Plate Tectonics In Your Country

Plate Tectonics in Vanuatu

1) Vanuatu is located on the New Hebrides Plate, which is a minor tectonic plate found in the Pacific Ocean. The plate is bounded om the southwest by the Indo-Australian Plate which is subducting below it.

2) The New Hebrides Plate comes into contact with the Indo-Australian Plate (subducting). The New Hebrides Subduction zone is very active and causes around 20 earthquakes over 7.0 annually. The plates come together, so it is a convergent boundary.

3) Many volcanoes have formed due to the subduction of plates, pushing earth upwards to do so.

4) Lots of earthquakes have occurred due to these plates, as stated above. Earthquakes as large as 7.3 have been recorded over the years and they dont plan on stopping.

Volcano eruptions have also happen, although most of them are dormant now.

5) Only minor folding and faulting have occurred because of the New Hebrides Plate.

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Impact of Fishing

Impact of Fishing

1)       Fishermen: They will not be able to make a living off of fishing because all of the fish in the oceans will be gone.

          Consumers: People will not be able to buy any more fish, and if that is their staple food, they might be in trouble. Also, many seafood restaurants would probably close down due to lack of fish.

          Governments: People would be very upset at the government because they will think it's their fault that all the fish are gone. They could have been more strict on laws to prevent over fishing.

          Environment: Certain fish could go extinct if they aren't already endangered. This could cause the way of life in the oceans to change due to a kink in the food chain.

2) According to 2009 figures, approximately 77% of households in Vanuatu are involved in fishing activity. In 2005, Vanuatu caught 151,080 fish that year, with frozen fish accounting for half the country's commodity exports. It is safe to say that Vanuatu needs to fish.

In Vanuatu over fishing has resulted in a big decline in catches from 90,000 tonnes in 1999 to less than 30,000 in 2001. If fish stocks continue to be exploited, there will be less possibility of earning an income from fishing. 

Catches of tuna are expected to increase in the western pacific and decrease further east due to climate change. Thus benefiting Vanuatu at the expense of other countries.

Near-shore fish species are deleting because around 90% of all households in Vanuatu consume fish. If Vanuatu wasn't able to fish anymore then they wouldn't have any food, and lose tons of money because they wont be able to export any fish.

Timeline of Plate Tectonic Theory

Plate Tectonic Theory (with Matt Sawatzky)

BEFORE Continental Drift

1) Antonio Snider-Pellegrini created two maps demonstrating how America and Africa continents may have once fit together, then separated.

In 1889, Alfred Russel Wallace had said that the belief that the features of the earth's surface have been subjected to continual mutations had been common among geologists. Also that time had caused changes between land and the oceans.

He said that the first person to bring this up was James D. Dana in 1863 by publishing the 'Manual of Geology'. Dana was very influential in America, and his 'Manual of Mineralogy' is still in print in revised form.

His theory became known as Permanence theory.

Theory of Continental Drift

2) The theory that all the continents formed a single landmass, called Pangaea, before breaking apart and drifting was first explained by Alfred Wegener in 1912. Wegener's theory was more complete than previous ones, but he credited many past authors with the similar ideas.

Wegener was the first to use the phrase 'continental drift' and formally published the hypothesis that the continents somehow drifted apart.

Even though he had lots of evidence of his theory, he couldn't provide a convincing explanation for what might have caused continental drift.

The Theory of Plate Tectonics

3) Although Alfred Wegener was the first to begin to explaini our moving continents, Arthur Holmes, a British geologist, introduced a theory of thermal convection to explain the movement of the Earth's continents in 1929. According to Holmes it was the heating and cooling cycle of the Earth's mantle that caused continental drift. This idea didn't attract much attention at the time.
By the 1960's his idea became more credible because of scientists' increased understanding of the ocean floor by mapping. In 1961 scientists had proposed the process of the sea floor spreading caused by the mantle convection to explain the movement of the Earth's continents and plate tectonics.

The Theory of Hot Spots
4) A Canadian geophysicist J. Tuzo Wilson came up with the 'hot spot' theory in 1963. It explained why although most earthquake and volcanic activity happened at plate boundaries, there are some that occur away from these boundaries.
The theory claimed that small, very 'hot' areas of magma are located under certain points of Earth. These places (hot spots) provide localized heat and that sustain long-lasting volcanic activity on the surface. This volcanism builds up seamounts, and eventually rise above the ocean current, forming volcanic islands.
When islands slowly move away from the hot spot, because of plate tectonics, the magma supply is cut, and the volcano goes dormant. According to Wilson's theory, the Hawaiian volcanoes should be growing older and more eroded the further they are from a hot spot. Once one volcano becomes extinct, another develops over the hotspot, and the cycle is repeated. Wilson's theory is accepted as valid to this day.

Impact of Climate Change

Impact of Climate Change

Vanuatu is in a tropical maritime climate with uniform temperature, high humidity, and variable rainfall.
Winds are usually light except during a tropical storm.
The climate can be defined by two main seasons:
          Cold (dry) season from May to October
          Hot (wet/cyclone) season from November to April

Atmosphere
- There has been evidence of warmer and dryer climate.
- Climate change can also alter disease patterns.
- The warmer conditions may facilitate the spread of malaria and dengue fever in the region.
- Warmness of the atmosphere may cause cyclones to become more common, as well as larger.
- Just recently cyclone Pam hit, and was one of the most devastating cyclone they have ever experienced, killing 24 people and destroying lots of agriculture. It was blamed on climate change.
- After the cyclone hit, many people are without clean water and toilets. If they don't get these things soon, more people may die.


Hydrosphere
- High water temperatures, combined with ocean acid levels rising due to higher CO2 levels, are likely to cause severe stress to coral reefs in the south-western Pacific.

- Warmer water temperatures can increase the risk of ciguatera poisoning, which is a major health hazard for those people consuming reef fish.
- Wet season rainfall is likely to increase, which could damage crops.
- If sea level rises significantly people will need to relocate closer into the middle of the island.
-Higher sea levels could also cause certain species to become endangered on the Vanuatu islands.

Lithosphere
- Agriculture yields could be lower due to heat stress and lack of precipitation.
- Trying to compensate for lower yields of crops can also damage the environment.
- Soil degradation, deforestation, and undermining will happen while trying to regain lost yields.
- Vital roads are being located to avoid impacts of climate change including higher water marks.
- Bridges could be rendered useless if sea level rises high enough.



Biosphere
- Very dry conditions can harm Vanuatu's prime export; coconuts.
- Mangrove ecosystems are also threatened.
- Population growth can also suck up much needed resources that they may lose due to the dry climate.
- Tourism is Vanuatu's most valuable export industry, but the increase chance of natural disasters and diseases will likely turn away people from traveling there.
- 75% of the people there live off the land and are already being affected by climate change.
- Ten different projects are being implemented to help adapt to climate change, and disaster risk reduction.
- Reducing emissions to hopefully reduce size of cyclones.

Mining

Strip Mining and Shaft Mining

Part A
Strip Mining is an open mine, that runs close to ground level, and is exposed by the removal of the top layer of soil and rocks.

Pros: it is easy and cheap for the mining companies to do
         space is not restricted so trucks and mining machinery can move around freely
         workers are not exposed to explosive poison gas dangers

Cons: it removes a lot of the environment, sometimes miles wide
          leaves giant holes in the ground
          the use of acid washes on site to isolate the ore that is being mined can damage the soil                         and environment as well

Shaft mining is when a excavate a vertical tunnel from the top down, where there is initially no access to the bottom.

Pros: produces very little waste and less damaging to the environment
         easier to permit, and requires a smaller mill
         more profit per ton of ore mined
       
Cons: it is very expensive to conduct
          not much ventilation for workers to breathe
          this way of mining is more hazardous to workers overall

Part B

Spouse of a miner: As a spouse of a miner I would definitely be worried about their safety when going to work in a mine. Shaft mining is dangerous for a miners health, so I would prefer strip mining because it is much safer.

Owner of a mining company: As an owner of a mining company I would want to do the cheapest type of mining, which would be strip mining. Also, I would want my employees to be safe on the job.

Environmentalist: As an environmentalist I wouldn't care about how much the mining would cost, all I would care about is the environment. So I would prefer shaft mining over strip mining.

Owner of nearby ski resorts: As an owner of nearby ski resorts I would be more concerned about the environment around the ski resort, so I would prefer shaft mining. Nobody wants to ski in an ugly landscape.

Politician: If I was a politician that cared about money, and how much things cost, then I would prefer strip mining because it is cheaper overall.

Part C

In Vanuatu there are many mineral resources including precious metals and manganese. Even though these minerals exist, it is really hard to mine them due to the lack of infrastructure make it very difficult to support a large mining industry.