Natural Calamities

An Environmental Engineering Report

Definition

Natural Calamity
Also referred to as, natural disaster, is defined as a hazard which occur naturally, that is a disaster that is not brought by acts of human beings. Or simply an event of nature that takes human lives and destroys properties.

Categories of Natural Disaster

1. Geological Disaster 2. Hydrological Disaster 3. Meteorological Disaster

4. Fires
5. Health Disaster 6. Space Disaster

Types of Natural Disaster

Geological Disasters
Avalanche
Earthquake

Volcanic Eruption

Definition

AVALANCHE
Is a sudden rapid flow of snow down a slope, occurring when either natural triggers or human activity causes a critical escalating transition from the slow equilibrium evolution of the snow pack.

Description

AVALANCHE
Avalanches are primarily composed of flowing snow, and are distinct from mudslides, rock slides, and serac collapses on an icefall.

Classifications of Avalanche
1. Loose Snow Avalanche
occur in freshly fallen snow that has a lower density and are most common on steeper terrain

Classification of Avalanche

Classifications of Avalanche
2. Slab Avalanche
account for around 90% of avalanche-related fatalities, and occur when there is a strong, cohesive layer of snow known as a slab. These are usually formed when falling snow is deposited by the wind on a lee slope, or when loose ground snow is transported elsewhere.

Classification of Avalanche

Classifications of Avalanche
3. Wet Snow / Isothermal Avalanche
which occurs when the snow pack becomes saturated by water. When the percentage of water is very high they are known as slush flows and they can move on very shallow slopes.

Classification of Avalanche

Classifications of Avalanche
4. Powder Snow Avalanche
is a powder cloud that forms when an avalanche accelerates over an abrupt change in slope, such as a cliff band, causing the snow to mix with air.

Classification of Avalanche

Avalanche Avoidance
Prevention
1. Active Preventive Measures - reduce the likelihood and size of avalanches by disrupting the structure of the snow pack a. traveling on a snow pack as snow accumulates b. explosives

Avalanche Avoidance
Prevention
2. Passive Preventive Measures - reinforce and stabilize the snow pack

a. Snow fences and light walls

b. Trees

Snow fences in Switzerland

Avalanche Avoidance
Safety in Avalanche Terrain
Terrain management - involves reducing the exposure of an individual to the risks of traveling in avalanche terrain by carefully selecting what areas of slopes to travel on.

Avalanche Avoidance
Safety in Avalanche Terrain
Group management - is the practice of reducing the risk of having a member of a group, or a whole group involved in an avalanche. Minimize the number of people on the slope, and maintain separation.

Avalanche Avoidance
Safety in Avalanche Terrain
Risk Factor Awareness - in avalanche safety, it requires gathering and accounting for a wide range of information such as the meteorological history of the area, the current weather and snow conditions, and equally important the social and physical indicators of the group.

Avalanche Avoidance
Safety in Avalanche Terrain
Leadership - Leadership in avalanche terrain requires well defined decision making protocols that use the observed risk factors.

Human Survival and Avalanche Rescue

Search and Rescue Equipments
a. b. c. d. e. f. g. Avalanche Cords Beacons Probes Shovels RECCO Rescue System Avalung Avalanche Airbags

Human Survival and Avalanche Rescue

Human Survival and Avalanche Rescue

Self-rescue Companion Rescue Organized Rescue

Human Survival and Avalanche Rescue

Human Survival and Avalanche Rescue

There are 4 primary goals of any rescue operation and in organized rescue the goals can be initiated simultaneously.
1. Immediate search: get rescuers to the site; find and uncover buried victims

Human Survival and Avalanche Rescue

Human Survival and Avalanche Rescue

2. Medical: care for victims and companions 3. Transport/evacuation: transport rescuers in quickly and safely; get victims out and to advanced medical care; return rescuers safely 4. Support/Logistics: care for rescuers in the field (food, shelter, rest and replacement)

Human Survival and Avalanche Rescue

A Blackhawk helicopter as the crew prepares to evacuate tourists stranded by an avalanche in Galtr, Austria, on February 25, 1999.

Avalanche security, search and rescue equipment (left to right): avalanche airbag system, collapsed probe, shovel, avalanche transceiver

Definition

EARTHQUAKE
(also known as a quake, tremor or temblor) is the result of a sudden release of energy in the Earths Crust that creates seismic waves. 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".

Earthquake Fault Types

3 Main Types of Faults That May Cause An Earthquake
1. Normal Faults
- occur mainly in areas where the crust is being extended such as a divergent boundary Earthquakes associated with normal faults are generally less than magnitude 7.

Earthquake Fault Types

3 Main Types of Faults That May Cause An Earthquake
2. Reverse (Thrust) Faults - occur in areas where the crust is being shortened such as at a convergent boundary.
- Associated with most powerful earthquakes, including almost all of those of magnitude 8 or more

Earthquake Fault Types

3 Main Types of Faults That May Cause An Earthquake
3. Strike-Slip Faults
- are steep structures where the two sides of the fault slip horizontally past each other. - can produce major earthquakes up to about magnitude 8

Earthquake Clusters
Aftershocks
- An aftershock is an earthquake that occurs after a previous earthquake, the main shock. - Aftershocks are formed as the crust around the displaced fault plane adjusts to the effects of the main shock.

Earthquake Clusters
Earthquake Swarms
- Earthquake swarms are sequences of earthquakes striking in a specific area within a short period of time. They are different from earthquakes followed by a series of aftershocks by the fact that no single earthquake in the sequence is obviously the main shock, therefore none have notable higher magnitudes than the other.

Earthquake Clusters
Earthquake Storms
- Sometimes a series of earthquakes occur in a sort of earthquake storm, where the earthquakes strike a fault in clusters, each triggered by the shaking or stress redistribution of the previous earthquakes. - Similar to aftershocks but on adjacent segments of fault.

Effects of Earthquakes
The effects of earthquakes include, but are not limited to, the following:
1. Shaking and ground rupture 2. Landslides and Avalanches 3. Fires 4. Soil Liquefaction 5. Tsunami 6. Floods 7. Loss of Life 8. Damage to Property

Preparation
Today, there are ways to protect and prepare possible sites of earthquakes from severe damage, through the following processes:
a. Earthquake engineering

b. Earthquake Preparedness c. household seismic safety d. seismic retrofit e. seismic hazard f. mitigation of seismic motion g. earthquake prediction

Definition

VOLCANIC ERUPTION
Volcanoes can cause widespread destruction and consequent disaster through several ways. A volcano is an opening, or rupture, in a planet's surface or crust, which allows hot magma, volcanic ash and gases to escape from below the surface.

Plate Tectonics
- a theory that ascribes continental drift, volcanic and seismic activity, and the formation of mountain belts to moving plates of the Earth's crust supported on less rigid mantle rocks.

Plate Tectonics
1. Divergent Plate Tectonics
- At the mid-oceanic ridges, two tectonic plates diverge from one another. New oceanic crust is being formed by hot molten rock slowly cooling and solidifying. - Most divergent plate boundaries are at the bottom of the oceans, therefore most volcanic activity is submarine, forming new seafloor.

Plate Tectonics
2. Convergent Plate Tectonics
- Subduction zones are places where two plates, usually an oceanic plate and a continental plate, collide. In this case, the oceanic plate submerges under the continental plate forming a deep ocean trench just offshore.

Plate Tectonics
3. "Hot Spots"
- "Hotspots" is the name given to volcanic provinces postulated to be formed by mantle plumes. - These are postulated to comprise columns of hot material that rise from the coremantle boundary.

Types of Volcanoes
1. Shield Volcanoes
- so named for their broad, shield-like profiles, are formed by the eruption of low-viscosity lava that can flow a great distance from a vent, but not generally explode catastrophically.
- more common in oceanic than continental settings.

Types of Volcanoes
2. Stratovolcanoes (Composite Volcanoes)
- are tall conical mountains composed of lava flows and other ejecta in alternate layers, the strata that give rise to the name. - created from several structures during different kinds of eruptions. - Strato/composite volcanoes are made of cinders, ash and lava.

Types of Volcanoes
3. Supervolcanoes
- is a large volcano that usually has a large caldera and can potentially produce devastation on an enormous, sometimes continental, scale.
- the most dangerous type of volcano.

Types of Volcanoes
4. Submarine Volcanoes
- are common features on the ocean floor.
- Some are active and, in shallow water, disclose their presence by blasting steam and rocky debris high above the surface of the sea.

Types of Volcanoes
5. Subglacial Volcanoes
- develop underneath icecaps.
- They are made up of flat lava which flows at the top of extensive pillow lavas and palagonite. When the icecap melts, the lavas on the top collapse, leaving a flat-topped mountain.

Types of Volcanoes
6. Mud Volcanoes
Mud volcanoes or mud domes are formations created by geo-excreted liquids and gases, although there are several processes which may cause such activity.

Classification of Volcanoes
1. Active
- those that erupt regularly

2. Extinct
- those that have not erupted in historical times

3. Dormant
- those that have erupted in historical times but are now quiet

List of Notable Avalanches

Death toll Rank (estimate) 1 2 3 4 5 50,000 4,000 265 172 125 Event 1970 Huascarn avalanche; triggered by the 1970 Ancash earthquake 1962 Huascarn avalanche Winter of Terror 2010 Salang avalanches Kolka-Karmadon rock ice slide Location Date

Peru Peru

1970 1962

Austria1951 Switzerland Afghanistan 2010 Russia 2002

List of Notable Avalanches

Death toll Rank (estimate) 6 7 102 96 Event 2010 Kohistan avalanche Wellington, Washington avalanche Location Pakistan United States Date 2010 1910

8
9 10

90
62 59

Frank Slide
1910 Rogers Pass avalanche 1993 Bayburt zengili avalanche

Canada
Canada Turkey

1903
1910 1993

List of Deadliest Earthquakes

Rank 1 2 Name "Shaanxi" "Tangshan" Date January 23, 1556 July 28, 1976 Location Shaanxi, China Tangshan, China Antioch, Turkey (then Byzantine Empire) Ningxia Gansu, China Fatalities 820,000 830,000 (est.) 242,419 779,000 Magnitude 8.0 (est.) 7.57.8

"Antioch"

May 21, 525

250,000

8.0 (est.)

"Gansu" "Indian Ocean"

December 16, 1920

235,502

7.8

Indian December 26, 2004 Ocean, Sumat ra, Indonesia

230,210

9.19.3

List of Deadliest Earthquakes

Rank 6 Name "Aleppo" Date October 11, 1138 Location Aleppo, Syria Fatalities 230,000 222,570 (Haitian sources) 50,00092,000 (non-Haitian sources) Magnitude Unknown

"Haiti"

January 12, 2010

Haiti

7.0

8 9 10

"Damghan" December 22, 856 Damghan, Iran 200,000 (est.) "Ardabil" "Great Kant" March 22, 893 September 1, 1923 Ardabil, Iran Kant region, Japan 150,000 (est.) 142,000

7.9 (est.) Unknown 7.9

List of Volcanic Eruptions

Rank Death toll 1 2 92,000 36,000 Event Mount Tambora Krakatoa Mount Vesuvius Mount Pele Nevado del Ruiz (Armero tragedy) Location Indonesia Indonesia Date April 10, 1815 August 26 27, 1883

3
4

33,000
29,000

Pompeii and Herculan August 24, 79 eum, Italy Martinique May 7 or May 8, 1902 November 13, 1985

23,000

Colombia

List of Volcanic Eruptions

Rank Death toll 6 15,000 Event Mount Unzen Location Japan Date 1792

7
8 9

10,000
9,350 6,000

Mount Kelut
Laki Santa Maria

Indonesia
Iceland Guatemala

1586
June 8, 1783 1902

10

5,115

Mount Kelut

Indonesia

May 19, 1919

Hydrological Disasters
Floods
Limnic Eruptions

Tsunami

Definition

FLOODS
is an overflow of an expanse of water that submerges land. The EU Floods directive defines a flood as a temporary covering by water of land not normally covered by water.

Principal Types and Causes

1. Riverine
a. Slow kinds: Runoff from sustained rainfall or rapid snow melts exceeding the capacity of a river's channel. Causes include heavy rains from monsoons, hurricanes and tropical depressions, foreign winds and warm rain affecting snow pack. Unexpected drainage obstructions such as landslides, ice, or debris can cause slow flooding upstream of the obstruction.

Principal Types and Causes

1. Riverine
b. Fast kinds: includes flash floods resulting from convective precipitation (intense thunderstorms) or sudden release from an upstream impoundment created behind a dam, landslide, or glacier.

Principal Types and Causes

2. Estuarine
- Commonly caused by a combination of sea tidal surges caused by storm-force winds. A storm surge, from either a tropical cyclone or an extratropical cyclone, falls within this category.

3. Coastal
- Caused by severe sea storms, or as a result of another hazard (e.g. tsunami or hurricane). A storm surge, from either a tropical cyclone or an extratropical cyclone, falls within this category.

Principal Types and Causes

4. Catastrophic
- Caused by a significant and unexpected event e.g. dam breakage, or as a result of another hazard (e.g. earthquake or volcanic eruption).

5. Human-induced
- Accidental damage by workmen to tunnels or pipes.

Principal Types and Causes

6. Muddy
- A muddy flood is produced by an accumulation of runoff generated on cropland. Sediments are then detached by runoff and carried as suspended matter or bed load.
- Muddy floods are therefore a hill slope process, and confusion with mudflows produced by mass movements should be avoided.

Principal Types and Causes

7. Others
Floods can occur if water accumulates across an impermeable surface (e.g. from rainfall) and cannot rapidly dissipate (i.e. gentle orientation or low evaporation).
A series of storms moving over the same area. Dam-building beavers can flood low-lying urban and rural areas, often causing significant damage.

Effects
1. Primary effects
Physical Damage - Can damage any type of structure, including bridges, cars, buildings, sewerage systems, roadways and canals.

Effects
2. Secondary effects
Water supplies - Contamination of water. Clean drinking water becomes scarce. Diseases - Unhygienic conditions. Spread of waterborne diseases.

Effects
2. Secondary effects
Crops and food supplies - Shortage of food crops can be caused due to loss of entire harvest. Trees - Non-tolerant species can die from suffocation. Transport - Transport links destroyed, so hard to get emergency aid to those who need it.

Effects
3. Tertiary/Long-Term effects
Economic Economic hardship, due to: temporary decline in tourism, rebuilding costs, food shortage leading to price increase, etc.

Benefits
Floods (in particular the more frequent or smaller floods) can also bring many benefits, such as:
Recharging ground water Making soil more fertile and providing nutrients in which it is deficient. Flood waters provide much needed water resources in particular in arid and semi-arid regions where precipitation events can be very unevenly distributed throughout the year.

Benefits
Freshwater floods in particular play an important role in maintaining ecosystems in river corridors and are a key factor in maintaining floodplain biodiversity.

Flooding adds a lot of nutrients to lakes and rivers which leads to improved fisheries for a few years, also because of the suitability of a floodplain for spawning.

Benefits
Fish like the weather fish make use of floods to reach new habitats. The viability for hydrological based renewable sources of energy is higher in flood prone regions.

Control
Build defenses, such as levees, bunds, reservoirs, weirs or dams. When these defenses fail, emergency measures such as sandbags or portable inflatable tubes are used. Coastal defenses such as sea walls, beach nourishment, and barrier islands. Constructing underwater canals and floodways. Reducing the rate of deforestation should improve the incidents and severity of floods.

List of Deadliest Floods

Rank Death toll 2,500,000 3,700,000 Event Location Date

1
2 3

1931 China floods

1887 Yellow River (Huang He) flood 1938 Yellow River (Huang He) flood Banqiao Dam failure, result of Typhoon Nina. Approximately 86,000 people died from flooding and another 145,000 died during subsequent disease. 1935 Yangtze river flood

China
China China

1931
1887 1938

900,000 2,000,000
500,000 700,000

4.

231,000

China

1975

145,000

China

1935

List of Deadliest Floods

Rank 6 7. 8 9 10 Death toll Event St. Felix's Flood, storm surge Hanoi and Red River Delta flood 1911 Yangtze river flood St. Lucia's flood, storm surge North Sea flood, storm surge Location Netherlands North Vietnam China Netherlands Netherlands, England, Belgium Date 1530 1971 1911 1287 January 31, 1953

more than 100,000

100,000 100,000 50,00080,000 2,400

Definition

LIMNIC ERUPTION
also referred to as a lake overturn, is a rare type of natural disaster in which carbon dioxide (CO2) suddenly erupts from deep lake water, suffocating wildlife, livestock and humans. Scientists believe landslides, volcanic activity or explosions can trigger such an eruption.

Definition

LIMNIC ERUPTION
Lakes in which such activity occurs may be known as limnically active lakes or exploding lakes. Such an eruption may also cause tsunamis in the lake as the rising CO2 displaces water.

Features of Limnically Active Lakes

CO2-saturated incoming water A cool lake bottom indicating an absence of direct volcanic interaction with lake waters An upper and lower thermal layer with differing CO2 saturations

Proximity to areas with volcanic activity

Cause
For a limnic eruption to occur, the lake must be nearly saturated with gas which has carbon dioxide as the major component. Once the lake is saturated with CO2, it is very unstable. A trigger is all that is needed to set off an eruption.

Cause
In any case, the trigger pushes some of the saturated water higher in the lake, where the pressure is insufficient to keep the CO2 in solution. Bubbles start forming and the water is lifted even higher in the lake (buoyancy), where even more of the CO2 comes out of solution. This process forms a column of gas. At this point the water at the bottom of this column is pulled up by suction, and it too loses its CO2 in a runaway process. This eruption pours CO2 into the air and can also displace water to form a tsunami.

Reasons why this type of eruption is very rare:

1. There must be a source of the CO2, so only regions with volcanic activity are at risk. 2. Temperate lakes turn over each spring and fall as a result of seasonal air temperature changes, mixing water from the bottom and top of the lake, so CO2 that builds up at the bottom of the lake is brought to the top where the pressure is too low for it to stay in solution and it escapes into the atmosphere.

Reasons why this type of eruption is very rare:

3. A lake must be quite deep to have enough pressure to dissolve large volumes of CO2. So only in deep, stable, tropical, volcanic lakes are limnic eruptions possible.

Consequences
1. Living organisms may experience asphyxia, therefore leading to unconsciousness or even death. 2. Plants and vegetation which grew adjacent to the lake maybe damaged or destroyed by a tsunami cause by the eruption.

A Possible Solution
Degassing lakes removing gas from the lake using siphons

List of Limnic Eruptions

Rank 1 Death toll 1,746 Event Lake Nyos Location Cameroon Date 1986

37

Lake Monoun Cameroon

1984

Definition

TSUNAMI
Also called a tsunami wave train, and at one time referred to as a tidal wave, is a series of water waves caused by the displacement of a large volume of a body of water, usually an ocean, though it can occur in large lakes.

Generation Mechanism
1. Tsunami generated by seismic activity

Drawing of tectonic plate boundary before earthquake

Generation Mechanism
1. Tsunami generated by seismic activity

Overriding plate bulges under strain, causing tectonic uplift.

Generation Mechanism
1. Tsunami generated by seismic activity

Plate slips, causing subsidence and releasing energy into water.

Generation Mechanism
1. Tsunami generated by seismic activity

The energy released produces tsunami waves.

Generation Mechanism
2. Tsunami generated by landslides
- In the 1950s, it was discovered that larger tsunamis than had previously been believed possible could be caused by giant landslides. These phenomena rapidly displace large water volumes, as energy from falling debris or expansion transfers to the water at a rate faster than the water can absorb.

Drawback
If the first part of a tsunami to reach land is a troughcalled a drawbackrather than a wave crest, the water along the shoreline recedes dramatically, exposing normally submerged areas. A drawback occurs because the water propagates outwards with the trough of the wave at its front. Drawback begins before the wave arrives at an interval equal to half of the wave's period.

Drawback

Wave animation showing the initial "drawback" of surface water

List of Tsunamis
Rank Death toll 230,210 Event 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami 1908 Messina earthquake / tsunami Location Date 1 Indonesia, Sri 26 Lanka, India, Maldives, Malaysia December , Somalia, Bangladesh, Thailand , 2004 Messina, Italy 1908

123,000

1755 Lisbon Portugal, Spain, Morocco, Ireland 100,000 earthquake / tsunami , and the United / fire Kingdom(Cornwall)

1755

4 5.

Caused by 1883 36,000 eruption of Krakatoa

30,000 1707 Hei earthquake

Indonesia Tkaid/Nankaido, Japan

1883 1707

List of Tsunamis
Rank Death toll 6 7 25,674 22,070 Event 1868 Arica earthquake / tsunami 1896 Meiji-Sanriku earthquake Location Arica, Chile Sanriku, Japan Date 1868 1896

15,273 to 2011 Thoku earthquake and Iwate/Miyagi/Fukushima, 11 March, 23,567 tsunami Japan 2011 1792 Mount Unzen eruption in southwest Kysh / tsunami

15,030

Kysh, Japan

1792

10

12,000

1771 Great Yaeyama Tsunami Yaeyama, Okinawa, Japan

1771

Meteorological Disasters
Blizzards
Cyclonic Storms

Droughts Hailstorms Heat Waves

Tornadoes

Definition

BLIZZARDS
is a severe snowstorm characterized by strong winds. Blizzards can bring near-whiteout conditions, and can paralyze regions for days at a time, particularly where snowfall is unusual or rare. It also has negative impact on local economics.

List of Notable Blizzards

Rank Death toll (est.) Event Location Date

1
2 3 4 5

4,000
926 400 318 235

1972 Iran blizzard 2008 Afghanistan blizzard

Iran
Afghanistan

1972
2008 1888 1993 1888

Great Blizzard of 1888 United States 1993 North American United States Storm Complex Schoolhouse Blizzard United States

List of Notable Blizzards

Rank 6 7 8 9 Death toll (est.) 199 144 133 112 Event Hakko-da Mountains incident Location Japan Date 1902 1940 2008 1995

Armistice Day Blizzard United States 2008 Chinese winter storms 1995 Kazakh Blizzard China Kazakhstan

10

100

Northeastern United United States States blizzard of 1978

1978

Definition

CYCLONIC STORMS
Cyclone, tropical cyclone, hurricane and typhoon are different names for the same phenomenon a cyclonic storm system that forms over the oceans.

Cyclone
A cyclone is an area of closed, circular fluid motion rotating in the same direction as the Earth. This is usually characterized by inward spiraling winds that rotate counter clockwise in the Northern Hemisphere and clockwise in the Southern Hemisphere of the Earth.

6 Main Types of Cyclone

1. Polar Cyclones 2. Polar Lows 3. Extratropical Cyclones 4. Subtropical Cyclones 5. Tropical Cyclones 6. Mesocyclones

Intensity Classifications of Tropical Cyclones

1. Tropical Depression
- A tropical depression is an organized system of clouds and thunderstorms with a defined, closed surface circulation and maximum sustained winds of less than 17 meters per second or 38 miles per hour (61 km/h).

2. Tropical Storm
- A tropical storm is an organized system of strong thunderstorms with a defined surface circulation and maximum sustained winds between 17 meters per second (39 miles per hour (63 km/h)) and 32 meters per second (73 miles per hour (117 km/h).

Intensity Classifications of Tropical Cyclones

3. Hurricane or Typhoon
- A hurricane or typhoon (sometimes simply referred to as a tropical cyclone, as opposed to a depression or storm) is a system with sustained winds of at least 33 metres per second) or 74 miles per hour (119 km/h).

Effects
Tropical cyclones out at sea cause large waves, heavy rain, and high winds, disrupting international shipping and, at times, causing shipwrecks. On land, strong winds can damage or destroy vehicles, buildings, bridges, and other outside objects, turning loose debris into deadly flying projectiles.

Effects
The storm surge or the increase in sea level due to the cyclone. The broad rotation of a landfalling tropical cyclone, and vertical wind shear at its periphery, spawns tornadoes. Tropical cyclones significantly interrupt infrastructure, leading to power outages, bridge destruction, and the hampering of reconstruction efforts.

Effects
Death Flooding Risk in disease propagation mosquito-borne illnesses. like

Benefits
They may bring much-needed precipitation in dry regions. Tropical cyclones also help maintain the global heat balance by moving warm, moist tropical air to the middle latitudes and Polar Regions.

Benefits
The storm surge and winds of hurricanes may be destructive to human-made structures, but they also stir up the waters of coastal estuaries, which are typically important fish breeding locales.

Tropical cyclone destruction spurs redevelopment, greatly increasing local property values.

List of Cyclones (including hurricanes)

Rank Death toll 1 500,000 Event 1970 Bhola cyclone Location Date
East November Pakistan, Pakistan ( 13, 1970 now Bangladesh) India India November 25, 1839

2 3

300,000 300,000

1839 Indian cyclone 1737 Calcutta cyclone Super Typhoon Nina contributed to Banqiao Dam failure Great Backerganj Cyclone of 1876

October 7, 1737
August 7, 1975 October 30, 1876

210,000

China
present day Bangladesh

200,000

List of Cyclones (including hurricanes)

Death Rank toll 6. ~146,000 7 8 138,866 Event Cyclone Nargis 1991 Bangladesh cyclone Location Myanmar Bangladesh Bombay, India Date May 2, 2008 April 29, 1991 1882 August 1, 1922

100,000 1882 Bombay cyclone

9
10

60,000
60,000

1922 Swatow Typhoon

1864 Calcutta Cyclone

China
India

October 5, 1864

Definition

DROUGHT
Is an extended period of months or years when a region notes a deficiency in its water supply. Generally, this occurs when a region receives consistently below average precipitation.

Types of Drought
1. Meteorological Drought
- is brought about when there is a prolonged period with less than average precipitation.

2. Agricultural Drought
- are droughts that affect crop production or the ecology of the range.

3. Hydrological Drought
- is brought about when the water reserves available in sources such as aquifers, lakes and reservoirs fall below statistical average.

Causes
Reduce amount of rainfall Oceanic and atmospheric weather cycles such as the El Nio Southern Oscillation (ENSO) Human activity can directly trigger exacerbating factors such as over farming, excessive irrigation, deforestation, and erosion adversely impact the ability of the land to capture and hold water.

Causes
Paradoxically, some proposed solutions to global warming that focus on more active techniques, solar radiation management through the use of a space sunshade for one, may also carry with them increased chances of drought.

Effects of Drought
Diminished crop growth or yield productions and carrying capacity for livestock Dust bowls Dust storms

Famine due to lack of water for irrigation

Habitat damage Malnutrition, dehydration and related diseases

Mass migration

Effects of Drought
Reduced electricity production due to reduced water flow through hydroelectric dams Shortages of water for industrial users Snakes migration and increases in snakebites

Social unrest
War over natural resources, including water and food Wildfires

Drought Protection and Relief

Dams Cloud seeding Desalination of sea water for irrigation or consumption.

Drought Monitoring Land Use

Drought Protection and Relief

Outdoor water-use restriction Rainwater harvesting Recycled water Transvasement

Definition

HAILSTORM
A type of storm that precipitates chunks of ice. Hailstorms usually occur during regular thunder storms.

While most of the hail that precipitates from the clouds is fairly small and virtually harmless, there have been cases of hail greater than 2 inches diameter that caused much damage and injuries.

Effects on Human Society

Hail damage to roofs often goes unnoticed until further structural damage is seen, such as leaks or cracks. Hail is also a common nuisance to drivers of automobiles, severely denting the vehicle and cracking or even shattering windshields & windows. In Aviation, hail is one of the most significant thunderstorm hazards to aircraft.

Effects on Human Society

In Agriculture, hail can cause serious damage, notably to automobiles, aircraft, skylights, glassroofed structures, livestock, and most commonly, farmers' crops.

Rarely, massive hailstones have been known to cause concussions or fatal head trauma.

Definition

HEAT WAVE

Is a prolonged period of excessively hot weather, which may be accompanied by high humidity.

Effects
Hyperthermia Heat edema Heat rash Heat cramps Heat syncope Heat exhaustion

Effects
Psychological and Sociological Effects Power Outrage Wildfires Physical Damage

List of Heat Waves

Rank Death toll 1 56,000 Event 2010 Russian heat wave Location Russia Date 2010

2 3
4

40,000
5,000 10,000 1,700

2003 European heat wave

Europe

2003

1988 United States heat United States 1988 wave 1980 United States heat United States 1980 wave

List of Heat Waves

Rank Death toll Event Location Date

5 6 7

1,648 1,500 946

2010 Japanese heat wave 2003 Southern India heat wave 1955 Los Angeles heat wave

Japan India

2010 2003

United States 1955

8
9

891
739

1972 New York City heat United States 1972 wave 1995 Chicago heat wave United States 1995

Definition

TORNADOES
is a violent, dangerous,

rotating column of air that is in contact with both the surface of the earth and a cumulonimbus cloud or, in rare cases, the base of a cumulus cloud.

Life Cycle
Supercell Relationship
- Tornadoes often develop from a class of thunderstorms known as supercells. Supercells contain mesocyclones, an area of organized rotation a few miles up in the atmosphere, usually 16 miles (210 km) across.

Formation
- As the mesocyclone approaches the ground, a visible condensation funnel appears to descend from the base of the storm, often from a rotating wall cloud.

Life Cycle
Maturity
- Initially, the tornado has a good source of warm, moist inflow to power it, so it grows until it reaches the "mature stage". This can last anywhere from a few minutes to more than an hour, and during that time a tornado often causes the most damage, and in rare cases can be more than one mile (1.6 km) across.

Demise
- As the mesocyclone approaches the ground, a visible condensation funnel appears to descend from the base of the storm, often from a rotating wall cloud.

Types of Tornadoes
1. Multiple Vortex
- A multiple-vortex tornado is a type of tornado in which two or more columns of spinning air rotate around a common center.

Types of Tornadoes
2. Waterspout
- A waterspout is defined by the National Weather Service as a tornado over water.

Types of Tornadoes
2 Kinds of Waterspout Tornadoes:
a. Fair Weather Waterspout
-are less severe but far more common, and are similar to dust devils and landspouts.

b. Tornadic Waterspout
- are stronger tornadoes over water.

Types of Tornadoes
3. Landspout
- or dust-tube tornado, is a tornado not associated with a mesocyclone. The name stems from their characterization as a "fair weather waterspout on land.

4. Similar Circulation
a. Gustnado
- A gustnado, or gust front tornado, is a small, vertical swirl associated with a gust front or downburst.

Types of Tornadoes
b. Dust Devil
- A dust devil resembles a tornado in that it is a vertical swirling column of air. However, they form under clear skies and are no stronger than the weakest tornadoes.

Types of Tornadoes
c. Fire Swirls and Steam Devils
- Small-scale, tornado-like circulations can occur near any intense surface heat source. Those that occur near intense wildfires are called fire whirls. - A steam devil is a rotating updraft that involves steam or smoke. Steam devils are very rare. They most often form from smoke issuing from a power plant smokestack.

List of Tornadoes
Rank
1 Death toll 1,300

Event
The Daulatpur-Salturia Tornado

Location
Manikganj, Bangladesh East Pakistan, Pakistan (now Bangladesh) United States (Missouri IllinoisIndiana) Bangladesh Malta

Date
April 26, 1989 1969

923

1969 East Pakistan Tornado

695

The Tri-State Tornado

March 18, 1925 1973 1551

4 5

681 600

1973 Dhaka Tornado The Valetta, Malta Tornado

List of Tornadoes
Rank
6. Death toll 500

Event
The Sicily Tornado

Location
Sicily, Two Sicilies (now Italy)

Date
1851

6.

500

Jessore, East The Narail-Magura Tornadoes Pakistan, Pakistan ( now Bangladesh) The Comoro Tornado The Tangail Tornado Comoro Bangladesh

1964

6. 9. 10.

500 440 400

1951 1988 1984

The Ivanovo-Yaroslavl, Russia, Soviet Tornado Union (now Russia)

Fires
Wildfires

Definition

WILDFIRES

is any uncontrolled fire in combustible vegetation that occurs in the countryside or a wilderness area.

Definition

WILDFIRES

Other names such as brush fire, bushfire, forest fire, desert fire,grass fire, hill fire, peat fire, vegetation fire, veldfire, and wild land fire may be used to describe the same phenomenon depending on the type of vegetation being burned.

Wildfires are characterized in terms of:

the cause of ignition their physical properties such as speed of propagation the combustible material present the effect of weather on the fire

Causes
Four major natural causes of wildfire ignition
1. lightning 2. volcanic eruption 3. sparks from rockfalls 4. spontaneous combustion

Human Causes
arson discarded cigarettes sparks from equipment power line arcs

Causes
Coal seam fires Slash and burn clearings Forested areas cleared by logging encourage the dominance of flammable grasses. Abandoned logging roads overgrown by vegetation may act as fire corridors. Heat waves, droughts, cyclical climate changes and regional weather patterns

Fuel Types
Ground fires are fed by subterranean roots, duff and other buried organic matter. Crawling or surface fires are fueled by low-lying vegetation such as leaf and timber litter, debris, grass, and low-lying shrubbery.

Fuel Types
Ladder fires consume material between low-level vegetation and tree canopies, such as small trees, downed logs, and vines. Crown, canopy, or aerial fires burn suspended material at the canopy level, such as tall trees, vines, and mosses.

Prevention
Fire-stick farming Fire prevention campaign like posters highlighting the role of human carelessness in forest fires. Wildland fire use Vegetation may be burned periodically to maintain high species diversity, and frequent burning of surface fuels limits fuel accumulation, thereby reducing the risk of crown fires.

Prevention
Chain saws and large equipment can be used to thin out ladder fuels and shred trees and vegetation to mulch. Wildfire models may be used to predict and compare the benefits of different fuel treatments on future wildfire spread. Controlled burns

Detection
Fire lookout and scanning towers Public hotlines ground and aerial patrols Electronic and detection system such as wireless sensor networks Satellite-mounted sensors Combining remote-sensing data from satellite sources

Suppression
In less developed nations the techniques used can be as simple as throwing sand or beating the fire with sticks or palm fronds. In more advanced nations, the suppression methods vary due to increased technological capacity. Silver iodide can be used to encourage snow fall, while fire retardants and water can be dropped onto fires by unmanned aerial vehicles, planes, and helicopters.

Suppression
Wildfire modeling - can ultimately aid wildfire suppression, increase the safety of firefighters and the public, and minimize damage.

List of Wildfires and Bushfires

Rank
1 2 3 4 5 6 Death toll

Event
Peshtigo Fire, Wisconsin Kursha-2 Fire Cloquet Fire, Minnesota

Location
United States Soviet Union United States

Date October 8, 1871

August 3, 1936 October 12, 1918 September 1, 1894 September 5, 1881 July 29, 1916

1,200 2,500
1,200 453 418 282 273

Great Hinckley Fire, Minnesota United States Thumb Fire, Michigan Matheson Fire, Ontario United States Canada

List of Wildfires and Bushfires

Rank
7 8 9 10 11 12 Death toll 240 230 213 173 167 71

Event
Sumatra and Kalimantan Fires Landes region Black Dragon Fire Black Saturday bushfires Fires of Needle Ridge Black Friday bushfires (1939)

Location
Indonesia France China Australia United States Australia

Date
1997 1949 May 1987 February 7 March 14, 2009 February 12 April 4, 1980 January 13, 1939

Health Disaster
Epidemics
Famines

Definition

Occurs when new cases of a certain disease, in a given human population, and during a given period, substantially exceed what is expected based on recent experience. A few cases of a very rare disease may be classified as an epidemic, while many cases of a common disease (such as the common cold) would not.

EPIDEMICS

In the last hundred years, significant pandemics include:

The 1918 Spanish flu pandemic, killing an estimated 50 million people worldwide The 1957-58 Asian flu pandemic, which killed an estimated 1 million people The 1968-69 Hong Kong flu pandemic The 2002-3 SARS pandemic The AIDS pandemic, beginning in 1959 The H1N1 Influenza (Swine Flu) Pandemic 2009-2010

Other diseases that spread more slowly, but are still considered to be global health emergencies by the World Health Organization (WHO) include:
XDR TB, a strain of tuberculosis that is extensively resistant to drug treatments
Malaria, which kills an estimated 1.6 million people each year Ebola hemorrhagic fever, which has claimed hundreds of victims in Africa in several outbreaks.

List of Pandemics
Rank 1. 2. 3. Death toll (estimate) 100,000,000 approx. 50,000,000 100,000,000 Event Black Death Spanish Flu Location Date Asia, Europe, Africa 1300s1720s Worldwide 19181920 540590

40,000,000 100,000,000
12,000,000 5,000,000 4,000,000

Plague of Justinian Asia, Europe, Africa Third Pandemic of Bubonic Plague Antonine Plague Asian Flu

4. 5. 6.

Worldwide Roman Empire Worldwide

1850s1950s 165180 19561958

Definition

is a widespread scarcity of food that may apply to any faunal species. This phenomenon is usually accompanied or followed by regional malnutrition, starvation, epidemic, and increased mortality.

FAMINES

Definitions of famines based on 3 different categories: 1. food supply-based 2. food-consumed based 3. mortality-based definitions

Some definitions of famines are:

Blix Brown and Eckholm Scrimshaw

Ravallion Cuny

Some elements make a particular region more vulnerable to famine. These include:
Poverty Inappropriate physical infrastructure

Inappropriate social infrastructure A suppressive political regime A weak or under-prepared government

Causes
imbalance of food production agricultural problems such as drought, crop failure, or pestilence changing weather patterns the ineffectiveness of governments in dealing with crises, wars, and epidemic diseases volcanism

Famine Prevention
The effort to bring modern agricultural techniques found in the West, such as nitrogen fertilizers and pesticides to Asia, called the Green Revolution, resulted in decreases in malnutrition similar to those seen earlier in Western nations. Existing infrastructure and institution such as system of roads or public seed companies that made seeds available.

Famine Prevention
Supporting farmers in areas of food insecurity, through such measures as free or subsidized fertilizers and seeds, increases food harvest and reduces food prices.

Famine Relief
Deficient micronutrient can be provided through fortifying foods. There is a growing realization among aid groups that giving cash or cash vouchers instead of food is a cheaper, faster, and more efficient way to deliver help to the hungry, particularly in areas where food is available but unaffordable.

Famine Relief
For people in a drought living a long way from and with limited access to markets, delivering food may be the most appropriate way to help.

List of Famines
Rank 1 2 3 Death toll 15,000,000 43,000,000 24,000,000 19,000,000 Event Great Chinese Famine Location China China British India Date 19581961 1907 18961902

Chinese Famine of 1907

Indian Famine Bengal famine of 1770, including Bihar & Orissa Northern Chinese Famine

15,000,000

India

17691771

13,000,000

China

18761879

List of Famines
Rank 6 7 Death toll 10,000,000 7,500,000 7,000,00010,000,000 5,000,000 5,000,000 Event Indian Great Famine of 187678 Location India Europe (all) Date 18761879 13151317

Great European Famine

Soviet famine of 1932 1933 (Holodomor) Chinese Famine of 1936 Russian famine of 1921

Soviet Union

19321934

9 10

China Russia, Ukraine

1936 19211922

Space Disaster
Impact Events
Solar Flares

Gamma Ray Burst

Definition

Is the collision of a large meteorite, asteroid, comet, or other celestial object with the Earth or another planet.

IMPACT EVENTS

Sizes and Frequencies

Asteroids with a 1 km (0.62 mi) diameter strike the Earth every 500,000 years on average. Large collisions with 5 km (3 mi) objects happen approximately once every ten million years. The last known impact of an object of 10 km (6 mi) or more in diameter was at the CretaceousTertiary extinction event 65 million years ago.

Sizes and Frequencies

Asteroids with diameters of 5 to 10 m (16 to 33 ft) enter the Earth's atmosphere approximately once per year. Objects with diameters over 50 m (164 ft) strike the Earth approximately once every thousand years. Objects with diameters smaller than 10 m (33 ft) are called meteoroids (or meteorites if they strike the ground). An estimated 500 meteorites reach the earths surface each year.

Effects
A few of these impacts may have caused massive climate change and the extinction of large numbers of plant and animal species.

Changes on planets surface topology due to asteroid impacts. Recent studies have shown that several consecutive impacts can have effect on the dynamo mechanism at a planet's core.

Definition

SOLAR FLARES
Is a phenomenon where the sun suddenly releases a great amount of solar radiation, much more than normal.

Classification
According to peak flux of 100-800 X-rays near Earth

1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

A B C M X

According to Intensity
1. Fair 2. Normal 3. Brilliant

Cause
Flares occur when accelerated charged particles, mainly electrons, interact with the plasma medium. Scientific research has shown that the phenomenon of magnetic reconnection is responsible for the acceleration of the charged particles.

Hazards
Solar flares strongly influence the local space weather in the vicinity of the Earth. They can produce streams of highly energetic particles in the solar wind, known as a solar proton event, or "coronal mass ejection" (CME).

A massive solar flare could knock out electric

power for months.

The soft X-ray flux of X class flares increases the ionization of the upper atmosphere, which can interfere with short-wave radio communication and can heat the outer atmosphere and thus increase the drag on low orbiting satellites, leading to orbital decay.

Massive X6.9 class solar flare, August 9, 2011. While this flare produced a coronal mass ejection (CME), this CME did not travelled towards the Earth, and no local effects were recorded.

Some known solar flares include:

An X20 event on August 16, 1989 The most powerful flare ever recorded, on Nov. 4, 2003, estimated at between X40 and X45

The most powerful flare in the past 500 years is believed to have occurred in September 1, 1859.
Other large solar flares also occurred on April 2, 2001 (X20), October 28, 2003 (X17.2 & X10), September 7, 2005 (X17), February 17, 2011 (X2), and August 10, 2011 (X6.9).

Definition

GAMMA RAY BURSTS (GRBs)

Are flashes of gamma rays associated with extremely energetic explosions that have been observed in distant galaxies. GRB are the most power explosion that occur in universe that release enormous amount of energy in millisecond or longing for ten seconds.

2 Categories
1. Short Gamma Ray Burst
- events with a duration of less than about two seconds

2. Long Gamma Ray Burst

- events that last 2 seconds or longer sometimes 100 seconds

White dwarf nova explosion emits "shocking" burst of gamma rays

Rates and Potential Effects on Life on Earth

Measuring the exact rate is difficult, but for a galaxy of approximately the same size as the Milky Way, the expected rate (for long GRBs) is about one burst every 100,000 to 1,000,000 years. Only a small percentage of these would be beamed towards Earth.

Rates and Potential Effects on Life on Earth

Potential effect comparing Deinococcus radiodurans
The first impact is a flash of gamma rays. The flash can damage even the most radiation resistant organism known, the bacterium Deinococcus radiodurans. For a planet with a thin atmosphere, the gamma flash could kill 90% of D. radiodurans from distances up to three times our galaxys width.

Rates and Potential Effects on Life on Earth

Potential effect comparing Deinococcus radiodurans
For thick atmosphere planets, a gamma-ray bursts ultraviolet rays would kill 90% of D. radiodurans at distances ranging from 13,000 to 62,000 light years. Life surviving that onslaught would have to contend with a third effect, depletion of the atmospheres protective ozone layer by the burst.

Rates and Potential Effects on Life on Earth

Hypothetical Effect of GRBs in the past
GRBs close enough to affect life in some way might occur once every five million years or so around a thousand times since life began. The devastating Ordovician Mass Extinction of 450 million years ago may have been caused by a GRB.

Rates and Potential Effects on Life on Earth

Hypothetical Effect of GRBs in the future
The real danger comes from Wolf-Rayet stars regarded by astronomers as ticking bombs. When such stars transition to supernovas, they may emit intense beams of gamma rays, and if Earth were to lie in the beam zone, devastating effects may occur.
If WR 104 were to hit Earth with a burst of 10 seconds duration, its gamma rays could deplete about 25 percent of the world's ozone layer.

Rates and Potential Effects on Life on Earth

Effects After Exposure to the GRBs on Earths Atmosphere
Longer-term, gamma ray energy may cause chemical reactions involving nitrogen and oxygen molecules which may create nitrogen oxide then nitrogen dioxide gas, causing photochemical smog. The GRB may produce enough of the gas to cover the sky and darken it.