending because each national governments contract becomes available to
all suppliers. More competition means low costs.
More jobs – 5 million new jobs in US
Loss of 500,000 jobs in US as industries move to Mexico for cheap labour
Supress wages – 65% companies threatened to move to Mexico where labour is cheap. So
workers can’t bargain for higher prices
 Farmers in Mexico our of business as government subsidise US farm products into Mexico
and the farmers can’t compete with the artificial prices.
Mexico – degradation of environment to keep costs low
 Attitudes of the national government
• Free market liberalisation

• Privatisation (Transfer of assets from public sector to private sector) – Eg UK

opening up markets for high profile banks and transport services.
• Encouraging business start ups – low business taxes = more profit
 Ghana’s cocoa trade
• Ghana was the largest producer of cocoa and the British gov set the prices for
cocoa.
• 3 factors effecting prices
1 – Commodity traders – Buy cocoa in advance for TNCs like Cadbury on what is
known as a future market. They guarantee the price, supply and delivery date.
However competition from other suppliers like Ivorary Coast provide an alternative
source to negotiate with.
2 – Oversea tariffs –WTO seeks tariff free trade. The EU sets tariffs on processed
cocoa but not raw beans. Shana could make extra income if they process their beans
into powder. The value added would be higher but tariffs would be places on entry to
the UK – higher prices for consumers.
3- Unequal power – Before they joined WTO the gov would subsidise farmers to
encourage food production. When they joined WTO they couldn’t be subsidised even
though the WTO didn’t top USA and UK from subsidising their farmers. Ghana
couldn’t compete with the imported and subsidised American food
 Cotton in Guatemala
• In the 1980’s 75% of cotton was exported. The income was used to buy
pesticides and machinery. If Guatemala processed their cotton into finished
clothes and exported these they would make more money. They could use
only 1% of their land for cotton production and the rest they could use for
farming and opening new markets. Instead WTO made it hard for them –
competition from other countries ended production and now they import
cotton and use its workforce to produce cheap t-shirts.
 TNC’s – Coca cola
• Wanted to open drinks to larger markets and wanted to manufacture goods
close to their intended market to reduce transport costs.
• Bottle plants opened in Guatemala, Philippines and Puerto Rico.
• Principles – Eg – environmental regulations, safety of workers etc
• But didn’t always meet this.
= Guatemala one plant unionised but under pressure. The second plant when
asked to be unionised met with hostility from management.
2010 – Lawsuit – violence against two men who where union leaders. The men
received death threats.
8% of Guatemala work force is unionised.
• Peru – investment was $200 million with the latest technology and 6 modern
production lines. The project enabled the company to expand their operating
efficiencies, reduce environmental footprints and meet high quality
standards.
 Glocalisation examples
• Tesco doesn’t wrap their fruit and vegetables in Thailand because of the
countries wet market tradition – only trust the produce selected by hand.
• McDonalds – Caters for Hindu’s and Sikhs who are vegetarians and doesn’t
have vegetarian restaurants.
• Spiderman India – story made for Indian children
• Coca cola – different website in different countries – each website is
culturally appropriate and engaging.
 China – switched on
• 1- SEZ – FDI encouraged economic growth
Relaxation of regulation and gov control
Tax incentives like reduced tax
Taiwanese TNC EUPA manufacture coffee machines and employs 25,000 people.
2- Large working population, rural to urban migration
3- Female participation in the work force – western culture gender divisions have little
relevance in Chinese economic growth. Women are raising their children for less time due to
the one child policy so a larger workforce is available.
4- Education – Literacy levels have increased to 95%
5- Private enterprise – For many years manufacturing in china was state owned. Later has
been relaxed as the economy has been restructured. Now 50% of businesses are privately
owned.
 Switched off
Zambia
Land locked – relies on good political relations with its neighbours to access ports by rail
1970’s TanZam by Chinese development. It took Zambia’s copper to the Tanzanian coast.
Trade – Copper (8th largest producer or copper) is now reducing as fibre optic cables replace
copper in telecommunications.
Technology – 2014 23% had access to a phone and 75% had access to mobile phones

Gambia – No mineral resources

Dependent on aid , 75% subsidies farming, low literacy rates
1% have access to computers
Economic isolation – Rural parts of the sub Saharan African (Sahel) – substinence farming,
poor limited capacity to connect
Political isolation – North Korea – No undersea cables or connections to connect with the
outside world
 Global shift - China
Rapid investment in infrastructure – links cities and provinces, 80 airports built since 2000, 8/ 12 top airports
are within china (encourages job opportunities to boost local economy)
Reduction in poverty – 3 million Chinese people considered middleclass, poverty rates decreased from 84%
to 10% in 2016
Increase in urban income – Increased by 10% since 2001 due to one child policy. Employers pay higher
wages to recruit staff, paid holidays and overtime
Better education and training – 94% over 15’s are literature. Education is free and compulsory between 6
and 15.
7.2 million graduates from uni
Exploitation of resources – China’s abundant supply of coil, oil can’t keep up with the demand so
government get additional resources from Africa. Amazon rainforest cleared and converted to oil fields for
China’s consumption.
 Infrastructure and unplanned settlement – Loss of recreational space, unplanned neighbourhoods and
increase in slums. Rapid industrialisation = high need for informal housing
Loss of biodiversity – 2015 – WWF – China’s terrestrial vertebrates have declined by 50%.
Pollution and health problems – Air pollution from coal powered stations, 70% of rivers and lakes are
polluted. 300 million don’t have access to safe water. Tap water contains 80 or 101 forbidden toxins, air
pollution kills 4,000 weekly
Degradation of land – Rich black soil in Southern China – acidification caused by industrial emissions.
 Global shift – Leicester to Asia
Leicester = population of 330,000 in 2011. Dominated by the textile industry. In 1920’s
30,000 worked in the textile mills.
M&S employed 65000 In 1960’s.
The demand for extra workers brought people from India and Pakistan where they set up
homes in inner cities.
!970’s competition from Asia (cheaper) closed many manufacturing jobs.
Impacts – Mills were left abandoned and derelict
Derelict land was left contaminated from dumping of chemical waste and from domestic gas
from coal.
Inner city became run own and housing cost was very low
Deprived areas – large ethnic groups
Reputation for crime – eg anti social behaviour
 Hyper – urbanisation – New Delhi
Slums – Rapid urbanisation caused slums, shortage of land for housing, high land prices
which is hard for poor, rural to urban migration
Crime – Rising unemployment causes crime, youngsters from well to do families commit
crimes to make quick money. Criminal reach high political positions with their money.
Transport – Congestion on roads (especially where there are skyscrapers), Rush house –
crammed, Narrow streets, lack of parking facilities
Overcrowding – Large population (9,000 per 5km sq.),
Waste disposal – Garbage is a health problem, no arrangement for disposal and landfills are
too full already, disease and poison, leachates leak out and contaminate ground water
causing diseases like typhoid.
 Migration
Elite – Russian Oligarchs come to London. Buy homes in the wealthiest boroughs in London.
Allowed them access to global financial markets and in return the UK benefit from their
investment.

Low waged migrants –

Qatar – Labour shortage due to low population – recruit manual workers overseas
Visa entry is tied to particular jobs and are at risk of being deported once their contract
ends.
2014 – 1.4 million working in construction – 4,000 from Nepal
 Cuba opens its doors
Tourism – Major industry in Cuba but travel is dictated within the country and a few Cubans
travel beyond borders.
Production – Export processing zones but the zones have not been developed. Legal
restrictions on US firms from operating within Cuba
Finance and capital – Source of income is mainly through remittance, dollarized economy
but not everyone has American money. Investments in Cuba from US firms and investors are
illegal – development of Cuba’s stock market is unlikely.
Communication – Phone calls are limited and expensive. International newspapers are not
stores in neighbourhoods
US films – widespread. US films account for 40% of films within Cuba
Cuba opens its doors
Water cycle
 River Wye
724m spot height (how high the source is)
Land use – upland areas = steeper grazing
Moorland = acidic soil and can be quite fertile
No trees and soil is not very deep
Rainfall = high precipitations
 Human impacts on the drainage basin
Deforestation in Amazonia
20% forest has been destroyed
Trees remove c02, destruction of trees then increase greenhouse gas emissions

Overabstractation – Thames basin home to 13 million – one of the driest UK areas with
690mm of water a year. Overabstractation leads to them driving up in times of low rainfall.
Reservoirs - interrupt natural water flows by delaying them and increasing evap. 7% more
water is evap by reservoirs than humans consume.
dams reduce river flow downstream, causing a loss of vegetation e.g. Kenya’s Tana River
floodplain forest is decaying because dams built upstream have prevented flooding
reservoirs abstract water from the drainage basin
 Players
• in the UK planners are required to assess flood risk with land use change
• National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) sets out strict guidelines
• economic development increases the risk of higher flows and faster response
times. Developers have to show that the land use changes will not increase RO
beyond Greenfield standards

• Sustainable Drainage Systems (SuDS) have been introduced to decrease RO

produced by rainfall, for example:
• green roofs - veg cover over a waterproof membrane
• infiltration basins – shallow depressions dug out to delay RO and increase infiltration
• permeable pavements – delay RO by having gaps between pavement slabs
• rainwater harvesting from roofs for irrigating gardens
• soak-away channel dug out to disperse surface water into the ground
• filter drains – trenches filled w/ gravel to take RO away
• detention basins to delay RO for a few hours
• wetlands – retention areas w/ marsh/wetland veg
 Brazil
Evidence of meteorological drought –
Evidence of hydrological drought – Flow of water into the Cantareira reservoir was lower
than average. Eg, February 2014 the amount of water in the reservoir was 10 cubic metres
whilst the average is 70 cubic metres.
Evidence of socio – economic drought – Halting of HEP led to power cuts + water rationing
for 4 million people (supplies were cut off for 3 days in a week for some towns)
Evidence of agricultural drought – Reduced crop of Arabica coffee beans (pushed up global
prices by 50%)
How did human activity contribute ?
Illegal wells – due to high fees to license to drill people would avoid payments and dill illegal
wells.
Over abstraction of surface water and groundwater aquifers as they tried to maintain water
supply for factories and services.
Only using groundwater as a source for water