Earthquake Earthquakes are mainly caused by the movement of the tectonic plates, either because they grind against each other or because they move away, which is why they're much more common in places near the edges of tectonic plates. About 90% of the world's earthquakes, including the biggest ones, happen in the Ring of Fire, which is a tectonic belt that contains countries like Japan, New Zealand, and Indonesia. Earthquake's intensity is measured using seismic magnitude scales, with the most intense earthquake ever being the Great Chilean Earthquake in 1960. which reached a magnitude of 9.5.
The deadliest earthquake ever, however, was the 1556 Shaanxi earthquake, which killed more than 830,000 people. There are also many types of earthquakes, such as the megathrust earthquake, which happens when one tectonic plate is forced underneath another, and which is the same type of earthquake as the 10 largest ones recorded. It's important to point out that an earthquake is the most likely natural disaster to trigger other natural disasters, especially tsunamis, landslides, volcanic eruptions, and floods. Volcanic Eruptions A volcano is simply a rupture in the crust of Earth that allows lava, volcanic ash, and gases to escape from a magma chamber below the surface. They are mostly found on tectonic plate edges, and because most of Earth's plate boundaries are underwater, most volcanoes are found underwater.
It's also why the Ring of Fire contains between 750 and 915 active or dormant volcanoes, which is around two-thirds of the world total. If a large eruption happened, it would affect atmospheric temperature as ash and droplets of sulfuric acid obscure the sun and cool earth, causing a volcanic winter. There are many types of volcanoes, but the most feared one is the supervolcano, which is a volcano that has experienced one or more eruptions that produced huge amounts of volcanic deposits. The most famous active supervolcano is the Yellowstone Caldera in the US. Fortunately, their eruptions are really rare, as only four are currently known from the last million years, but if one were to happen, it would cause incredible damage.
The deadliest the 1815 Mount Tabora eruption in Indonesia with a death toll between 71,000 and 250,000 people. It was so bad that it created global climate changes, causing the year 1816 to be called the year without a summer. In the Northern Hemisphere, livestock died and crops failed, resulting in the worst famine of the century.
Hail Hail happens when ice balls fall from the sky. They're created when strong winds in a storm lift raindrops high into the sky where it is very cold. making the drops freeze into ice balls.
As they get blown around, more ice layers build up on them, making them bigger until they become too heavy and they fall to the ground as hailstones. They are not the same as ice pellets or grapple. For example, ice pellets generally fall in cold weather, while hail growth is greatly inhibited during low surface temperatures.
Hail is most common during thunderstorms and in places like the Hail Alley in the U.S. Also, when you cut a hailstone in half, you can often see layers like those in an onion. These layers show how many times the hailstone was lifted and fell inside the storm cloud. The worst disasters caused by hailstorms happened in Germany and Australia, with damages of around $2 billion. Landslide Landslides are powerful and often sudden movements of large amounts of rock, soil, and debris down a slope.
And they can happen everywhere, even though they're more likely in areas with steep slopes, loose soil, or where there has been a lot of rain. Big landslides, if they hit water, can generate tsunamis, or even megatsunamis. The deadliest landslide in history happened in China, where an earthquake initiated 675 big landslides that killed 200,000 people. Hurricane A hurricane is a rapidly rotating storm system, continuously rotating around a low-pressure center which causes stormy weather across a large area. They are not to be confused with tornadoes, even though both of them are types of cyclones.
To be considered hurricanes, they need to achieve the target of one-minute maximum sustained winds of 75 mph or more. An interesting thing about them is that they actually form over warm ocean waters, usually when sea surface temperatures are at least 80 degrees Fahrenheit. One of the deadliest hurricanes in US history is Hurricane Katrina, which struck the Gulf Coast, particularly New Orleans, in 2005, causing over 1,800 deaths and $125 billion in damage.
Cold Wave A cold wave is a rapid fall in temperature within a 24-hour period that requires increased protection for agriculture, industry, and commerce, and people. It poses a danger not only to people through frostbite and hypothermia, but also to livestock and crops, and if a cold wave is accompanied by heavy and persistent snow, grazing animals may be unable to reach needed food and die of hypothermia or starvation. They can also cause damage, causing poorly insulated water pipelines and mains to freeze. The population usually requires more fuel and energy during this time, even though the generation of electrical power may fail due to the freezing of water necessary for the generation of hydroelectricity. the body also needs more energy, as exposure to cold increases the need for greater caloric intake for everyone.
Counterintuitively, fires become even more of a hazard during extreme cold. Water mains may break, and water supplies may become unreliable, making firefighting more difficult. Also, the air during a cold wave is typically denser and thus contains more oxygen, so when the air that a fire draws in becomes unusually cold, it is likely to cause a more intense fire.
One of the only things in cold waves that can help stop fires is snow. Avalanche There are two main types of avalanches, slab avalanches, which are made of tightly packed snow and triggered by the collapse of an underlying weak snow layer, and loose snow avalanches, which are made of looser snow. After being set off, avalanches usually accelerate rapidly and grow as they capture more snow, in what's called the snowball effect.
They can be triggered either by natural causes or by human activities like skiing, snowmobiles, etc. Even though, contrary to popular belief, they can't be triggered by loud sounds. The worst avalanche ever happened in 1970 in Peru. when an earthquake caused an avalanche so big that it destroyed the city of Yungay and 10 nearby villages, causing 30,000 deaths. Heat wave.
A heat wave is a prolonged period of excessively hot weather that usually lasts days or weeks and is usually accompanied by high humidity levels. They form when a high-pressure area in the atmosphere remains over an area for a prolonged period of time, trapping heat near the Earth's surface. They have high impacts on the economy, especially the agricultural sector, causing crop failures. People can die from hyperthermia.
The risk of wildfires is increased in areas with drought, and they can even lead to widespread electricity outages. because more air conditioning is used. One of the deadliest heat waves in recent history happened in 2003 with the European heat wave, which caused an estimated 70,000 deaths.
Tornado There are different types of tornadoes, like the multiple vortex tornado, which has two or more vortexes rotating about their own axes and at the same time revolve around a common center. Most tornadoes have wind speeds less than 110 miles per hour, are about 250 feet across, and travel a few miles before dissipating. The most extreme tornadoes, however, have wind speeds of more than 300 miles per hour, are more than 2 miles in diameter, and stay on the ground for more than 62 miles.
The most known rating system for tornadoes is the Enhanced Fujita Scale, where an EF-0 tornado is only capable of damaging trees, while an EF-5 rips buildings off their foundations and can deform large skyscrapers. Tornadoes often develop from a type of thunderstorm known as supercells, which contain a rotating area up in the atmosphere. A tornado begins when increasing rainfall, drags with it an area of quickly descending air known as the rear flank downdraft, which accelerates as it approaches the ground. The country with the most tornadoes is the United States, with an average of 1,200 tornadoes, especially the central eastern part of it, known as the Tornado Alley. The deadliest tornado in the U.S. happened in 1925, when the Tri-State Tornado traveled through Missouri, Illinois, and Indiana, killing at least 751 people and causing extensive damage over 219 miles.
Flooding Human changes like deforestation, the removal of wetlands, changes in the waterway course, or flood controls might end up causing more floods if not planned properly. Climate change also plays a huge role in this type of natural disaster, as sea levels rise and most coastal cities like Venice disappear. Rivers have the advantages of having fertile land around them and providing easy travel and commerce routes, which is why many cultures have historically lived near them and still do. But the other side of the coin is the danger of floods. Another threat that needs to be remembered is the increased spread of waterborne diseases such as cholera, hepatitis A, and hepatitis E.
The spread doesn't only happen when people directly touch the water, but also because of a lack of clean water during a flood, since most water supplies are contaminated when flooding occurs. Respiratory diseases also increase, since flooding can cause chronically wet houses, leading to the growth of indoor mold. The worst floods happened in 1931, with the China floods causing between 2 and 4 million deaths.
most of them caused by long-term effects of the floods, like the lack of food. A cholera epidemic happened in the subsequent year, causing around another 32,000 deaths. Wildfire Some natural forest ecosystems actually depend on wildfires, mainly for cleaning dead trees and bushes, and at the same time, allowing for new growth.
To avoid wildfires that would be too big, we sometimes do prescribed burns, which help to keep the situation under control. Also, wildfires usually start in regions that have climatic cycles with wet periods that create substantial fuels, followed by drought and heat, which is why they are most common in places like California, Siberia, British Columbia, and Australia. There are four types of fire spreading, ground, crawling, ladder, and crown. Ground fires are fed by underground roots, duff on the forest floor, and other buried organic matter. Crawling fires are fueled by low-lying vegetation on the forest floor, such as leaf and timber litter, debris, grass, etc.
Ladder fires consume material between low-level vegetation and tree canopies, such as small trees, downed logs, and vines. And lastly, crown fires burn suspended material at the canopy level, such as tall trees, vines, and mosses. An interesting thing is that wildfires can form pyrocumulonimbus clouds, which is a type of cloud that forms over sources of heat and might help extinguish the same fire that formed it. The deadliest wildfire happened in 1871, when the Peshtigo fire burned 1.2 million acres and killed between 1,500 and 2,500 people.
Tsunami. While normal waves are caused by the wind or by tides, a tsunami is generated by the displacement of water from a large event, like earthquakes, landslides, volcanic eruptions, etc. Tsunamis in the deep ocean have a much larger wavelength of up to 120 miles and can travel well over 500 miles per hour, which is as fast as an average commercial jet. A peculiar thing about tsunamis is that when they reach shallow waters, they slow down and their height increases. Also, when tsunamis happen, a weird effect called a drawback can happen, which is when the ocean water suddenly pulls back from the shore, exposing the seafloor that is usually underwater.
This can be dangerous for people who don't know about it, since they sometimes remain near the shore to satisfy their curiosity or to collect fish from the exposed seabed. In Japan, ancient tsunami stones have been placed by previous generations to mark the highest points reached by tsunamis. These stones serve as warnings to future generations to avoid building homes below these points. The 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami was among the deadliest natural disasters in human history, with at least 230,000 people killed or missing in 14 countries.
Drought A drought is a period of drier-than-normal conditions that can last for days, months, or years. They are more likely to happen in the tropics, because of their annual dry seasons, and when they do happen, they increase the likelihood of wildfires, while heat waves can significantly worsen drought conditions. The problems caused by droughts range from a lack of water supplies for drinking and irrigation to mass migrations caused by famines. One of the most severe droughts in US history was the Dust Bowl in 1930. It affected the Great Plains, causing massive dust storms and displacing thousands of families.
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