Week 3 Blog: Earthquakes

     This week for my blog, I will be discussing earthquakes and this natural disaster effects Finland. I will also be diving into the necessary precautions Finland has taken, in case Finland is hit by a massive earthquake.  

     And now for something completely different....

     Finland is relatively lucky, with the minimal amount of earthquakes it has to endured compared to other places on the planet (i.e. China).  Remember from the previous blog post, that Finland's location in the middle of the continental plate is far from the plate margin areas (that are affected by earthquakes).  When an earthquake does happen, the ground is stable from it's position on the continent, which makes shaking weak.  Most of the earthquakes take place in the Northern region on Finland and have never been higher than 4.7 on the Richter scale.
     To be honest, I had a hard time believing that Finland has minimal amounts of earthquakes. So, I went online to do some research of my own. I found a very interesting website that records the daily earthquakes of places from all over the world. Earthquake Tracker, recorded the last earthquake in Finland, which was 5 years ago, with a magnitude of 2.6 in Mantsala, Uusimaa, Finland.  The earthquake before that, was a year prior to the earthquake in Mantsala, with a magnitude of 4.1 in Dragsfjard, Sounthwest Finland, Finland.  From looking at the earthquakes and their seismic activity in Finland, for the past 12 years, there have only been seven earthquakes with a magnitude no greater than 2.7.
      Finland is not in great danger of having an earthquake become a natural disaster.  This doesn't mean that Finland is not at risk for other natural disasters that can hit their country (massive snow storms and flooding), but they still stay informed on earthquakes preparedness.  On a website dedicated to earthquakes called Shaking Earth, there is information on how to prepare for an earthquake before hand (flashlights with working batteries and non parishble food), to what to do during an earthquake, and after, along the side margins of the article. This website is published in Finland, from the University of Helsinki. I find it hard to believe that Finland would not be prepared in case of a dangerous earthquake, since Sweeden has had earthquakes above 7.0 on the Richter scale.  Another fascinating tidbit about Finkand is that the country will continuously give money to other countries that were devastated by a massive earthquake.  For example, Finland donated over 3 million euros to Nepal after the country was hit with a 7.8 magnitude earthquake, back in May of 2015.

Photo:
Depressing Finland, Meanwhile in Finland. (2016). Retrieved
     from http://depressingfinland.tumblr.com/post/69893425717/meanwhile-in-finland.

Work Cited:
Earthquake Tracker, Today's Earthquakes in Finland. (2016).
     Retrieved from http://earthquaketrack.com/p/finland/recent.

Finland increases support to Nepal earthquake victims. (2016). Retrieved from                        http://formin.finland.fi/public/default.aspx?contentid=326218. 

Korhonen, N. (n.d.). Shaking earth. Retrieved from                                                                    http://www.helsinki.fi/lehdet/uh/101c.htm.

Week 2 Blog: Plate Tectonics

Welcome back to my geology blog! This week I will be writing about plate tectonics and which tectonic plate Finland is located on, as well as, the hazards that Finland faces from its location.

But first let's go over plate tectonics and what they do...

The rigid outer shell of the Earth, the lithosphere (creating land formations like oceans, continents, and mountains), is made up of huge rigid pieces, which are called lithospheric plates (continental and/or oceanic plates). In addition to the seven major plates, namely the Pacific, North-American, South-American, Eurasian, African, Australian-Indian and the Antarctic plates, several minor plates can be detected in the lithosphere. Even though the minor plates are smaller in size, they are no less important to the shape and formation of the Earth. For example, the tiny Juan de Fuca plate is largely responsible for the volcanoes that dot the Pacific Northwest of the Untied States. "Circulating currents in the molten rocks below, propel the plates along like a jumble of conveyor belts in disrepair" (National Geographic). Most of the structure of Earth's crust stems from the relationship where plates meet or divide.  

The plate boundaries, (is the boarder between two tectonic plates) are seismically most sensitive and, therefore, the majority of earthquakes occur at these sites. "An earthquake occurs where there is stress in the rock masses that have accumulated to the point where they exceed the strength of the rock material, leading to a sudden burst of the energy along a fracture" (National Geographic). The main part of the stress results from the relative motion of the plates. Plates either move apart from one another, collide with or slide past one another. Tectonic earthquakes occur due to the release of the stress caused by relative plate motion. The most destructive earthquakes are always tectonic. The movement of the plates creates three types of tectonic boundaries: convergent - where plates move into one another, divergent - where plates move apart, and transform - where the plates move sideways in relation to each other.

Now let's take a look at Finland and see where it is located on lithospheric plates...

- Finland is located on the Eurasian Plate. -

- Finland has multiple plate movements and plate boundaries surrounding the country. -

- To the south of Finland, there is a convergent boundary that transitions to a transform fault (along the Atlantic Ocean), and to the west of the Atlantic Ocean is it framed by a divergent boundary, with a plate that moves inward to the country. -

Finland's location in the middle of the continental plate, is beneficial with regards to earthquakes, since it is far away from the plate boundary areas. This means that the ground is stable and when shaking, from earthquakes, is weak. "The strongest earthquakes recorded in Finland, have been 4.7 on the Richter scale." (Korhonen). The majority of earthquakes occur in northern Finland.

"Finland is located on fairly firm ground although several minor earthquakes occur annually." (Korhonen)

Maps:

Learn.org,. "Interactives. Dynamic Earth. Plates & Boundaries". N.p,. 2016 Web. 9 Feb 2016. Retrieved from www.learner.org/interactives/dynamicearth/plate.html.

E-education.psu.edu,. "W. Jason Morgan | Earth 520: Plate Tectonics And People: Foundation Of Solid Earth Science". N.p., 2016. Web. 9 Feb. 2016. Retrieved from www.e- education.psu.edu/earth520/content/l2_p14.html.

Work Cited:

Korhonen, Nina. "Universitas Helsingiensis 1 01". Helsinki.fi. N.p., 2016. Web. 10 Feb. 2016. Retrieved from http://www.helsinki.fi/lehdet/uh/101c.html.

National Geographic,. "Plate Tectonics, Tectonic Plates Information, Facts, News, Photos -- National Geographic". N.p., 2016. Web. 10 Feb. 2016. Retrieved from http://science.nationalgeographic.com/science/earth/the-dynamic-earth/plate-tectonics-article/

Welcome to my blog for Geology: Natual Hazards!

    Week 1 Blog:
    This week for my blog, I will be discussing the differences between Hazards, Disasters, and Catastrophes and write a bit about a country that I will continuously come back to about its natural hazards, Finland.
    As you can see below, Finland is a small country in between, Russia and Sweden and the south end of the country is surrounded by The Baltic Sea and the Gulf of Bothnia.

    Some interesting facts about Finland...

    - The North of Finland, from August to April, you can experience the Northern Lights and the Auroral activity peaks at the beginning and the end of the season.

    - In the very North of Finland, Lapland, the sun stays above the horizon for more than two months between Mid-May and late July. Also, in the Southern parts of Lapland the sun stays up constantly for a month in June-July. 

Hazard, Disaster, and Catastrophe

Hazard: Is a process and event that is a potential threat to human life and property. The process and events themselves are not a hazard, but become so because of human use of land. For example, most hazards are dormant or potential, with only a theoretical risk of harm, but once a hazard become "active", it can create an emergency. The five types of hazards are physical, chemical, biological, psychological, and ergonomic. An example of a hazard would be the risk of a landslide by a house.

Disaster: A disaster is a hazardous event that occurs over a limited time span within a defined area. Criteria for a natural disaster are 1) 10 or more people are killed, 2) 100 or more people are affected, 3) a state of emergency is declared, and 4) international assistance is requested.  For example, the 1906 San Francisco earthquake is remembered as one of the worst natural disasters in United States history. 

Catastrophe: Is a massive disaster that requires a significant amount of money and a long time (often years) for recovery to take place. For example, Hurricane Katrina, which flooded New Orleans and damaged much of the coastline of Mississippi in 2005, was the most damaging and costly catastrophe in the history of the United States. Recovery from this catastrophe has taken years and is still recovering in parts of New Orleans.