Natural Disasters The main definition of natural disaster is “any catastrophic event that is caused by nature or the natural processes of the earth” (Natural disasters). 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 create 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 damages that can last for a lot of years. When natural disasters occur, their harshness is measured in the lives that were lost, the economic loss, and also the ability of the population to rebuild. (Natural disasters) All of this horrible disasters cause loss in many ways. Depending on the hardness, lives can be lost in any disaster. Then there is also the loss of properties, …show more content…
An earthquake is a natural disaster that consists of the shaking of the surface of the Earth, making a quick discharge of energy in the Earth´s lithosphere, which creates seismic waves. Earthquakes manifest themselves by shaking, trembling, and sometimes movement of the ground. They are caused by a slip in the inner earthly faults. They can swing in capacity and in size, from the ones that are so weak that people don’t even feel, to those that can toss people around and can also destroy an entire city with its violent movement. (Earthquakes)Earthquakes by themselves unfrequently kill people. It is usually the secondary events, like buildings collapsing, tsunamis, fires, and volcanoes. Many of this type of things can be avoided by a better construction, early warning, and safety
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.
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.
What is the most devastating natural disaster known? Hurricanes are one of the most catastrophic and natural events to ever be experienced. They can be up to 600 miles across and have wind speed of 75 to 200 mph. Hurricane Sandy and Hurricane Katrina happened to be two of the most devastating hurricanes in history.
One of the worst natural disasters in United States history to this date occurred almost 109 years ago. On April 18, 1906 at 5:15am in San Francisco, California, the earthquake of San Francisco occurred hitting between 7.9 and 8.3M on the Richter scale. The San Andreas Fault, which is about 600 miles long, running from the Gulf of California to Cape Mendocino and is an active strike-slip fault, cut through the continental lithosphere to cause the San Francisco Earthquake of 1906. An earthquake is a trembling or shaking of the ground produced by movements along a fault (Strahler, 2012). After the tension is released at a critical point, the fault or tectonic plate slips and relieves the strain and creates the seismic waves, which radiates out in all directions causing the shaking of the surface.
Mr. Adams describes the San Francisco earthquake as his most profound human suffering experience because the horror of shaking floors, parts of his mom’s house collapse to the floor, and got a broken nose from stumbling into a brick wall (Ansel Adams & The 1906 Earthquake 2008). Earthquakes are part of natural disasters of the earth and normally caused by shaking ground and rapid movement of one block of rock slipping past another a long fractures in the earth crust called faults. Faults that are usually locked excluding abrupt movements, which slippage creates an earthquake (Lutgens, F. & Tarbuck, E.
A natural disaster is defined as any event or force of nature that has catastrophic consequences. It destroys everything in its path and has no mercy for anything. It kills anything in its way and does not care about what people think. Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Harvey were both devastating storms giving some people the ultimate consequence. It made people value what they had when they had it. Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Harvey were not only devastating storms but they were also life changers to every living thing in the areas it effected.
Earthquakes commonly have consequences that are unexpected by an environment they occur in. The consequences may be tsunamis, buildings collapsing, structures distorting, landslides, and liquefaction.
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
Climate change and rapid variations in weather patterns have put both developed and developing countries equally at an increased risk of occurring natural disasters (Polain, Berry and Hoskin, 2011). Polain et al (2011) explains, in the last decade alone, many countries have endured life threatening natural disasters such as hurricanes, floods, tsunamis and closer to home here in Australia wild bushfires. With the amount of anticipated natural disasters only expected to increase, there is an urgent need to support the groups and individuals who are identified as being most vulnerable to natural disasters (Redwood and Abrahams, 2011). Redwood and Abrahams (2011) further explains that, mental health needs will continue to change and develop as counties evolve through the stages that follow a natural disaster. It is critical that the complex mental health needs are taken into considerations from a service perspective and become an integral component of disaster readiness, response, and recovery (Carol & Pfefferbaum, 2013). The complexity of social, environmental and psychological dynamics pre and post a natural disaster cannot be underestimated consequently the response of mental health care providers needs to be available so that treatment needs can be identified and initiated to those affected (Fernandes & Boehs, 2013).
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.
Earthquakes are vibrations felt at the surface of the earth which are caused by disturbances of the energy in the earth's interior. These vibrations are known as seismic waves. (Skinner Robinson McVerry 1) There are different type sof seisimc waves such as Primary (P) waves, whcih travel the fastest, Secondary (S) waves which cause the earth to vibrate vertically, Surface (L) waves. P and S waves are "affected by changes in the density and the rigidity of the materials through which they pass." (Columbia Encyclopedia) Earthquakes vary in their intensity and duration. Often times they are strong enough to cause massive destriction. Tall buildings often suffer as a result of these natural disasters. In recent years this has become a larger and larger threat with both the number of large buildings, and their number of occupants increasing. In an effort to try to minimize the damage caused by earthquakes many some engineers focus primarily on designing and constructing earthquake resistant buildings. Earthquake engineers have gathered much of their information from analyzing past earthquakes, and learning which buildings can and can't withstand the tremors. The goals of these engineers is to design buildings that can withstand moderate earthquakes and obtain minimal damage, and that the buildings will not collapse lowering the probability of human deaths.
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).
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.
Hurricane is a natural disaster with far reaching consequences. It takes away the lives of millions of people and causes damage to almost all of human creation. It can cause extensive damage to coastlines and several hundred miles inland due to heavy rainfall. Floods and flying debris often plays havoc in the lives of people living along coastal areas. Slow moving hurricanes produce heavy rains in mountainous regions. Landfall and mud-slides can occur due to excessive rain. Chances of flash floods also brighten due to heavy rainfall. Below are some interesting facts about hurricanes.
The English writer John Ruskin once said “Sunshine is delicious, rain is refreshing, wind braces us up, snow is exhilarating; there is really no such thing as bad weather, only different kinds of good weather,” (John Ruskin Quotes - Page 4) but I’m sure there are many who disagree with him. Nature’s beauty is a gift from God, but occasionally nature is not so aesthetically pleasing. Natural disasters occur often around the world destroying the lives of many on a regular basis. An example could be the recent flood victims of Australia or even last year’s earthquake in Haiti. There are several types of natural disasters¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬- from earthquakes to hurricanes and floods; they often strike without warning and leave a path of destruction and despair in their path.