Hazard (Earthquake and Typhoon) Energy - Impact Interactions in the Philippines 1959-2013

Yi-Jie Zhu, Stephen G. Evans

Research output: Contribution to conferencePoster

Abstract

Typhoons and earthquakes are destructive natural hazards that have caused massive damage and life loss in the areas of the Western North Pacific Ocean. In this paper, we take the example of the Philippine archipelago, to conduct a comprehensive assessment of the relationship among the frequency, energy dissipation, and death toll in major typhoon and earthquake events. Data reflecting the occurrence and magnitude of typhoons and earthquakes were collected within a time period of 55 years from 1959 to 2013. Using well-known magnitude-energy relations, we calculated the energy released by each typhoon and earthquake event. The result shows a more frequent occurrence of typhoons than earthquakes with a given magnitude of energy. The fatalities indicated by life loss per joule of energy release shows an increasing trend in typhoon events but the rate experienced a decrease in earthquakes since 1976. The distribution of death toll versus the magnitude of energy released from different events implies complex mechanisms (e.g. buffer and amplification) and demographic factors that affect the intensity of hazard response. A hazard density map was created to spatialize the severe historical typhoons and earthquakes in the Philippine archipelago through 1959 to 2013.

Original languageAmerican English
StatePublished - Apr 5 2017
Externally publishedYes
EventAmerican Association of Geographers (AAG) Annual Meeting -
Duration: Apr 5 2017 → …

Conference

ConferenceAmerican Association of Geographers (AAG) Annual Meeting
Period4/5/17 → …

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