Debris is scattered for miles, houses are destroyed, trees are bent, and vehicles have been thrown. This would be an aftermath of a natural disaster. Natural disasters come in many forms such as earthquakes, tornados, floods, blizzards, fires, and volcanic eruptions, just to name a few. Every type of disaster is not subjected to one specific area. This means that people in certain areas only have to prepare for those disasters that are likely to occur in their region.
Throughout the world, natural hazards are a frequent occurrence. On a range of scales they create disaster, destruction and deaths of people. “A natural process only becomes a natural hazard when the risk of human loss is presented.” (Page 2)
An earthquake is “a sudden shake of the Earth's crust caused by the tectonic plates colliding.” (Page 2) The vibrations may vary in magnitude. “The underground point of origin of the earthquake is called the focus. The point directly above the focus on the surface is called the epicenter.”(Page 3) Earthquakes by themselves rarely kill people or wildlife. “It is usually the secondary events that they trigger, such as building collapse, fires, tsunamis and volcanoes, that are actually the human disaster.” (Page 5) Earthquakes may last only a few seconds or may continue for up to several minutes. They can occur at any time of the day or night and at any time of the year. “They are caused by stress that builds up over time as blocks of crust attempt to move but are held in place by friction along a fault.”(Page 8) “When the pressure becomes stronger than the friction holding them together, adjoining blocks of crust can suddenly slip, rupturing the fault and creating an earthquake.”(Page 10)
Volcanoes can cause widespread destruction through several ways. “The effects include the volcanic eruption itself that may cause harm following the explosion of the volcano or the fall of rock. Second, lava may be produced during the eruption of a volcano. As it leaves the volcano the lava destroys any buildings and plants it encounters. Third, volcanic ash generally meaning the cooled ash - may form a cloud, and settle thickly in nearby locations.”(Page 14) The main killer of humans in the immediate surroundings of a volcanic eruption is the “pyroclastic 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 eruption no longer supports the lifting of the gases.
Earthquakes, by Webster’s dictionary definition, are, “a shaking or trembling of the earth that is volcanic or tectonic in origin.” World Book Encyclopedia reports scientists believe that more than 8,000 earthquakes occur each day without causing damage. A little more than 1,000 each year are strong enough to be felt. Earthquakes occur in the general sense, anywhere on land. Other earthquakes go by different names, such as volcanic eruptions and tsunamis, large tidal wave storms that occur underwater, primarily in the Pacific Ocean.
The earth is split into four layers, inner and outer core, the mantle and crust. The top of the mantle and crust make up what is like the skin of our earth (see source 2). The skin is split up like a puzzle and we call these puzzle pieces’ tectonic plates (see source 1). These plates are constantly moving and the plate boundaries (edges of the plates) move and slide past one another. Sometimes as the plates move the plate boundaries become stuck. Pressure builds up in the stuck area over time and eventually breaks. This is why earthquakes occur due to the sudden movement of the plate sliding and breaking creating a fault line to go off. The fault line is the line on which the
Regina:The Early Years. (2014). Cyclone of 1912. Regina: The Early Years 1880 -1950. Retrieved March 7, 2014, from http://scaa.usask.ca/gallery/regina/central/cyclone.html
Earthquakes are best described as a shaking or vibration of the ground caused by breaking of rock. Sometimes they are very strong and other times you would hardly notice them. This shaking occurs when stress that builds up in the crust is suddenly released as the crust breaks free and/or slides against the other pieces of crust. Earthquakes may also be thought of as the breaking of a popsicle stick by applying pressure to both ends at the same time. Should you try this experiment , you will feel the pressure build up as you apply more force until the stick snaps. When the stick snaps you will feel an instant of pain at your fingers as the stress reduces and energy waves move throughout the stick. When the earth's crust is placed under similar types of stress, binding as the stress builds, it will also snap and release the energy into the surrounding rocks, 'ooch'. Thinking about earthquakes will become more clear if you try another experiment.
Hazards pose risk to everyone. Our acceptance of the risks associated with hazards dictates where and how we live. As humans, we accept a certain amount of risk when choosing to live our daily lives. From time to time, a hazard becomes an emergent situation. Tornadoes in the Midwest, hurricanes along the Gulf Coast or earthquakes in California are all hazards that residents in those regions accept and live with. This paper will examine one hazard that caused a disaster requiring a response from emergency management personnel. Specifically, the hazard more closely examined here is an earthquake. With the recent twenty year anniversary covered by many media outlets, the January 17, 1994, Northridge, California earthquake to date is the most expensive earthquake in American history.
Both the causes and the phenomenon of disasters are well-defined by social processes and structures. Thus it is only a geo- or biophysical hazard, but rather the social context that is taken into account to understand “natural” disasters (Hewitt
Natural Disasters can occur anywhere at anytime. Some are more predictable than others, but they all bring hardship to everyone’s life. Examples of natural disasters are Earthquakes (Haiti 2010), Tornadoes, Tsunami, Hurricanes, Wild Fires, Winter Storms, Heat waves, Mudslides and Floods. Regardless of what kind of disaster occurs, bottom line, everyone needs to be prepared mentally and physically to deal with the aftermath. Education is the first step to prepare you to deal with any major disaster. Three of the major disasters that can potentially disrupt normal day to day operations in our lives, are Hurricanes, Tsunamis and Tornadoes.
Volcanoes can be one of the most destructive forces on Earth. It is estimated that some
Volcanoes can cause damage by spewing lava, but earthquakes before the eruption can also cause damage. These earthquakes open fissures and let magma out to the surface. When the magma exits these fissures, streams of lava up to hundreds of feet can shoot into the air. The picture below shows the lava erupting from the fissures created by the earthquakes in...
There are different types and causes of disasters: man-made, natural and a combination. Man-made disasters are caused by human error or human actions that cause harm to the environment, and people (Baack & Alfred, 2013). Natural disasters are caused by nature, a hurricane for example, and a combination of NA-TECH (natural-technological). Examples are earthquakes that cause structural damage such as a collapse of a bridge (Nies & McEwen, 2011). Communities must have effective emergency preparedness in place to reduce the casualties of a disaster.
In the end I would like to say that disasters are inevitable so the authorities should be prepare beforehand and when the disaster actually occurs the response should be fast and effective. There after the recovery from the loss occurred should be well planned and future planning should be done so that much better protection steps can prevent larger damage.
When a volcano erupts, the focus is particularly on the consequences that take place near the volcano, such as weather conditions, the impact on nature, and the people who are affected. The noticeable changes that take place after a volcanic eruption includes the decrease in the temperature, natural disasters, such as tsunamis, droughts, and hurricanes, and the air pollution, which can be harmful to plants, animals, and people.
Earthquakes are one of the most mysterious natural disasters that we deal with to his day. That is the thriller of earthquakes, is the fact that they are so strange and bizarre that it keeps us guessing when the next one is to come. The San Andreas Fault earthquake is the most mysterious, dangerous, and soon to come earthquakes that we still do not necessarily have a date on towards when it will happen.
Good morning everybody, by now all of you will have seen the morbid and shocking images on television. Known to man as one of the most damaging, disastrous and detrimental typhoons in history, Super Haiyan ravaged through our entire country leaving nothing to spare. Within a split second those which were known as our most prized possession were instantly consumed by the monstrous typhoon. Our initial reports show that this monstrosity left a wake of massive destruction that is unthinkable, unprecedented and horrendous. Thousands of neighbourhoods were left in ruins, thousands more were injured among those were children struggling with all their might to deny the horrible fact that their parents were lying on the ground, lifeless, cold, pale . The devastation is so staggering that I struggle to find words to describe the horrific events that have occurred.
Earthquakes belong to the class of most disastrous natural hazards. They result in unexpected and tremendous earth movements. These movements results from dissemination of an enormous amount of intense energy in form of seismic waves which are detected by use of seismograms. The impact of earthquakes leaves behind several landmarks including: destruction of property, extensive disruption of services like sewer and water lines, loss of life, and causes instability in both economic and social components of the affected nation (Webcache 2).