Why is the Philippines prone to so many earthquakes?

[ASEAN NOW News]

Yesterday's damage caused by the earthquake

 

After another earthquake has created havoc this week, people wonder why the Philippines has more than its fair share of natural disasters.

 

Located along the typhoon belt in the Pacific, the Philippines is visited by an average of 20 typhoons every year, five of which are destructive. 

 

Being situated in the “Pacific Ring of Fire” makes it vulnerable to frequent earthquakes and volcanic eruptions.

 

According to National Geographic, here they list five reasons the Philippines Is so disaster prone.

 

Warm ocean waters, low-lying coasts, and poverty help explain what makes disasters like Super Typhoon Haiyan dangerous in the Philippines.

 

The unofficial death toll for Super Typhoon Haiyan back in 2013 exceeded 10,000 people in the Philippines, but the country is no stranger to catastrophic natural disasters.

 

From earthquakes to volcanic eruptions to previous super typhoons, death tolls following cataclysmic events in the Philippines tend to be high.

 

Here are 5 reasons why:

 

 

1. Warm Ocean Waters

 

Located just above the equator, the Philippines faces the western Pacific without much else in the way to take the force of storms before they make landfall. Those warm, equatorial waters power storms, about 20 typhoons a year.

 

"It has the warmest ocean temperatures in the world. We call it the warm pool around Indonesia and the Philippines," says atmospheric scientist Colin Price of Israel's Tel Aviv University.

 

"You need temperatures above 28°C (82.4°F) for typhoons to form. In the western Pacific, the water's normally above 28 degrees," Price says.

 

2. Coastal Homes

 

A lot of people live on low-lying coastal islands in the Philippines, with more than 60 percent of the population living in coastal zones, according to World Bank estimates.

 

Storm surges for landfall of Super Typhoon Haiyan reached 23 feet (7 meters) in some places and were more than 16 feet (5 meters) high.

 

Those waves rolled over low-lying parts of populated islands such as Leyte, home to the coastal city of Tacloban, where the BBC estimates more than 10,000 people alone died.

 

3. Deforestation

 

In past typhoons, mudslides have killed many storm survivors in the Philippines, notes meteorologist Jeff Masters of the Weather Underground website.

 

Hillsides denuded of trees have fewer roots to hold them together, which can lead to mudslides when they are hit by sudden huge outbursts of rain.

 

Deforestation has caused similar problems in places such as Haiti, where mudslides were triggered by rainstorms. The soil clogged waterways, causing stagnation later linked to cholera outbreaks.

 

4. Ring of Fire

 

On top of everything else, the Philippines rests on the Pacific’s earthquake and volcano Ring of Fire.

 

Driven by the Pacific's Ocean's crust diving underneath the continents, the result is earthquakes and tsunamis striking the Philippines with regularity.

 

A magnitude 7.1 earthquake this week so far has killed seven people and has caused millions of Pesos in damage.

 

5. Underdevelopment

 

The young, poor population of the Philippines has increasingly shifted to coastal regions, where rapidly constructed housing and inadequate evacuation plans may have played a role in these disasters.

 

Indeed, reports during the 2013 Super Typhoon Haiyan stated that people died in shelters too weak to withstand the storm surge and high winds of the super typhoon.

 

Over the long term, the Manila Observatory says that the combination of poverty and population shifts puts the Philippines among the Top 10 worldwide nations at risk of coastal flooding.

 

Seems President Marcos JR has his work cut out just a few days after taking office.

 

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[SAFETY FIRST]

14 minutes ago, ASEAN NOW News said:

Why is the Philippines prone to so many earthquakes? 

It's on the burning ring of fire. 

 

We Aussies learn this in school.