Earthquakes

Preparation and Planning

Episode 1 can be run either as a picture reveal or photo jigsaw activity. Some preparation is required for the jigsaw activity. You will need to print out the photo on Slide 3 to A4 size using a colour printer. To preserve your photo for use in future lessons, you may like to laminate it, before cutting the photo into six pieces.

Student Worksheets are required for Episodes 2-4. Episode 2 requires one Worksheet per student. For subsequent Episodes, students will be in small groups or pairs, so one Worksheet per student is not required.

Ensure access to an overhead projector (OHP) or interactive whiteboard (IWB), as the audio-visual stimulus provided is essential to provide information and to lend colour to the topic.

About the MOD Topic

On Saturday 8th October 2005, the Muzaffarabad area of Pakistani-administered Kashmir was hit by a devastating earthquake. As of 8th November, the Pakistani Government's official death toll was 73,276 with many more casualties and leaving an estimated 3.3 million homeless.

The UK Government immediately offered assistance. Under the direction of the Department for International Development (DFID), the UK Ministry of Defence (MOD) made a significant contribution to the international relief effort through the provision of military personnel, equipment and supplies, under the name Operation MATURIN.

Relief efforts in many remote villages were difficult to organise, as most of the affected people lived in mountainous regions where roads were buried in rubble and a lot of the affected areas were inaccessible. In most areas there was no power or sufficient food or water. The distribution of relief supplies was particularly urgent due to the onset of winter, during which some areas of the region can reach minus 18 degrees Celsius.

UK Defence contribution included:

Army Commando Engineers from North Devon and Royal Marine Commandos from Plymouth built 73 shelters to replace schools and health centres before the arrival of the harsh winter. All the shelters were built at high altitude and in isolated areas.

Three Chinook helicopters of 27 (EM) Squadron Royal Air Force delivered almost 1,600 tons of aid to the more remote parts of Pakistan-administered Kashmir.

A team of British Army and Royal Navy Logistics Officers worked with the United Nations Joint Logistics Centre, helping to plan the co-ordinated delivery of aid to people located in the affected areas of earthquake-hit Pakistan.

Three RAF C-130 Hercules were involved in a six week life-saving mission to take essential aid from Europe into Pakistan. They had carried out 22 trips, delivering 292 tonnes of aid via the NATO airbridge.

A Joint Media Operations Team (JMOT) provided coverage of the UK response, in order to heighten overall public awareness of the positive contributions that the UK is making to the relief effort and to help reassure the Pakistan, Indian and Kashmiri communities in Britain.

Three medics provided supervision of casualties carried on return CH47 Chinook helicopter sorties, transferring them from landing zones to Islamabad.

A two-man Mobile Air Operations Team (MAOT) was deployed in response to a UN request to survey landing zones to the north of Islamabad, in order to assess the possibility of using a new operating base to ease the aviation congestion difficulties.

Over 23,000 ration packs were sent to Pakistan, including vegetarian and halal packs. All of the ration packs and water were provided to the World Food Programme for distribution.

Further Opportunities for Learning

Ask students to research statistical information on earthquakes in recent years and to create a global distribution map. Students should observe the relationship between fatalities and development where earthquakes are concerned.

Using the information gathered in the lesson, students write the script for a news flash on the 2005 Kashmir earthquake, imagining it has just happened. They should plan their script to run to between 90 - 120 seconds. The script should give viewers key information about the earthquake and its immediate impacts.

Students create three diagrams of destructive, constructive and conservative plate margins, labelling them accurately and citing examples where known.

Students create a presentation for a junior school, demonstrating the drill for pupils in the event of an earthquake.

Earthquakes cannot be prevented, but a combination of prediction, protection and preparation can help reduce their impact. In less economically developed countries, the infrastructure to support these preparations does not exist, but many developed countries invest a lot of time and money in earthquake management schemes.

In groups, ask students to imagine that they are an emergency planning group for a city in an MEDC (e.g. San Francisco / Tokyo). Students should decide how different groups of people can help prepare for earthquakes. Students can present their earthquake management scheme back to the class. Students might like to produce their presentation on PowerPoint. Groups of people: a. Radio and TV stations b. Hospitals c. Fire stations d. Families e. Architects and builders f. Schools.

Student worksheet answers

Download the teachers notes PDF to access the answers for this lesson.