The impact and reasons people still live in tectonically vulnerable areass

1. Tectonic hazard human
impacts
A2 Geography

2. What impacts do tectonic hazards have on
people and how do these impacts vary?
• The reasons why people live in tectonically
active areas and how this might relate to
the level of economic development.

3. Why??
• Jot down reasons as to why people live in
tectonically active areas.

4. So
• They feel that the advantages outweighed
the disadvantages
• Most are perfectly safe for long periods
• Those that erupt more often are seen as
predictable
• Today around 500 million people live on or
close to volcanoes
• Popocatapetl Volcano is less than 50
miles from Mexico City

5. Can we break it down to a
manageable list?
• Minerals
• Tourism
• Fertile Soils
• geothermal energy
• Ignorance
• Inertia

6. Minerals
• As we have seen from the feildtrip there is
much wealth to gained from the land in
terms of minerals formed from volcanic
activity
• These can include the better known
minerals such as:
– Tin
– Silver
– gold
– copper
• As well as many lesser known but now
valuable ones (Lead, Zinc, sulphur)

7. Mining
• Due to these minerals mining is an
important source of wealth for many
places around the world
• Dangerous mining activites are carried out
for the gains that can be made
• Volcanic activity causes and creates
minerals

8. Tourism
• Volcano tourism in nothing new they attract
millions of visitors every year
• Around volcanoes there can be warm bathing
lakes, hot springs, bubbling mud pools and
steam vents often said to aid health.
• Geysers are always popular tourist
attractions, such as Old Faithful in the
Yellowstone National Park, USA. Old Faithful is
such a popular tourist feature that it even has its
own 24 hour Old Faithful webcam.

9. Tourism
• Iceland markets itself as a land of fire and ice, attracting
tourists with a mix of volcanoes and glaciers, often both in
the same place.
• The wild, raw and barren volcanic landscapes also attract
tourists who want to see what the early planet may have
looked
• Tourism creates jobs in shops, restaurants, hotels and
tourist centres / national parks.
• Locals economies can profit from volcanism throughout
the year.
• In Uganda, the volcanic region around Mt Elgon is heavily
promoted for it's landscape, huge waterfalls, wildlife,
climbing and hiking and its remote 'get away from it all'
location.

10. Fertile Soils
• Volcanic materials ultimately break down and
weather to form some of the most fertile soils on
Earth, cultivation of which has produced abundant
food and fostered civilisations.
• Early people settled on the rich, fertile volcanic soils
in the Mediterranean-Aegean region.
• Some of the best rice-growing regions of Indonesia
are in the shadow of active volcanoes.
• Similarly, many prime agricultural regions in the
western United States have fertile soils wholly or
largely of volcanic origin

11. Geothermal Energy
• In recent as well as past times the energy
and heat being given off by volcanic
activity has been used
• the best geothermal resources are
concentrated in areas of volcanic activity
and are not widely distributed.
California, Iceland, Italy, New Zealand and
Japan are all areas where geothermal
energy is used on a significant scale.

12. Ignorance
• Possibly the hardest to quantify
• What do you think this means?
• How could this be related to levels of
economic development?

13. Inertia
• What do we mean by this?

14. Other Factors to consider
• Business Opportunities
• Industrial Products
• Spas and Resorts

15. Your Job
• For each of the areas considered here you
should have a case study to help explain
these.
• They do not need to be large or indepth
but should be able to help explain why
people live in the areas
• Reference:
• >>HERE<<