Introduction
Earthquake is a hazard that should be made public this is because it leads to high loss of life and property if people are not made aware of in this I mean that there should be a way through so that people can have most of damages that are caused by the earth quake reduced. Therefore a country that is frequently involved in this hazard has to know which ways to take sop that they have clear information given to people. This will mean that even if they have to be assisted by other countries to should be done because this hazard when it takes place in a country it claims high percentage of lives and loses that can not be recovered. This will mean that there should be a public campaign in that country on how to go about this hazard in other words this is something that is natural but it can be prevented only through the people getting involved in activities that will reduce the effects of it when it takes place. Zagros is a mountain system in Iran and extends from the Turkish- Armenian frontier south east to the strait of home. Zagros vary from the rigged, forested and snow capped mountains of the North West with volcanic cones and valley system and salt marshes that is in the central point and in the south west there are bare rock and sand dunes. In the northern there is a high population and fertile valleys that support agriculture. In the uplands of the central range the tribal pastoralist are available and in the south east there are cereals that are grown at oases. There are different groups that stay in the mountains that are like the Kurds and lurs and some of the groups are sedentary. Iran is a country that is known for oil; production which lies on the western foothills of the central part of the zagros where there are salt domes that have trapped huge amounts of oil. In speaking of the geology of zagros the structural belt consist of different litho logical units and the geology prospective of the study are indicates that the litho logy in age from the Oligocene up to recent. The study area of this place contains dolomite. Alluvial and sand stone and the sediment flux are critical in controlling erosion rates and lineaments that are the common elements of structural features. Zagros folded belt has been related to folding of cover that is controlled by a ductile decollement. The geological constraints, topography analysis reveal that the basement thrusting may produce locally deformation in the cover. (Nilfouroushan, 2006).
Area of study
In order to determine the depth of the deformation in the basement there will be need for over all contribution to topography and will have to first examine the filtered large and short wave lengths of the topography. In determining the short wave length of the topography then one has to include the zagros folds that is surimposed on different uplift of the regional scale in that the regional base level; of the folded marker horizons has to remain parallel to the regional topography of interest. (Martinod, 2003).
In the modeling there is the revealing of salt based wedge that is not able to reproduce the large wavelength component of topography of the zagros folded belt, this will reveal that when a thick layer of salt forms on the basal decollement then it becomes a problem for the support of growth of significant topography. In referring to the thick skinned crustal wedge model that is involved in Arabian margin that is above a viscous lower crust then the information that is received from this model shows that the observed topography is satisfactory and is also consistent with the present day basement thrusting and the topography analyses and geological problems. This will mean that the basement that is involved in thickening and shortening is mechanically required to produce the shape of zagros belt. The involvement of the basement still provides mechanical and kinematic problems that should be accounted for cross sections that balances and assesses the evolution of zagros at crustal scales. The heat driven circulation from the zagros plateau has impact on the climate of Middle East plain and mainly during summer time winds, air and temperature. From the experiments that have been done to this plateau then it shows that it is highly reflective in that it is snow like and the heat driven circulation produce an extra summertime warming of 1A and 2A degrees c in the middle east plains. There is effect of spatial distribution of hormuz salt on deformation in the zagros fold and thrust belt which shows that there is adjacent viscous and frictional decollements that stimulate this effect in zagros belt. (Martin, 2003).
The zagros fold thrust belt in Iran forms the external part of the zagros active orogenic wedge and this includes a sequence of heterogeneous neoproterozoic sedimentary that cover strata of approximately 12 kilometers thick and composed of alternating incompetent and competent layers. Balancing the structures of the cover stat graphic units in the zagros fold thrust there is need for a sequencing and sequence out involvement of the Precambrian basement in the deformation. In creating the structural complexity the out sequence thrusting mechanically weak layers of the cover strata have played a role by providing several detachment horizons and the shortening estimates across the belt are variable and are based on the constructed cross sections and their restorations, minimum shortening estimates that range from 17 percent to 35 percent in different sectors.
Iran is a country that suffers from social and economic damages that result from seismic activities that are done by human beings. In connection to public awareness of earthquake the zagros belt has had an impact in that they have to keep people in formed and mostly those who have settled new volcanic cones so that they can know of any risk that may arise due to earthquakes. There was a strong earth quake that occurred in western part of Iran and this earthquake measured about on the Richter scales. This earth quake flattened nearly about 100 remote village valleys in the western part of this country and it led to killing of many people, with other injured and thousands left homeless. Earthquakes have proved to cause many destruction therefore there is need for a government to have measures that will lead to changes in weather. (Masson, 2004).
A record that shows the earthquakes that has taken place in 2002 of magnitude 7.0 and greater.
Table 1:
One approach that can be used will be to have public awareness on the safety issues that will be involved to this type of houses they live in and of the earth quake considerations inside the home and work place. This will mean that these people who have to built house in places that are mostly affected by the earth quake should follow the right measures that have been given to them what they will have to do will be to have masonry who knows how to built house that will not be shaken by earthquake when it takes place. (Masson, 2004).
Therefore the building of houses is something that has to be put in consideration because if a house is built against the set instructions then it will collapse and this will lead to loss of life. Therefore as they build houses then they are supposed to be keen so that they know the person to build the house in other words the house should be build in a way that it will support its walls during earth quake. In many buildings this system has to consist of some combination of horizontally distributing elements and the vertical bracing elements. This will mean that this building if it has to follow this system then every thing that is required should be put in action because failure of any part will result to high damage in the building which will even include the total collapse of the building. An earth quake that occurs in a place shakes the whole building and if the building is to remain then it means that it was well built. Therefore there is need for a major design consideration that has to be chosen so that they can have a strong building that will not be affected by earth quake meaning that various separate elements must be positively secured to one another. Another method would be to predict the earthquake and evacuate the occupants of the buildings before it takes place. This is a short term prediction and can not reduce damage to property but if it is successful it can safe human injuries and some secondary effects of earth quake like fire. (Buiter, 2004).
There have been delays in communicating this danger to public this has been due to problems that have been in existence and therefore claiming a high population of people due to lack of information. It is very much costly to reconstruct a damage that has taken place this is because the people lives that are damage cannot be put back to life and in this I mean that many people end up losing their lives mainly due to lack of information that is required therefore it is important to keep people informed so that they know what they are expected to do. This is because if the earth quake strikes a place then there are serious injury and severe damage of structures and therefore what people require is information so that they know what they are expected to do. The predictive studies and mitigation efforts will improve these problems and the state has to be quick implementing the legislation so that they protect people from these hazards. The education and public willingness to comply with the recommended home retrofitting procedures is the responsibility of people ion that people are supposed to take their responsibility so that they follow what is expected so that they have prevention that is right. This will mean that if people are not ready for an action then they will end up getting their loss of life and property and will not get any other assistance because the government will not have income that will be able to cover the affected group of people. Therefore what the public is supposed to do in case of proper building will be to have industries that will have their main concern on providing building materials and have proper transportation infrastructure. This will reduce the cost that can be incurred by people during earth quakes because the buildings will be strong enough to encounter the waves of this earth quake. In public awareness then it should be done in the geological processes of work and how effectively they have to deal with there disasters which may take place. There have been tidies that have been carried out so that they can give in formation in relation to tectonic settings about volcanic cones that exist in the zagros belt in Iran. These studies have been to provide information on volcanic deformation inreverse, normal and trascurrent faulting environments. (Buiter, 2004).
The selected areas have been the Stromboli which ids a normal fault, Cotopaxi which is a reverse fault and mayon which is a trascurrent fault. These three volcanoes are active and similar in size and are composed of inter layered lava and pyroclasatic units. The model that has been in use has been the analogue scaled model which has to plan and develop base on real filed observations and it is not just on theory. From the collected information then it has been clear that earth quakes are very much in places where there are active volcano meaning that in these places then they are not safe for people to live or even carry out their activities. This will mean that if people arte provided with this information then they should be ken so that they know what they are supposed to do so that they do not get in this problem of been harmed and losing their property. The thrust belts and fire land basins record both the phases of orogenuic evolution and influence of depth and surfical, the geological processes at different time scales.
From a report that was collected from alborz seismic belt of northern Persia showed that in estimation of intensity in the villages of the central part of the are is not possible this is because most of the rural settlements in the region use the traditional building style of one or two story single dwelling houses, built of unreinforced sun dried brick with wooden beams. The walls are constructed using mad and the masonry building with mud mortar have little resistance to earth quake motions. The adobe constructions are built close together in cluster and separated by very narrow winding streets. This will mean that incase an earth quake occurs then the building will be affected as they will not have resistance that ids required. Therefore such buildings are seen to be less resistance and this will lead to high damage of property and human lives. In this place the public buildings and some governmental buildings in the larger villages use kiln brick masonry with still beam or they are reinforced by concrete structures this will mean that the adobe construction will be damaged beyond repair and in villages where this construction is done become impossible to assess epicenter intensities.
Variations in spill conditions, topography and water table cause local amplification of ground motions and influence the pattern of damage in the epicenter area. In ground acceleration the peak acceleration in the main shock at other sites can be measured in different areas and from the information that is received then one can be able to access earth quake rates in a place. There is the ground response where by it is possible that ground amplified by resonance of seismic waves within the thick closely consolidated and alluvial deposits containing a high water table on which this part of task is constructed. The concentration of damage in the large buildings suggest that effects are dominant at longer wave lengths but ids not easy to separate site effects from those related to building quality and design. Although threw were frequent earth quakes in this place there is no firm evidence of co seismic surface faulting been reported but the earth quakes that had taken place were associated with active faults. The faulting was hard to find as it occurred high in the mountain range in a region with wet climate and rapid erosion where no convincing Holocene activity could be seen in that place and still no young geomorphic features could be detected on aerial photographs. But there are several geomorphologic indicators of active tectonic processes in the epicenter area. (Bayer, 2005).
The prehistoric landslips in this there is no evidence of fault that affects young alluvial sediments but the earth quakes is associated with past large earth quakes but not on the fault. The raised over terraces of the sefid rud these terraces together with a summer raised river terrace near the sefid rud dam above the present river bed are indicators of active uplift in the area and are recognized to cause earth quake. Spatial variations in uplift are may be account for the changes in the position of the sefid rud channel; in the epicenter area and the river has sinuous and straight reaches. The channel sinuosity is low in most parts but have many branches that will have discharge in the slope areas. The straighter reaches are there ones that are associated with tectonic steeping relative to the meandering reaches. The steepening of certain reaches may be sufficient to have separating meandering from straight and braided modes of channel pattern. From all these factors then they are closely related to the pattern of zagros belt meaning that of they are considered then there can be a way through to get solution to the problem of earth quake. Infact most of the factors that leads to earth quakes in one belt are the same factors that can cause this earth quake in another belt in this I mean that the belts are similar and this will mean that they will not have different causes of earth quake one from another. Therefore the control measures that should be taken by one country to have control over the earth quake and other hazards should be the same measures to be used by another country to reduce and have control over earth quake. Having the main cause of this hazard then people should be ready to follow the precautions that are set. This is because without the right follow up of the set measures then it will be hard for people to know how to fight this disaster as they can fight the other disasters like drought but this will have to take a different direction so that it can reduce the problems that are likely to occur. Therefore all countries should come together and have a camping on public awareness so that they know that people are losing and at the same time the country will loss. Thus it is an important strategy that a country should take in coming up with solutions that will curb this problem all together in the whole world. (Bayer, 2005).
Major earth quakes are uncommon in Iran which lies on a major seismic line and the moderate tremors are reported on various parts of the country every day. Since 1990 there has been many death cases that have been reported in three major earth quakes and the recent earth quake has occurred in Iran in the zagros fold belt and thrust belt which has claimed a large population of people. The highly seismic regions form the boundary between the Arabian and Eurasian plates. With the size of the plates the Arabian plate is smaller in size and split from the African plate by rifting along the red sea. When this plate collides with the massive Eurasian plate then it causes uplift of the Zagros Mountain and many damages are caused by earth quake. From the researches that were carried out in different belts then it shows that the earth quakes result from the colliding of their plates that exist in the mountain that is in this belt. This will mean that with this collision then a movement is caused which will lead to earth quake. There are other causes of earth quakes that can be known and most of these are the active volcanic eruptions. If people carry out activities in such places then they are likely to interfere with it and this will cause this eruption to take place leading to loss of life and loss of property. (Abbassi, 2003).
Generally what is supposed to be done will be to come up with ministries that will cater for the affected people in different areas. This is because in dealing with disasters what people have to do is to know a problem before it comes up and come with a solution to these problems. Therefore with international links and other organizations then a government has come up with strategy and implementation mechanism because of the natural disasters that are wide spread in these places. The ministry that is concerned with this control and implementation has been the bureau for research and coordination of safety and reconstruction affairs. This ministry is concerned with research on safety measures, formulation of preparedness and mitigation plans, disaster information collection. Analysis and dissemination and provision of coordinated services of relief, reconstruction and rehabilitation activities and monitoring activities that include the coordination of budget forecasting and disbursement and provision of logistical support activities. The Iranian emergency response system has the disasters categorized as being national, regional or local. In the national authorities then they are concerned with emergency relief operations and they do this through a national disaster task force which has to give relief response across sectors and the responsibility to the appropriate ministries. What they do will be to call upon the military for as that can assist in giving relief to the affected people in a nation. In the regional structure they deal with giving of relief through a formal arrangement for the neighboring provinces so that they respond to assist the affected area. As soon as the disaster occurs then the neighboring regions are encouraged to respond as the auxiliary provinces. In local structure what they do will be to have sub district governors who report to the district what has taken place then from this pointy the concerned group will take its role in managing the immediate search and rescue operations and the relief phase which follows. So that they could deal with this problem as required there has been committee formed and they have to take their role in carrying out research and teaching people on what is required. There has been the formation of many projects in a year that has to deal with infrastructure so that they ensure that the infrastructure is well set this is important because it will ease the cost that will be required if they have to take people to different places when they make the prediction of this problem.
The committee have to consider the dry and semi dry climate which had effects to agriculture and natural resources what they do in these places is to come up with irrigation projects so that they have water reserved, have waste and vaporization mitigation and construction of earth dams. These practices have to be done in several places so that they have cover for all people who are likely to be affected by lack of water due to drought. In the sector for housing that have been damaged due to floods and earthquakes then they have rebuilt and renovated their house and also they have qualified engineers and technical guidelines followed so that they can have the right earth quake resistant construction and reconstruction. There has been the need for many projects to have prevention of disaster like earth quake this is because without assistance then what people have to do will be to get information that will lead to the right measures taken. In these projects of disaster prevention then they has given information to people so that they know what they are required to do at a particular time there has been self assistance training plan against earth quakes, risks and impacts.( Abbassi,2003).
Conclusion
Zagros belt in Iran has been with frequent earth quakes this is because of the collision of the Arabian and Eurasia plates meaning that people should be kept informed all the times so that they can be well prepared. In this I mean that predication method should be used and other methods that are effective so that people do not have to face these dangers in their lives.
Reference
Abbassi, M. (2003): present day crustal deformation. Geophysical journal international, 157, pp, 300-400.
Bayer, P. (2005): active deformation in zagros. Geophysical journal international, 165, pp, 300-400.
Buiter, H. (2004): analogue benchmarks of shortening and extension experiments. Geological society special publication.
Masson, G. (2004): shortening of central alborz in Iran. Earth and planetary science letters, 223, pp, 100-200.
Martinod, W. (2003): the Arabia- Eurasia collision deformation. Journal of geodesy, 77, pp, 400-425.
Hatzfeld, H. (2006): difference in GPS deformation pattern in zagros. Geophysical journal international. 167, pp, 1000-2000.
Nilfouroushan, P. (2006): GPS study of active tectonics in Iran. MPhil thesis, Uppsala University.
Talbot, R. (2006): investigation of zagros thrust fold belt deformation frascati, Italy.