Natural disasters are major events caused by natural processes that cause damage and economic losses. Geological disasters include avalanches, landslides, earthquakes, sinkholes, and volcanic eruptions. Hydrological disasters are floods, tsunamis. Meteorological disasters are cyclonic storms, blizzards, hailstorms, ice storms, cold waves, heat waves, thunderstorms, tornadoes, and wildfires.
Natural disasters are major events caused by natural processes that cause damage and economic losses. Geological disasters include avalanches, landslides, earthquakes, sinkholes, and volcanic eruptions. Hydrological disasters are floods, tsunamis. Meteorological disasters are cyclonic storms, blizzards, hailstorms, ice storms, cold waves, heat waves, thunderstorms, tornadoes, and wildfires.
Natural disasters are major events caused by natural processes that cause damage and economic losses. Geological disasters include avalanches, landslides, earthquakes, sinkholes, and volcanic eruptions. Hydrological disasters are floods, tsunamis. Meteorological disasters are cyclonic storms, blizzards, hailstorms, ice storms, cold waves, heat waves, thunderstorms, tornadoes, and wildfires.
Natural disasters are major events caused by natural processes that cause damage and economic losses. Geological disasters include avalanches, landslides, earthquakes, sinkholes, and volcanic eruptions. Hydrological disasters are floods, tsunamis. Meteorological disasters are cyclonic storms, blizzards, hailstorms, ice storms, cold waves, heat waves, thunderstorms, tornadoes, and wildfires.
A natural disaster is a major event caused by natural processes of the Earth; examples include floods, hurricanes,tornadoes, volcanic erup ons, earthquakes, tsunamis, and other geologic processes. A natural disaster causes loss of life or property damage, and leaves some economic damage a er it has been completed
It is the damage to humans and their property which counts most. Therefore one can say: "disasters occur when hazards meet vulnerability". If a strong earthquake happens in uninhabited areas, it is usually not seen as a disaster.
Geological disasters Avalanches and landslides A landslide is described as an outward and downward slope movement of an abundance of slope-forming materials including rock, soil, ar ficial, or even a combina on of these things.
Earthquakes An earthquake is the result of a sudden release of energy in the Earth's crust that creates seismic waves. At the Earth's surface, earthquakes manifest themselves by vibra on, shaking, and some mes displacement of the ground. Earthquakes are caused by slippage within geological faults. The underground point of origin of the earthquake is called the seismic focus. The point directly above the focus on the surface is called the epicenter. Earthquakes by themselves rarely kill people or wildlife. It is usually the secondary events that they trigger such as building collapse, fires, tsunamis (seismic sea waves) and volcanoes. Many of these could possibly be avoided by be er construc on, safety systems, early warning and planning. Sinkholes When natural erosion, human mining or underground excava on makes the ground too weak to support the structures built on it, the ground can collapse and produce a sinkhole. For example, the 2010 Guatemala City sinkhole which killed fi een people was caused when heavy rain from Tropical Storm Agatha, diverted by leaking pipes into a pumice bedrock, led to the sudden collapse of the ground beneath a factory building.
Volcanic erup ons
Volcanoes can cause widespread destruc on and consequent disaster in several ways. The effects include the volcanic erup on itself that may cause harm following the explosion of the volcano or falling rocks. Secondly, lava may be produced during the erup on of a volcano, and so as it leaves the volcano the lava destroys many buildings, plants and animals due to its extreme heat. Thirdly, volcanic ash, generally meaning the cooled ash, may form a cloud, and se le thickly in nearby loca ons. When mixed with water this forms a concrete-like material. In sufficient quan es, ash may cause roofs to collapse under its weight but even small quan es will harm humans if inhaled. Since the ash has the consistency of ground glass it causes abrasion damage to moving parts such as engines. The main killer of humans in the immediate surroundings of a volcanic erup on is the pyroclas c flows, which consist of a cloud of hot volcanic ash which builds up in the air above the volcano and rushes down the slopes when the erup on no longer supports the li ing of the gases. Volcanoes rated at 8 (the highest level) on the Volcanic Explosivity Index are known as supervolcanoes. According to the Toba catastrophe theory, 75,000 to 80,000 years ago a supervolcanic erup on at what is now Lake Toba in Sumatra reduced the human popula on to 10,000 or even 1,000 breeding pairs, crea ng a bo leneck in human evolu on, and killed three-quarters of all plant life in the northern hemisphere. However, there is considerable debate regarding the veracity of this theory. The main danger from a supervolcano is the immense cloud of ash, which has a disastrous global effect on climate and temperature for many years.
Hydrological disasters A violent, sudden and destruc ve change either in the quality of Earth's water or in the distribu on or movement of water on land below the surface or in the atmosphere.
Floods A flood is an overflow of water that 'submerges' land. The EU Floods Direc ve defines a flood as a temporary covering the land with water which is usually not covered by water. In the sense of 'flowing water', the word may also be applied to the inflow of the des. Flooding may result from the volume of water within a body of water, such as a river or lake, which overflows, causing some of the water to escape its usual boundaries. While the size of a lake or other body of water will vary with seasonal changes in precipita on and snow melt, it is not a significant flood unless the water covers land used by man, like a village, city or other inhabited area, roads, expanses of farmland, etc.
Tsunami
A tsunami (plural: tsunamis or tsunami; from Japanese: 津波, lit. "harbour wave"; English pronuncia on: /tsuːˈnɑːmi/), also known as a seismic sea wave or as a dal wave, is a series of waves in a water body caused by the displacement of a large volume of water, generally in an ocean or a large lake. Tsunamis can be caused by undersea earthquakes such as the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami, or by landslides such as the one in 1958 at Lituya Bay, Alaska, or by volcanic erup ons such as the ancient erup on of Santorini. On March 11, 2011, a tsunami occurred near Fukushima, Japan and spread through the Pacific Ocean.
Meteorological disasters Cyclonic storms Cyclone, tropical cyclone, hurricane, and typhoon are different names for the same phenomenon, which is a cyclonic storm system that forms over the oceans. The determining factor on which term is used is based on where they originate. In the Atlan c and Northeast Pacific, the term "hurricane" is used; in the Northwest Pacific it is referred to as a "typhoon" and "cyclones" occur in the South Pacific and Indian Ocean. Blizzards Blizzards are severe winter storms characterized by heavy snow and strong winds. When high winds s r up snow that has already fallen, it is known as a ground blizzard. Blizzards can impact local economic ac vi es, especially in regions where snowfall is rare. The Great Blizzard of 1888 affected the United States, when many tons of wheat crops were destroyed, and in Asia, 2008 Afghanistan blizzard and the 1972 Iran blizzard were also significant events. The 1993 Superstorm originated in the Gulf of Mexico and traveled north, causing damage in 26 states as well as Canada and leading to more than 300 deaths.
Hailstorms Hailstorms are precipita on in the form of ice, with the ice not mel ng before it hits the ground. Hailstones usually measure between 0.2 inch (5 millimetres) and 6 inches (15 cen metres) in diameter. A par cularly damaging hailstorm hit Munich, Germany, on July 12, 1984, causing about $2 billion in insurance claims. Ice storms An ice storm is a type of winter storm characterized by freezing rain. The U.S. Na onal Weather Service defines an ice storm as a storm which results in the accumula on of at least 0.25 inch (6.4 mm) of ice on exposed surfaces.
Cold waves A cold wave (known in some regions as a cold snap or cold spell) is a weather phenomenon that is dis nguished by a cooling of the air. Specifically, as used by the U.S. Na onal Weather Service, a cold wave is a rapid fall in temperature within a 24-hour period requiring substan ally increased protec on to agriculture, industry, commerce, and social ac vi es. The precise criterion for a cold wave is determined by the rate at which the temperature falls, and the minimum to which it falls. This minimum temperature is dependent on the geographical region and me of year.
Heat waves A heat wave is a period of unusually and excessively hot weather. The worst heat wave in recent history was the European Heat Wave of 2003. A summer heat wave in Victoria, Australia, created condi ons which fuelled the massive bushfires in 2009. Melbourne experienced three days in a row of temperatures exceeding 40 °C (104 °F) with some regional areas sweltering through much higher temperatures. The bushfires, collec vely known as "Black Saturday", were partly the act of arsonists. The 2010 Northern Hemisphere summer resulted in severe heat waves, which killed over 2,000 people. It resulted in hundreds of wildfires which caused widespread air pollu on, and burned thousands of square miles of forest. Thunderstorms Severe storms, dust clouds, and volcanic erup ons can generate lightning. Apart from the damage typically associated with storms, such as winds, hail, and flooding, the lightning itself can damage buildings, ignite fires and kill by direct contact. Especially deadly lightning incidents include a 2007 strike in Ushari Dara, a remote mountain village in northwestern Pakistan, that killed 30 people, the crash of LANSA Flight 508 which killed 91 people, and a fuel explosion in Dronka, Egypt caused by lightning in 1994 which killed 469. Most lightning deaths occur in the poor countries of America and Asia, where lightning is common and adobe mud brick housing provides li le protec on.
Tornadoes A tornado is a violent and dangerous rota ng column of air that is in contact with both the surface of the Earth and a cumulonimbus cloud, or the base of a cumulus cloud in rare cases. It is also referred to as a twister or a cyclone, although the word cyclone is used in meteorology in a wider sense, to refer to any closed low pressure circula on. Tornadoes come in many shapes and sizes, but are typically in the form of a visible condensa on funnel, whose narrow end touches the Earth and is o en encircled by a cloud of debris and dust. Most tornadoes have wind speeds less than 110 miles per hour (177 km/h), are approximately 250 feet (80 m) across, and travel a few miles (several kilometers) before dissipa ng. The most extreme tornadoes can a ain wind speeds of more than 300 mph (480 km/h), stretch more than two miles (3 km) across, and stay on the ground for dozens of miles (perhaps more than 100 km).
Wildfires Wildfires are large fires which o en start in wildland areas. Common causes include lightning and drought but wildfires may also be started by human negligence or arson. They can spread to populated areas and can thus be a threat to humans and property, as well as wildlife. Notable cases of wildfires were the 1871 Pesh go Fire in the United States, which killed at least 1700 people, and the 2009 Victorian bushfires in Australia.
