Examine the physical processes that cause tectonic hazards including plate boundaries and other factors
A range of case studies, scales and locations will be used to investigate physical causes of tectonic hazards. ’A natural hazard would be defined as a natural event that has the potential to threaten people’s lives and property’ Whittow 1980. Therefore, we could define a tectonic hazard as a geophysical process involving seismic activity and the movement of the earth’s plates, creating events such as earthquakes, tsunamis and volcanic eruptions. Physical processes that cause tectonic hazards including plate boundaries and other factors can be separated into 2 categories; these are primary and secondary hazards. A primary hazard is a hazard that came as a direct result of the tectonic activity, whereas a secondary hazard is a hazard which is created by primary hazards, these include tsunamis, lahars and aftershocks. The physical processes that cause tectonic hazards occur at plate boundaries. These plate boundaries are categories as: convergent (oceanic- continental), convergent (continental- continental), divergent (oceanic- oceanic), divergent (continental- continental), transform and collision zone. However these tectonic hazards do occur elsewhere as a result of intra-plate boundaries and hotspots. Other physical factors that cause tectonic hazards include relief of land, geology and aftershocks. Tectonic hazards revolve around the key idea of tectonic theory put forward by Holmes, Hess and Wegener. This is key to understanding and examining the physical processes that cause tectonic hazards as it is a central principle to the idea of plate