Damaging Earthquakes in the first half of 2010

Representative map showing significant earthquake events.

Image: Quakeschool 2010 (January 2010 to Jun 2010)

It is well known now that earthquakes are a common phenomenon across the globe, and the events which have significant loss to life and property, come into limelight. Perhaps, one major reason which contributes to this anxiety and concern is a common person’s increasing exposure to the Media and Communication tools - such as internet. An interesting study on such influence influencing even the technical observations has been made by [Hough, Martin, Bilham and Atkinson].

However, by cautiously using this same source internet, we can create a table below. This table and the map above show damaging earthquakes in the first quarter of this year ‘2010.

One focus here can be the schools/education infrastructure – and the loss of life, injuries and building damage in these. Also, take note of timings when these earthquakes occurred.

We do not intend to provide any conclusions here, and would like to leave this post for reader’s observation.

Table showing Earthquake events with significant losses

Count	Local time*	Universal Date (2010)	Magnitude**	Location	Life loss*	School( Life-Loss/ Injuries/Building damage)*
1	04:53 AM	January 12th	7.0	HAITI REGION	2,33,000	No life loss and injuries. Note: non-school hours Approximately 5000 school buildings affected.
2	03:34 AM	February 27th	8.8	Maule Region of Chile	432 to 700	No life loss and injuries. Note: non-school hours / vacation period Various News report on damage to education infrastructure. A rough estimate is of damage to approximately 1000 schools.
3	12:45 PM	February 27th	6.1	Salta, Argentina	2	No life loss and injuries. Small buildings, such as shacks or poorly built ones were damaged. No figures.
4	04:32 AM	March 8th	6.0	Okcular, Elâzığ Province, Turkey	57	No life loss and injuries. Note: non-school hours Damage to typical one storey buildings which dominate the region (typical school buildings). No figures.
5	07:39 AM	March 11th	6.9	Pichilemu, Chile	2	No life loss and injuries. Note: non-school hours It appears that the building damage has been low.
6	15:40 PM	April 04th	7.2	Baja California, Mexico	2	No life loss and injuries. It appears that the building damage has been low, but concerning damages to few schools.
7	07:49 AM	April 13th	6.9	Southern Qinghai, China region	2,200	Loss of life: Approximately between 60 to 100 school children. Injuries: Approximately 700 school children Poor quality construction has been blamed with approximately 10 school buildings completely destroyed.
8	04:58 AM	April 18th	5.3	Afghanistan region	10	No life loss and injuries. Note: non-school hours Roughly 20 schools buildings affected.
9	12:16 PM and series	June 16th	7.0	Papua, Indonesia	17	No figures on life loss and injuries could be found; probably because it was on Sunday. approximately 50 schools buildings were affected

* Note that some numbers may be approximate and parameters generic. This is for ease of communication.
**This is a simplified table; therefore complicated units have been removed. For details, see references.

References

1. Wikipedia list of 2010 earthquakes (21st Century Earthquakes)

2. United States Geological Survey (http://earthquake.usgs.gov)

3. Varied sources (news/reports) on the internet

Risk of a Stampede

This is in continuation to our previous post. As correctly put across by many of our friends and which we agree to, safety-drills in schools is definitely a step forward in saving lives. We also intend to continue this discussion, because we feel a few questions were left unanswered in our last post. These are as following:

1. What is the likelihood of a stampede when conducting such evacuation drills in schools?
2. Drop-Duck-Cover-Hold versus other methods?
3. Why authorities in developing countries are blamed complacent about conducting such drills?

While we leave it to later or subject specific experts to comment the last two of the above, we surely can put across a viewpoint for the first one.

The answer is, the likelihood is VERY LOW; and perhaps needs an explanation.

While a false alarm may cause panic - evacuation drills and actual disaster events (natural) are mostly coordinated events. The likelihood could have been Zero/Nil, but stampedes might occur when spaces are crowded. Crowd management is one answer, and the researches continue and awarenesses increase. See for example, Wikipedia lists about thirty stampede related events in the last century, and now thirty in the first decade itself. One thing we can note that is our exposure to such information has increased. Other thing to note is that people, unlike or like animals, when they don’t have a clear sense of purpose in being present in a place, and a place overcrowded, become victims of chaos and stampede. Events like riots, congregation for a sporting event or a religious ceremony are the only examples in the list - others can be put in as outliers.

Thankfully, in most places where education and its spaces are taken seriously, much of the problem is averted by mere alertness and prevention.

Emergency planning, small passages, barricades or no barricade, control crowd flow, work on a balanced crowd ratio (or movement) in a crowded space are some examples.

And, Schools and educational places are the places where this can be taught.

***

Stampedes, scientifically (more precisely in Physics) are in the domain of a word called ‘Impulse’. Impulse is also defined as change in momentum of a body, in other words, changes in Mass and Velocities of relative bodies. And when there are too many bodies, there is bound to be various speeds and masses, and these bodies would collide.

Two ways –human’s can act beyond natural is perhaps as following:

1. By controlling speed variation
2. Make oneself lighter

Not only keep your instincts natural when getting out, keep your speed in check, and off your weight from the other. In other words, keep it easy and cautious together when the alarm bell rings.

***

References:

• Dec 1^st 1958 Chicago http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DyslGbvSdxE&feature=related
• Wikipedia definition http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stampede
• Google search on definition of stampede http://www.google.co.in/search?q=define%3A+stampede&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a
• Google search on definition of impulse http://www.google.co.in/search?q=define%3A+Impulse&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a
• Through Wikipedia a news report tells us, how not to follow the flow and fall flat on the chest http://www.slate.com/id/2209135/

An Important Drill

Recently, on the 5^th of April, an NGO Geo Hazards with its partners conducted a massive earthquake safety drill event with the Tibetan schools in the high earthquake risk zones in India. We call it massive, because the drill extended to six states across the country, with about sixteen thousand school children participating.

These earthquake drills, a subject of specialization, can throw up infinite how-to-do-it Planning and Implementation scenarios, with also a need to make these drills a larger and a regular event.

The concerns during the Conception and Planning stages, perhaps because of sensitiveness of the subject, puzzle even the experts. In simplicity, these concerns would range from choosing an appropriate drill methodology to the right way of implementing it.

Some resources on understanding these earthquake drills, we found on the internet are below:

1. For Simple understanding http://www.essortment.com/all/earthquakedril_rxyi.htm
2. For Detailed understanding http://www.shakeout.org/
3. For more detailed understanding, one can try this Google Search or one of his/her own

Perhaps it is a collective of difficulties which pushes these drills to providence during the conception stages itself. Further, there is a risk of blame-game, if in the real event all lives cannot be saved. The real difficult part - the field implementation part, with all its inherent risks to life and injuries as well, also means convincing schools to be prepared, and reminded that safety of children is their responsibility too.

Much of this insight to us also comes from Hari (Mr. Hari Kumar, GeoHazards) who wants to see a safer environment for the school children. We at Quakeschool would like to extend our support and good wishes to the participants for the next event, tentatively planned on this June in the city of Shillong, India.