Natural Hazards and the Interaction of Physical and Human Processes
The earth has been producing hazards for millennia these include
earthquakes and volcanoes caused by the movement of tectonic plates,
and also wind and water elated disasters such as tornadoes and
tsunamis, these can be varied by a countries location such as
suffering drought due to be land locked or an island, also the relief
on the land can contribute greatly to the hazards it faces.. All of
these cause great destruction and can involves lots of energy, these
events do not become disasters unless there are human factors
involved, when people live on a fault line they are risking suffering
from an earthquake, this combination of physical and human processes
can lead to large losses not only in lives but also monetary due to
lost land, employment and homes. The problems associated with a hazard
may be short lived on continue for decades, drought can effect a
region for over 5 years, but the loss of farm land due to volcanic
eruption can result in a permanent loss of foodstuffs and thus
malnutrition. Providing adequate preparation and protection from a
p[physical hazard can mean that the risk is greatly reduced,
earthquakes in the Sahara dessert affect nobody, since no one lives
there, similarly if a earthquake is expected in Hawaii, the islands
can be evacuated and the risk is lessened. Similarly the location of
the hazard can also mean large differences in lives lost, if the
hazard hits a MEDC which is prepared many buildings will survive and
will those living their, if the same hazard hit a LEDC it could cause
great atrocity as many homes will no be strong enough to...
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... land; this can result in further human related
complications as fires are started by broken gas mains. Also when land
is built on reclaimed land such as sand reclamation on the west coast
of America, an earthquake could cause liquefaction to occur turning
the once stable base of people's homes into a river of mud and sand.
Very few of these events would become a hazard unless humans were
either living their or has contributed to the actual problem, land
which has no population frequently shows no ill effects of these
natural processes and in some it has positive effects, when Egypt was
only populated by very few the yearly flooding of the Nile ensured
that the farm land was irrigated and also had fresh nutrient, now the
dam means this no longer occurs and if the dam breaks a huge flood
killing millions could result.
Floods can be a very dangerous natural disaster because a flood has the power to move cars, buildings, and cause massive damage to life and property. Even the small floods that are only 30 centimetres or so can do massive damage to houses and if the
D.J. Dowrick (”Earthquake Risk Reduction”in Wiley) explains that seismic hazard is any physical phenomenon associated with an earthquake that may produce adverse effects on human activities. Earthquakes occur very suddenly without any warning. Thus, earthquake not only destructs people’s living environment, but also affects people’s mental health. People are more scared of earthquake. In 2010, there are two severe earthquakes, which are Haiti Earthquake and Chile Earthquake. Both of these two earthquakes produced the various impact considerably across countries and regions. The purpose of this essay is to analyse those two earthquakes according to knowledge such as why they occur, how strong they are, and what the impact they made. Even though people still can not predict earthquake, through analyse earthquakes, they can prevent it bring huge losses.
On February 1, 2003, the Space Shuttle Columbia was lost due to structural failure in the left wing. On take-off, it was reported that a piece of foam insulation surrounding the shuttle fleet's 15-story external fuel tanks fell off of Columbia's tank and struck the shuttle's left wing. Extremely hot gas entered the front of Columbia's left wing just 16 seconds after the orbiter penetrated the hottest part of Earth's atmosphere on re-entry. The shuttle was equipped with hundreds of temperature sensors positioned at strategic locations. The salvaged flight recorded revealed that temperatures started to rise in the left wing leading edge a full minute before any trouble on the shuttle was noted. With a damaged left wing, Columbia started to drag left. The ships' flight control computers fought a losing battle trying to keep Columbia's nose pointed forward.
An example of a really bad natural disaster would be with the Aztecs. One night a comet came and burned one of the Aztecs most holy temples and it flooded the mexico river making many flee and the civilization break up because everyone was scared of this empire collapsing.“We must flee far away from this city!(PBS).”This quote is an example of how everyone panicked and fled leaving the empire weak with not as many farmers and workers. This then could’ve easily lead to the fall of the Aztecs because their empire is flooded and they don’t have enough people to help work and fight in the army. Another example is with the Mongols when they tried to attack Japan and lost a huge part of their army and ships to typhoons. They wanted to keep attacking in the night instead of just anchoring, which ran them right into a huge typhoon. This then left them vulnerable to other empires attacking them as wells as leaving them weak, and without a huge part of their army. “Straight into the arms of an approaching typhoon. (Mongol invasion of Japan).”This easily shows how the Mongols really ruined there fighting force by running into a typhoon. Now not only did they lose part of their army and ships, but they lost all of the riches the might’ve earned by looting and taking over Japan. My last example is with Greece. In recent studies it has shown that a natural disaster like a 300 year drought has hurt the city and made it almost impossible to grow crops which would’ve killed everyone living their. “A 300-year drought may have caused the demise of several Mediterranean cultures, including ancient Greece, new research suggests.(Ghose)” This quote clearly explains how Greece might’ve fallen from a drought, which would’ve given them no crops, no drinking water, and no water to raise livestock. This is one big theory that might solve why Greece fell. A natural disaster can set any empire or
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.
Every geohazard is different based on lots of factors, such as the geological composition of the land in terms of rock types or tectonic activity, and the socioeconomic impact a hazard would have. For example, a large earthquake in the middle of barren land is likely to be less of a problem than a smaller-scale earthquake in a city. Some geohazards can have unexpected consequences from relatively far flung locations, for instance a wide-reaching pyroclastic flow from a volcano can cause damage far more widespread than many people would expect, especially depending on factors such as wind strength and direction and the volume of pyroclastic material.
August 23rd, 2005; Hurricane Katrina, formed over the Bahamas, hitting landfall in Florida. By the 29th, on its third landfall it hit and devastated the city of New Orleans, becoming the deadliest hurricane of the 2005 season and, one of the five worst hurricanes to hit land in the history of the United States. Taking a look at the years leading to Katrina, preventative actions, racial and class inequalities and government, all of this could have been prevented. As presented in the newspaper article, An Autopsy of Katrina: Four Storms, Not Just One , we must ask ourselves, are “natural” disasters really natural or, are they a product of the people, who failed to take the necessary actions that needed to be taken?
Technological and accidental hazards can be occur without warning and can be both hazardous material incidents and failures at nuclear power plant. In some cases, victims that have been exposed to harmful chemicals or radiation show little to no symptoms until several years later. There are an increasing number of new substances and chemicals being manufactured which has increased the likelihood of a hazardous material spill or release. This also increases the risk to the environment and to the health and safety of a community.
Many people have already dammed a small stream using sticks and mud by the time they become adults. Humans have used dams since early civilization, because four-thousand years ago they became aware that floods and droughts affected their well-being and so they began to build dams to protect themselves from these effects.1 The basic principles of dams still apply today as they did before; a dam must prevent water from being passed. Since then, people have been continuing to build and perfect these structures, not knowing the full intensity of their side effects. The hindering effects of dams on humans and their environment heavily outweigh the beneficial ones.
The main definition of natural disaster is “any catastrophic event that is caused by nature or the natural processes of the earth”. Natural disasters happen all around the world, it is a major event resulting from a natural process of the Earth, for example the most common are hurricanes, earthquakes, tsunamis, tornados, and volcanic eruptions. A natural disaster can cause a lot of damage, and also loss of life. These disasters typically cause economic damage, which it´s very difficult to recover from. Some of the events will not rise to the level of a natural disaster if it occurs in an area without vulnerable population, however if it occurs in a vulnerable and populated area, it is considered a natural disaster, and it can cause serious
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; 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 causalities from a disaster.
Floods-There are several places on Earth where people need to stay alert about flooding. Examples are Kolkata(India), Mumbai(India), Miami(Florida), Tokyo(Japan),etc. These cities need to stay alert because they have either a lot of rain or earthquakes. It’s funny that floods occur on land that is usually dry. They also occur in places close to rivers, streams, etc. Too much rain, fallen dams and many other ways can cause these rivers/streams to overflow and flood the land nearby, resulting in a floodplain. When a large storm or tsunami occurs, a flood is sure to follow. The danger of flood depends on whether they develop quickly or take time to develop. Flash floods are very dangerous as they come without warning resulting in a shortage of time for people to evacuate, while many other floods take hours of time to develop, resulting in a lot stronger flood. Unfortunately, the floods that scientists predicted would come once in a hundred years are now coming regularly(every year or so). The water moving in rivers and streams when they hit land has frightening power. Plus, the land is ...
Hurricanes occur all over the world, at different times, but commonly through June first and late November. However in late August 2005 a catastrophic hurricane struck. This was Hurricane Katrina. With winds traveling over one hundred miles per hour making it a category five on the Saffir- Simpson Hurricane Scale it was said to have cause billions of dollars’ worth of damage. Hurricane Katrina flooded nearly forty thousand homes, and killed at least two thousand people (“Hurricane”). An average category five hurricane has enough energy to power street lamps for more than twenty seven thousand hours (Williams 58). Knowing about Hurricane Katrina, and the devastation of the city in New Orleans would be beneficial. Also, general information on hurricanes can help civilians and people of higher authority better understand and prepare for damage that could once hit their town and community. Because experts know the general information on these storms they can help explain to the public why and how Hurricane Katrina and other hurricanes occur. Hopefully, in the future civilians will know and use this information to their advantage against hurricanes.
Earth, NASA's Visible. “Floods in Belarus, Ukraine, and Western Russia (False Color).” NASA, NASA, 11 Aug. 2009, visibleearth.nasa.gov/view.php?id=70662.
The main definition of natural disaster is “any catastrophic event that is caused by nature or the natural processes of the earth”. Natural disasters happen all around the world, it is a major event resulting from a natural process of the Earth, for example the most common are hurricanes, earthquakes, tsunamis, tornados, and volcanic eruptions. A natural disaster can cause a lot of damage, and also loss of life. These disasters typically cause economic damage, which it´s very difficult to recover from. Some of the events will not rise to the level of a natural disaster if it occurs in an area without vulnerable population, however if it occurs in a vulnerable and populated area, it is considered a natural disaster, and it can cause