Environmental Science- make up a hypothetical disaster scenario - Essay Example

This plate is not static as it moves about ten centimeters annually hence forcing its way under the South America continental plate (U S library of congress n.p). Such telluric dislodgment resulted to the Trench in Peru and Chile thereby making the country prone to earthquakes as the Nazca plate causes high stress beneath Chile. Additionally, about 50% of the nation’s terrain is mountainous and the nation’s citizens mostly live near these mountains. In relation to the issue of possible contamination, water contamination and chemical contamination are possible (U S library of congress n.p). During this disaster, the country was subjected to sudden earthquake of about 9.

0 richter scale. This earthquake was more than any other experienced in the area in the recent past. On this occasion, the earthquake was so great that the high stress beneath the land caused buildings to sink as soil liquefaction occurred. During such a strong earth quake, the water and the soil mix thereby making the ground very soft and act like a quicksand. Since the South American arc extends over 7000 km from the Chilean margin and the Panama fracture zone along a triple junction (Embassy of the United States n.p). This junction marks the plate boundary between sub-ducting Nazca plate and almost static South American plate.

At this point, Nazca plate’s oceanic lithosphere and crust underlie the South American mantle hence causing earthquakes and active volcanic along the deformation. This form of an earthquake was recently experienced in Japan on March 11 2011 resulting to massive damage including infrastructure and damage to several Nuclear power plants (U S library of congress n.p). The main role of public health professionals is to ensure that the negative consequences associated with such an event are minimized through evacuation, in a place around the site.

In terms of health, gas leaks are a very likely either a natural gas or as gas used for