Haiyan (Pablo) - The Historical Supertyphoon

The NASA Guide of Air-Filtering Plants

What plants to install in your dwelling places to naturally filter the air around you. From NASA in one big infographic.

The Big Three - Sheltering (Part 2)

In the preceding post we saw the importance of sheltering in the case of rain and how annoying it could be to be unprotected under pouring water, even to the point of danger.

However dangerous it could be, one scenario is worse than rain falling on you, it is wind and rain together striking you. In that combination, wind is the worst as it gives more energy and velocity to the rain drops falling on you. And the stronger the wind, the stronger the drops to the point of being extremely painful when it hits you.

But wind is a danger by itself, even without rain. Depending on the strength it could help refresh you on a hot summer day or making debris flying around and kill you. Most of the time, wind is quite innocuous, even welcomed - especially in countries like the Philippines or Indonesia where heat is potent.

However, in the region of the West-Pacific there is also another kind of wind occurrences which is way less pleasant - Typhoons (or Hurricanes, or Cyclones - different regional name for the same kind of disastrous storm). You see, behind typhoons lies one of the worst natural weapon the Earth is capable of - Wind.

We are not speaking here of a refreshing breeze, but about an atmospheric system the size of a country with wind which could go to 325 km/h (200mph) like the late Hurricane Patricia who, on October 23, 2015, made landfall in Mexico. It was the strongest wind recorded in a hurricanes, even Super-Typhoon Hayian (Yolanda) did not reach that wind intensity with its 230km/h.

Those kind of speed are the one you find in intense tornadoes. Well, imagine a tornado the size of a country and you have a good idea of what a typhoon (hurricane, cyclone) can be. Either it could be seen as a humongous vacuum cleaner or a wind Karsher, but in every cases, nearly nothing stand.

Before & After Super-Typhoon Hayian (Yolanda) - Philippines 2013

A wooden beam transformed in a missile kind of debris

When a typhoon strikes you have to be in a shelter at all cost. The wind referred to above not only are destructive, but they transform any debris in a powerful weapon that will kill you. In some instances debris could have so much energy that it could even pierce a brick wall or a tree trunk, what do you think it could do to your body?

Whether you have 100 liters of water or 300 tons of food in store for emergency, if you are not protected from something like typhoons it will not serve you well because everything would fly around, not speaking about you being wounded or killed. So a shelter is extremely important.

Take the time to think about one of the first thing they do in disasters relief management is to build fast shelter for people? Because you need to be protected from the elements, it is vital for the welfare of people. We all need to feel secured, but it is never as true as in a disaster zone where people lost everything except their own life.

Whether you live in the West-Pacific or anywhere in the world for that matter, wind could become a serious danger if you are not able to protect yourself. A good shelter is a basic requirement to protect you and your family from the effects of the wind.

Next time we will see another good reason to have a shelter, and it has to do with Heat.

Until next post, Mabuhay!

To Learn More

Sever Weather safety and Survival - NOAA

Videos

Debris Impact Testing (Wind)

The Big Three : Sheltering (Part 1)

In my first post about preparedness for disaster Prepare Yourself, Know the Basics! I presented the main list to keep in mind when preparing for an eventual disaster. In  Prepare Yourself, Shelter, Water and Food, I developed a little bit more on the Big Threes of preparation. 

With this post and the consecutive ones of this series, I will go a little bit deeper on each one of the Big Three. In today's post we will begin with the Shelter. As said before, it could appear a strange thing that the shelter is seen as more important than the water in a situation of preparedness. But when considered in its general context it makes a lot of sense to think about protecting yourself first, before even considering the question of Water and Food.

First, let's make things clear here, in the Big Threes the notion of Shelter is to be taken in its general sense, more like a protection from outside elements (those elements could be natural or human). The notion of shelter can then apply to Clothes, House, Tents, Shelter per se. In every case it is there as a way of protection, as in a state of emergency where you need to be shielded from external danger.

For instance

• If there was a Typhoon going on, you would need to be protected from debris flying around.
• If there was a looting going on you would have to protect your belongings (and all the Survival Food and Water you saved).
• If it was a Drought going on you would have to protect your water supply and have some shadows to keep yourself from the Sun.

But, for sure, in every Emergency situation, you would need to protect the most important for you - your life, and the life of those you care of. So sheltering is extremely important and should be placed first in Emergency Preparation.

This being said, and for good measure, let's develop the idea of Shelter with examples with four different cases : The Rain Case, The Wind Case, The Heat Case, The Cold Case. 

In this post let's stop to the first of our list, 

THE RAIN CASE

For most of us, it looks like the most obvious and logical reason to have a shelter of some sort (clothes, house, tents, etc) is to shield us from the rain. If rain can be a nice thing in the absolute, no one of us like to be under the rain or see the rain falling for too long - giving time it permeates everything, goes on your face, in your eyes, or on the windshield of the car preventing good visibility. It slow down your movement, it is sticky on the skin and definitively annoying in your shoes. In every case, the rain make any situation difficult to work or act in. Ask builders, gardeners, farmers... or someone who had to change a wheel under the rain what they really think about...

Now, take a simple rainy condition and put it in the context of a disaster and you have a heavy cocktail to deal with. Everything, absolutely everything is slowed down in rainy condition, emergency services can't do their work properly and victims see their condition worsen.

In a case of disaster we must be able to think and act with clarity, as such we must avoid, or at a minimum diminish, the impact of anything, like the rain, which can prevent us to act and think clearly.Shelter is important in every situation, but even vital when it comes to disaster. 

Any type of Shelter is our protection, our shield, against external danger in every conditions, but even more so when it comes to disasters. Rain is one of those conditions which can go from normal to disastrous. Yet, if you think rain can be a problem, wait until we look into the Wind Case.

Until next post, Mabuhay!

To learn more

Primitive Survival Shelters

How To Build A Survival Shelter

How To Fortify Shelter Against The Elements

Building Shelter Without Tools

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Shaky foundations

Here we are in a new year, at least according to the Roman Calendar, for other like the Chinese one the new year is still to come, as well as for the Hebrews and other. In anyway, now that the big fiesta has come and gone, we can come back and focus again into blogging.

After the series Jojo vs Earthquake in which I went deeper into the Earth to lay down the foundation of the Earthquake phenomenon, I will now come back to the surface of our planet, where we live, and begin to look into the Earthquakes itself, their impacts and consequences, and how we, humans, we can mitigate those consequences.

First things first, when it comes to earthquakes, what is the map of the main tectonic plates of the planet?

As you can see, this planet is quite a jigsaw puzzle, and we live on that jigsaw puzzle for the best or the worst.Some plates are huge compare to others, but they all move due to underground movement mainly in the Mantle. That movement makes those different plates collide with each other smoothly or brutally, it is that plate motion which leads to earthquakes.

The Philippines themselves are more specifically located in the West-Pacific Ocean Basin. Geographically the Philippines are situated on what is generally known as the Pacific Ring of Fire - the most seismically active region of the planet. 

Invisible to our eyes, the country is crossed by many faultlines, the focal point of earthquakes. The two biggest faultlines are the Trenches laying under the sea. One Trench is located on the West side of Luzon (Manila Trench), the other Trench is located on the East side of the Visayas and Mindanao (Philippine Trench). Smaller Trenches exist as well like the Cotabato Trench, Negros Trench and Sulu Trench (all located on the West of Mindanao under sea)

As a matter of fact, although the Philippines are seen as one country, geologically speaking it is a divided country - Luzon is part of the Philippines Plate, where the Visayas and Mindanao are part of the Eurasian Plate. It has real implication when you understand that being on two different plates, that also mean that they entirely depend on the motion of each of those plates. 

As far as we know the general motion of the Philippine Plate and the Eurasian Plate is a move in opposite direction on a collision course. The Philippine Plate moves in a Westward direction, where the Eurasian Plate moves in a Eastward direction. This Tectonic collision is what is at the basis of the Earthquakes in the Philippines.

That Tectonic motion is unstoppable and unavoidable, we have to live with it. Filipinos, and all of those who, like me, choose to live here live really on shaky foundations indeed. But hey, is it not true that it is more fun in the Philippines?

Mabuhay!

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Jojo vs Earthquakes (Part 5)

We arrived at the end, - nearly, - of our journey through Earth's Layers.

Here in the depth of our planet lies the Core, although we should say Cores plural. The Core is viewed as a two distinct part region, both making the Core of the Earth, but in two different states - one liquid (Outer Core), one solid (Inner Core). It happen that, according to last research there could even be an inner inner core. Whatever way you look at it, it is extremely hot. The hottest part of the Core is at a nice 6000°C (10,800°F), or to put it differently, it is as hot as the surface temperature of our Sun. Not bad for a small planet...

Both layer are composed of the same alloy - Nickel-Iron. It is the pressure which dictates the state of the alloy. In the case of the Outer Layer, the nickel-iron alloy is in liquid form (10 times the viscosity of liquid metal on the surface of the Earth). In the case of the Inner Core, the nickel-iron alloy is in solid form because the pressure is so high that it prevents the alloy to become liquid.

THE OUTER CORE

When we quit the Mantle layer, we meet the Outer Core 2,890Km (1,800 Miles) beneath our feet. 

As mentioned above, the Outer Core is made up of a liquid nickel-iron alloy. It's temperature ranges from 4,030°C (7,280°F) at the Mantle-Core Boundary to 5,730°C (10,340°F) at the Outer-Inner Core Boundary. It's thickness is around 2,300Km (1,400 Miles).

THE INNER CORE

Continuing our travel through the Core, we finally reach the Inner Core 5,150Km (3,200 Miles) beneath Earth's Surface, it is the deepest layer of our planet. As solid ball of nickel-iron, it is massive sphere of 70% the Moon's Radius in size (around 1220Km radius or around 760 Miles). 

It is here that we find the highest temperatures (around 6000°C) and the highest pressure (between 330 and 360 Gigapascal - or in lay man's term between 3,3 millions and 3,6 millions the atmospheric pressure)

Since they are so deep in our planet we could think that it is not so important on our human level. After all don't we live way above the Core, on the Crust? 

But if you remember what I said in Jojo vs Earthquake (Part 2), the Earthquakes are born from the movement of the Crust, and that global Crust movement is a result of Convection Current formed deep into our planet due to heat transfer through Earth's Layers. So the heat below our feet is quite effective on us at the surface as a collateral (and sometimes deadly) effect.

Besides, the Core, and the interaction between the Inner and Outer layer of the Core is vital to us as it is the place where our Magnetic Shield is formed. 

Without the Magnetic Field created by the Core of our planet you can say goodbye to all life on this planet, yours included. 

Although it is not Earthquake related, I will come to that on a next post when addressing another kind of Natural Disaster we should prepare for.

At least, now, we know a little bit more about what's beneath our feet. With that knowledge, although basic, we can visualize and better understand the Earthquakes phenomenon, as well as the Volcanoes phenomenon. So, in the next posts we will quit the Inner Core and come back to the Surface and look at things on a human scale.

Until then, thank you for reading.

Mabuhay!

To learn more

Wikipedia - The Structure of the Earth

Wikipedia - The Outer Core

Wikipedia - The Inner Core

National Geographic Education - Inside the Earth

USGS - Inside the Earth

Georgia State University - Structure of the Earth

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