Final Blog

Over the course of this semester, I have learned a great amount of information regarding natural hazards that occur in Peru. Peru has had from many natural hazards such as earthquakes, wildfires, volcanic eruptions, and floods. Although Peru has earthquakes happen more frequently, as of 2017, the biggest problem they are facing are floods. Furthermore, for this final blog, I believe the most impacting problem Peru faces is extreme weather contributing to flooding. Since the beginning of the year, Peru has had extreme and heavy rainfall that has causes most parts to flood.

This image above shows what areas have been impacted by the flooding of this year, and it does get more worse in Lima.

The reason why I am addressing this as a priority is because the floods have affected thousands of people, and caused a significant amount of damage. It has been said that this is the worst time for rainfall in result of flooding in decades. It was stated by the Atlantic that about 70 people have died due to this heavy rainfall.  There are many people who are being stranded in the floods with only some help from rescue teams, if they are even located. The main reason why it is believed this is happening due to El Niño. As stated in past assignments, El Niño is the warming of waters due to climate change.

As a result of all of the floods, the National Institute of Civil Defense has an interactive map to let citizens know what areas are affected and to hopefully avoid them. When it comes to climate change, I believe the country should take action to see what they can do to combat against it since lives are being taken. The area where I would take action would be in Lima, since the flooding is more worse there and they are resulting in mudslides.

If I were to construct my own house in Peru, it would have to be located towards inland. This is only because flooding is happening all around the coast. The city Ayacucho would be in consideration, since it is located in the middle of Peru and is rarely dealing with natural hazards.

References: http://www.peruthisweek.com/news-what-areas-have-been-affected-by-floods-map-111166
https://www.theatlantic.com/photo/2017/03/peru-suffers-worst-flooding-in-decades/520146/

Coastal Hazards in Peru

Peru is located on the west coast of South America. The coast of Peru is mostly a desert like area. The coastline of Peru covers about 10% of the country's land and is about 1,555 miles long.
       

      

The phenomenon called El Niño has affected the water which has caused a severe weather change to Peru. On the coast of Peru there have been great flooding that have occurred on the due to the rivers near the coast. This also has impacted the fish industry since less fish are being found.

As of right now, Peru has called for a state of emergency in many cities. They have not been able to prevent this tragedy, but they have set up camps near the capital Lima since there has been damage in most areas. The government in Peru is trying their best to make repairs to some institutions, lets just hope this heavy rainfall and flooding sends soon.


references:
http://www.discover-peru.org/peru-geography-coast/

http://www.euronews.com/2017/03/21/peru-declares-state-of-emergency-due-to-deadly-floods

https://travel.state.gov/content/passports/en/alertswarnings/peru-travel-alert.html

Extreme Weather in Peru

Within the last couple of months, Peru has had an extreme amount of rainfall. The extreme rainfall has caused flooding and landslides that are resulting in a high number of damage. The blame of extreme weather is believed to be caused by the phenomenon El Niño.

El Niño is the large-scale ocean-atmosphere climate interaction linked to a periodic warming in sea surface temperatures across the central and east-central Equatorial Pacific (National Ocean Service).

The rainfall has flooded some parts of the country, and has left many without drinking water, electricity, and no way of transportation because of flooding. The extreme weather has caused so much damage that the idea of building drainage in cities, better bridges, and highways have arise to help citizens.



References:
 https://www.google.com/amp/mobile.reuters.com/article/amp/idUSKBN16O2V5

http://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/ninonina.html

Peru Mass Wasting

Peru has experienced many types of mass wasting. Mass wasting is large movement of rock, soil and debris downward due to the force of gravity(Study). Unfortunately, over the years sorry has come into contact with landslides, mudslides, and avalanches. One of the most known mass wasting events in Peru was the avalanche that occurred in 1970. The avalanche started as a sliding mass of glacial ice and rock. The avalanche swept about 16.5 km to the village of Yungay at a speed of 210-280 km/h(NDGC).

      

Peru is currently experiencing one type of mass wasting right now which is mudslides. Recently, there has been flooding in Peru which is resulting in a mudslides. The new floods and mudslides over the past three days followed a series of other storms, and officials said a total of 62 people have died and 12,000 homes have been destroyed so far this year(CBSnews).

When searching for ways Peru has been preventing or alerting Peruvians, there was little to no information. What is upsetting is that Peru is a country with poverty to where they only have some resources given when it comes to natural hazards, and mass wasting is not one of them. Although it is tough, Peru should create more ways into helping those who are being impacted by mass wasting so we see less damage and casualties.

References

http://study.com/academy/lesson/mass-wasting-definition-types-causes-processes.html

https://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/hazardimages/picture/show/785

http://www.cbsnews.com/pictures/peru-flooding-mudslides-deadly/

Volcanoes

When it comes to volcanoes in Peru, there are multiple along and close by the coast. Peru's volcanoes belong to the subduction zone of the eastern Pacific Nazca plate beneath the South American plate (Volcano Discovery).

The image below is the stratovolcano Ubinas, which is Peru's most active volcano. Ubinas is composed of Pleistocene, and has a 1.2-km-wide caldera that cuts across the top of the volcano. .

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Many of the volcanoes in Peru are active. Since they are active, Peru has information on high level hazards to be safe due to activity from volcanos. According to Think Hazard, they recommend the people of Peru take action on early warning signs of an eruption. By clicking this link, http://www.thinkhazard.org/report/195-peru/VA,  there will be a list of precautions taken by the country to stay protected during any event that is damaging.


volcanodiscovery.com/peru.html
http://www.thinkhazard.org/report/195-peru/VA
http://volcano.oregonstate.edu/ubinas

Seismicity of Peru

In this weeks chapter we learned about earthquakes. Since Peru is located near a subduction zone, it's more likely to experience many earthquakes. They are more common for the fact that the Nazaca and South American plate are by the Peruvian Coast. 

We also learned about seismicity, which is a happening of earthquakes in a region. The seismictiy in Peru goes from increasing from inland to the Peruvian coast. This week has been somewhat active. Two days ago there was an earthquake near Coracora and Ayacucho, Peru that was 5.1 in magnitude. Also, today there was one near Paracas and Ica that was 4.2 magnitude (Earthquake Track).

Even though it is hard to predict earthquakes, Peru now has two ways of dealing them using the American Red Cross and Peruvian National Institute of Seismology that say "drop, cover, and hold on", or the American Rescue Team International that uses "The Triangle of Life Method" (LimaEasy). It is also recommended to stay calm and to stay in a safe place if you are indoors.






Sources:
 http://earthquaketrack.com/p/peru/recent
http://www.limaeasy.com/earthquakes-in-peru/earthquakes-info

Peru and Plate Tectonics

In week two, we learned about the Earth's tectonic plates. The words tectonic refers to large-scale geological processes that deform Earth's lithosphere (Keller). With the plates being broken down all over earth taking part of a continent and section of water, I located Peru to see what plate it was placed on.

Being part of the ring of fire, Peru is located on top of the South America plate boundary and south of that is the plate Nazca. Because the Nazca plate moves east towards the South American plate, that makes it convergent boundary. According to Keller, a convergent boundary is when two plates are moving towards one another.

Since Peru is near the Nazca plate and on the South America plate, it is prone to most earthquakes that occur around the world. Due to subduction, we see more shallow earthquakes closer to the subduction zone and deeper ones inland (IRIS).

Peru also is more likely to experience tsunami's because of the activity of the Peru-Chile trench. In 2001, Peru had an earthquake of 8.3 which created a tsunami off the Peruvian coast where damage occurred. (USC Tsunami Research Group).

References:

https://www.iris.edu/hq/inclass/animation/peruchile_subduction_zone_earthquakes__tectonics

http://www.usc.edu/dept/tsunamis/peru/

Natural Hazards, Keller, 4th Edition.

Natural Hazards, Catastrophes and Disasters

     When it comes to talking about natural hazards, catastrophes and disasters, most of us do not realize the differences between the three. For myself, I never had the knowledge of knowing the differences until now. They all start with qualifications of how hazardous the event is, and from there it is placed into a certain category. A natural hazard is an event taking place to where it has the opportunity to threaten then lives around the area; examples being, tsunami's, hurricanes, flooding, etc. A catastrophe is an occurrence where a great disaster that has cause enough damage that requires years of recovery, plus a lot of money. Disaster is a hazardous situation where it happens in a limited time and more that ten people are killed and more than one-hundred people were affected by it. Disasters also require a lot of assistance to those who were harmed. An example of a disaster would be the 2012 Hurricane sandy event, where more than one-hundred people were killed and thousands were injured . There is a significant difference between the three, and I believe it is beneficial for us to know them and about what makes them different from each other.