Natural Disaster

Natural disaster

A natural disaster is the effect of a natural hazard (e.g., flood, tornado, hurricane, volcanic eruption, earthquake, heatwave, or landslide). It leads to financial, environmental or human losses. The resulting loss depends on the vulnerability of the affected population to resist the hazard, also called their resilience. if these disasters continues it would be a great dangerfor the earth.[1] This understanding is concentrated in the formulation: “disasters occur when hazards meet vulnerability.”[2] Thus a natural hazard will not result in a natural disaster in areas without vulnerability, e.g. strong earthquakes in uninhabited areas.[3] The term natural has consequently been disputed because the events simply are not hazards or disasters without humaninvolvement.[4] A concrete example of the division between a natural hazard and a natural disaster is that the 1906 San Francisco earthquake was a disaster, whereas earthquakes are a hazard. This article gives an introduction to notable natural disasters, refer to the list of natural disasters for a comprehensive listing.


Geological disasters


Avalanches

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During World War I, an estimated40,000 to 80,000 soldiers died as a result of avalanches during the mountain campaign in the Alps at the Austrian-Italian front, many of which were caused by artillery fire.[5]


Earthquakes

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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 vibration, shaking and sometimesdisplacement of the ground. The vibrations may vary in magnitude. Earthquakes are caused mostly by slippage within geological faults, but also by other events such as volcanic activity, landslides, mine blasts, and nuclear tests. 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. Earthquakes bythemselves 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, that are actually the human disaster. Many of these could possibly be avoided by better construction, safety systems, early warning and evacuation planning.


Volcanic eruptions

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Volcanoes can cause widespread destructionand consequent disaster 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 many buildings and plants it encounters. Third, volcanic ash generally meaning the cooled ash - may form a cloud, andsettle thickly in nearby locations.


Hydrological disasters


Floods

A flood is an overflow of an expanse of water that submerges land.[8] The EU Floods directive defines a flood as a temporary covering by water of land not normally covered by water.[9] In the sense of “flowing water”, the word may also be applied to the inflow of the tide. Flooding may result from the volume of waterwithin a body of water, such as a river or lake, which overflows or breaks levees, with the result that some of the water escapes its usual boundaries.

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Tsunamis

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Tsunamis can be caused by undersea earthquakes as the one caused in Ao Nang, Thailand, by the 2004 Indian Ocean Earthquake, or by landslides such as the one which occurred at Lituya Bay, Alaska.


Meteorologicaldisasters

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Blizzards

Blizzards are severe winter storms characterized by low temperature, strong winds, and heavy snow. The difference between a blizzard and a snow storm is the strength of the wind. To be a considered a blizzard, the storm must have winds in excess of 35 miles per hour, it should reduce the visibility to ¼ miles, and must last for a prolonged period of 3 hours or...