These are the case studies I did that I thought people might find useful.

1. Case Studies
For physical geography

2. Tectonics
For physical geography

3. Eruption - Montserrat
● Main eruption was on June 25th 1997.
● The volcano is called Soufriere Hills.
● 19 people were killed.
● Cause - Montserrat is above a destructive plate boundary - the Atlantic plate is subducting under the Caribbean plate.
Primary/Immediate Secondary/Long-Term
Impacts ● Large areas were covered with volcanic material -
Plymouth is covered in mud and ash.
● Over 20 villages and two thirds of homes on the
island were destroyed by pyroclastic flows.
● Schools, hospitals, airport and port were destroyed
● Farmer’s crops were destroyed.
● 19 people died and 7 were injured.
● Fires destroyed many buildings including local government
office, police headquarters and the town’s central petrol station.
● Huge drop in tourism as people don’t want to visit, massive loss
to the economy. Businesses destroyed.
● Population decline - 8,000 of the 12,000 inhabitants have left
since the eruption began.
● Volcanic ash has made the soil more fertile.
● Tourism has slowly started to increase as people come to see
the volcano.
Responses ● People were evacuated from the south to safe areas
in the north.
● Shelters built to house the evacuees.
● Temporary infrastructures built, roads and electric.
● The UK provided £17 million of emergency aid.
● Local emergency services provided support units to
search for and rescue survivors.
● An exclusion zone is in place in the south as the volcano is still
active.
● The UK has provided £41 million to develop the north of the
island and the new capital ‘Little Bay’ building houses, ports etc.
● The Montserrat Volcano Observatory has been set up to try and
predict eruptions.

4. MEDC Earthquake - L’Aquila
● Happened in L’Aquila, Italy on the 6th April 2009.
● Measured a 6.3 on the Richter Scale.
● Complicated cause.
● Preparation
o There are laws on construction standards that make buildings more resistant to earthquakes.
o Italy has a Civil Protection Program that trains volunteers to help out in emergencies.
● Primary effects
o Around 290 deaths; mostly from collapsed buildings. Hundreds injured.
o Thousands of buildings damaged or destroyed.
o Thousands of people made homeless.
● Secondary effects
o Aftershocks hampered rescue efforts and caused more damage.
o Fires caused in some buildings.
o The broken water pipe caused a landslide.

5. LEDC Earthquake - Haiti
● Happened in Haiti on the 12th January 2010
● Magnitude 7 earthquake, epicentre was 25km away from the capital Port au Prince.
● The cause was the Caribbean plate sliding past the North American plate at a conservative boundary.
● Preparation
o Despite warnings of an imposing earthquake and being in a very tectonically active area, Haiti was unable to
properly prepare for the worst as they’re so poor.
o Building quality was very poor - including many slums so most deaths were from building collapse.
o As people were so poor they had very little reserves to fall back on when their job was disrupted (food water) and
with the poor social safety net of the country many people ran out of food and water soon after the earthquake hit.
● Primary Effects
o 50% of buildings collapsed due to poor construction methods, lack of bracing and corner joints etc.
o 316,000 people killed and 1 million people were made homeless.
o 280,000 buildings destroyed.
o Main prison destroyed and 4,000 inmates escaped.
● Secondary Effects
o 1 in 5 people lost their jobs,
o Large number of bodies, concentration of people and poor hygiene all meant disease was rife and many people
died as a result.

6. Earthquake Comparison
L’Aquila Haiti
Effects ● 290 deaths and a few hundred injuries.
● Few thousand buildings destroyed.
● 316,000 deaths and millions injured.
● 280,000 buildings destroyed.
Responses Immediate
● Camps set up for the homeless with food, water
and medical care.
● Lots of emergency services to rescue survivors.
● Cranes and diggers used to clear rubble.
● Money given by the government to pay rent, and
gas and electricity bills were suspended.
Long-term
● Most of the buildings were fixed and people
moved back in.
● Italian prime minister has promised to build a
new town to replace L’Aquila as the capital of
the area.
● There’s an ongoing investigation to look into
why some of the modern buildings weren’t built
to withstand earthquakes.
Immediate
● Rescue attempts made by Haiti were virtually non-existent as most
of the emergency services were destroyed.
● Foreign aid attempts were slowed down considerably by poor
transport infrastructure - the airport was backed up.
● Camps set up were overcrowded and lacked supplies due to
difficulty distributing aid.
● People became angry and restless - rioting, looting and sporadic
violence broke out.
Long-term
● EU gave $330 million and waived debt repayments for 5 years.
● 6 months later, 98% of the rubble remained.
● 1 year later 1 million people remain homeless.

7. Fold Mountains - The Alps
Background
● Location - Central Europe
● Formation - Formed about 30 million years ago by the collision between the African and European plates.
● Population - around 12 million people.
Uses for the alps:
● Farming
o Steep upland areas are used to herd alpine goats, which provide milk, cheese and meat.
o Not many crops can be grown in the conditions, although..
o Some sunnier slopes have been terraced to plant vineyards ( e.g. Lavaux, Switzerland)
● HEP
o The narrow valleys are dammed to generate HEP, e.g. the Berne area in Switzerland, Switzerland gets 60% of the electricity
from HEP stations in the alps.
o The electricity produced is used locally as well as being exported to towns and cities further away.
● Tourism
o 100 million tourists visit the alps every year making it a huge part of the economy.
o New villages have been built to cater for tourists, e.g. Tignes in France.
o Ski runs, ski lifts, cable cars, holiday chalets etc. pepper the landscape.
o Tourists also drop lots of litter on the fields (which are often rented from farmers) and huge cleanup operations take place when
the snow has melted.
● Mining
o Salt, iron ore, gold, silver and copper were mined in the Alps, but the mining has declined due to cheaper foreign sources.
● Forestry
o Scots pine is planted all over the Alps as it’s resilient to being eaten by goats. It’s logged and made into things such as furniture
which is sold.

8. The Alps - Continued
Adaptations to the conditions in the Alps
● Steep relief
o Goats are farmed due t them being well adapted to live on steep mountains.
o Trees and man-made defences are used to protect avalanches and rock slides.
● Poor soils
o Animals grazed in most areas as the soil isn’t suitable for growing crops.
● Limited communication
o Roads have been built over passes (lower points between mountains) e.g. the Brenner Pass between
Austria and Italy.
o It takes a long time to drive over passes and they can be blocked by snow, so tunnels have been cut
through the mountains to provide fast transport links. For example the Lotscberg Base tunnel that has
been cut through the Bernese Alps in Switzerland.

9. Tsunami - Indian Ocean
26th December 2004
Causes
● A magnitude 9 earthquake in the Indian Ocean, caused by the Indo-Australian plate subducting under the Eurasian plate.
● Caused the plates to rise 20m all along the fault line displacing billions of gallons of water.
● The wave traveled at speeds of up to 800km/h.
● The wave was only a metre high in the sea but got up to 15m high when it reached the shore.
Primary Effects
● 250,000 people died and 2 million people were made homeless.
● 13 countries affected, the worst being Indonesia.
● 5-6 million people needed emergency food, water and medical supplies.
Secondary Effects
● People placed into refugee camps where diseases like cholera and dysentery spread due to lack of clean water; an estimated 150,000 died.
● Environmental damage - salt from the seawater means that plants can’t grow in certain areas. Also, mangroves, coral reefs etc. destroyed.
Immediate Responses
● Within days 100s of millions of pounds had been pledged by governments, charities etc. to give survivors basic survival provisions.
● Foreign countries sent plane, ships, soldiers and teams of specialists to help rescue people, distribute aid and cleanup etc.
Long-term Responses
● Lots of places, such as the Maldives, relied on tourism as one of their main incomes and had to build the industry back up from the ground.
● An early warning system has been put in place and countries now communicate warnings better.
● Disaster management plans have been put in place in some countries. Volunteers have been trained to manage a tsunami.

10. Rivers
For physical geography

11. MEDC Flood - Boscastle
16th August 2004 in Boscastle, Cornwall
Causes
● The drainage basin has very steep sides and is made
of impermeable slate.
● Heavy rainfall, a months rainfall in just two days.
● The ground was saturated with water from the
previous two weeks rainfall.
● The village is located at a confluence of three rivers.
Effects
● Many homes and businesses were destroyed.
● Nearly 100 cars were washed away into the sea.
● Tourism was heavily affected as people didn’t want to
visit the ruined village - the tourism office was washed
away.
● No lives lost due to the quick response from the
emergency services.
● Vast numbers of subsequent insurance claims.
Immediate Responses
● Fast response from emergency services, helicopters sent to
rescue people from rooftops, although some were
overloaded.
● Sand bags put down to prevent too much damage.
● People put in temporary accommodation.
● Evacuation.
Long-term Responses
● Debri and silt was cleared from buildings.
● Damaged roads and bridges replaced.
● The relief channel for the river Jordan was made bigger.
● River banks and flood barriers raised.
● £4.5 million flood scheme in place.
● Bridges that hindered the water flow are being replaced by
stronger bridges that are less likely to get blocked.

12. LEDC Flood - Bangladesh
Causes
● Heavy monsoon rains in the upper course.
● Unusually high tides in the Bay of Bengal preventing water from
draining into the sea.
● Most of the country is on the delta of three large rivers, these flood
on a seasonal basis, keeping the soil fertile with alluvium.
● Lots of the country lies just 1 or 2m above sea level.
● Deforestation in the upper course means that less water is lost via
transpiration. It also strips the land its topsoil meaning less water is
absorbed into the ground.
● Irrigation channels split up rivers, reducing their capacity and
meaning less water flows into the sea.
● Building on the floodplain means that less water soaks into the
ground.
Effects
● 60% of the country flooded.
● 705 deaths and 20 million homeless.
● $7 billion damage.
● Rice crop ruined - no food to harvest.
● Air travel suspended and rail links into Dhaka damaged.
● 70% of rice crop destroyed - needed for people to survive
(subsistence farming).
Immediate Responses
● The government, along with non-government organisations,
provided aid such as water, rice and medicine.
● The UN set up a disaster management team.
● Difficult communicating flood warnings as the communication
methods are poor, e.g. no phones/TVs.
● Poor rescue attempts.
Long-term Responses
● River management schemes have tried to be put in place but
they’ve rarely worked and are often hindered by lack of funding.
● Relied on smaller scale community projects; making things such as
flood shelters with food
● Money loaned to the country from the world bank to rebuild
infrastructure such as roads, water resource management and
education.
● In the future, better water resources and flood management
infrastructure is planned.
July to September 2004

13. Glaciers
For physical geography

14. Glaciation - The Alps
● The Jungfrau region in Switzerland attracts a lot of tourists.
● It attracted 765,000 tourists in 2011. Lots of new East Asian tourists.
● Resort details:
o Winter snow.
o Many skiing facilities.
o Transport networks - cable cars, gondolas, highest railway in Europe.
● Activities include skiing, snowboarding, hotels, bars, cycling, horse riding, climbing etc.
Is tourism good for the Alps
Yes
● Employment is created in shops, retail, restaurants, hotels etc.
● Young people therefore stay in the region as there are so many jobs - 80% are in tourism.
● Tourism isn’t just seasonal, there’s summer and winter tourism.
● Farmers can make money all year round - renting fields in winter and farming in the summer.
No
● Litter and pollution increased, has to be cleared at the end of the season, not as much pollution as all power is from HEP.
● Risk of avalanches has increased - increased number of people and the trees have been cleared for ski runs, making snow more likely
to fall. To combat this they have planted some trees and they change the ski runs every year.
● Alpine wildlife has lost its habitat as forests have been cleared for ski runs.
● Traditional ways of life are disappearing - local people unhappy as all jobs are in tourism. Temporary workers move to the region. To
combat this people try and employ locals and there are restrictions on excess building.