Monitoring Our Home Planet

A natural disaster has the capability to cause large scale damage and destruction to an area. Seismic events have been known to alter landscapes and affect the livelihoods, health and development of communities. No two earthquake events are the same and the level of threat posed by an earthquake can vary due to both the human and physical factors of an area. The 2010 magnitude - 7.0 earthquake that occurred in Haiti is an example of where a natural disaster caused a previously vulnerable area to suffer tremendous loss and debilitating socio-economic impacts, to an already poverty-stricken nation.

Tsunamis occur when an earthquake happens in the ocean and the energy goes to the water creating huge waves. Tsunamis are very dangerous they can be so strong that they wash away the city, harm thousands, and cause hundreds of thousands to billions of dollars in damage. “A giant tsunami along the West Coast would wash away coastal towns, destroy U.S. Highway 101 and cause $70 billion in damage. More than 100 bridges would be lost, power lines toppled and coastal towns isolated. Residents would have as few as 15 minutes’ notice to flee to higher ground, and as many as 10,000 would die” (Dangerous tsunami threat off U.S. West Coast). This shows what kind of damage this geo-process can

Imagine living your life on a regular day for you and BOOM! Your life is now suddenly completely changed, everything you thought was normal or part of you has changed. This is what natural disasters tend to make happen in your life, they affect us in many ways. In this essay i will discuss the various elements each author uses to express the causes and effects of disasters. The author Jacqueline Adam clearly expresses the causes and effects of disasters through the use of text structure, choice of vocabulary and use of data and details.

The tsunami waves reached heights up to 128 feet at Miyako city and traveled inland as far as six miles. A tsunami is a series of large sea waves caused by a large displacement of water. The tsunami flooded an estimated area of approximately 217 square miles in Japan. The massive waves destroyed large three-story buildings where many people seeked for safety. Within hours of the first tsunami hit Hawaii and set off multiple warning to Canada, Alaska, South America, the United States, the Oregon coast, and the Pacific.

Devastating natural disasters happen all the time take Hurricane, Katrina for example. An increase in climate change causes the seas to also adjust in temperature and could lead to more tropical storms. “The oceans have absorbed much of the increased heat, with the top 700 meters of ocean showing warming of .302F since 1969” (Shaftel 8). Extreme climate change has been rapidly changing our environment and causes an increase of severe weather. “Most of the Earth warming has occurred since the 1970s, with the 20 warmest years having occurred since 1981 and with all 10 of the warmest years occurring in the past 12 years” (Shaftel 7). “Global sea level rose about 17 cm in the last century. The rate in the last decade is nearly double that of the last century” (Shaftel 6). “Greenland lost 150 to 250 cubic kilometers of ice

Natural hazards — are different natural phenomena that disrupt the usual live of a population, destroy and demolish objects of material value. They often have a negative effect on nature, and can happen anywhere in the world. Many different types of natural hazards exist; for example, earth quakes, landslides, floods, snow drifts, hurricanes, droughts, volcano eruptions, storms, etc. Natural hazards can happen independently or can be related to each other. If there is an earthquake, it can lead to a tsunami or massive fires. Some of them happen as a result of mankind’s doings; construction work, depending on the location, can cause snow drifts, or massive fires.

The word tsunami comes from a Japanese word meaning “Long harbor waives”. Tsunami is much known and very common in Japan because thousands of Japanese have been killed and some suffered in recent centuries. Tsunami waves generally speaking cause a lot of damages such as, killing people, destroying building, and costing million of dollars. Moreover, a tsunami is a series of great sea waves caused by an underwater earthquake, landslide, or volcanic eruption. The 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake that is located on epicenter off the west coast of Sumatra, Indonesia, is actually one of the worst disasters in the history of Indian Ocean that generated by the most powerful 9.0 magnitude earthquake. An aggressive

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

On Friday at 2:46 p.m. local time, near the northeast coast of Japan, there was a magnitude of 9.0 disastrous earthquake occurred on March 11, 2011 (“Poster of the Great Tohoku Earthquake”, 2012). Earthquakes occur at fault when a fracture in the earth along which movement occurs. When strain builds up, the fault slips and earthquake is created. Earthquake, the most destructive natural disasters of all is caused by the movement of the tectonic plates in the lithosphere. The ground shaking is produced by a rapid released of energy and stress in the Earth. When the stress is release, it sends vibrations known as seismic waves that produced at the focus of the earthquake. Honshu earthquake is considered as one of the deadliest earthquakes and

Both excerpts provide thorough descriptions on the causes and effects of disasters. The excerpt from “Super Natural Disasters of the 21st Century” demonstrates three massive natural disasters that recently occurred and the devastation that developed as a result. Similarly, the excerpt from “The Perfect Storm” combines factual information with a personal anecdote on the experience of an intensive storm. Although both authors provide causes and effects on natural disasters, they use juxtaposed strategies and techniques in order to support their claim.

During the past two decades, natural disasters have killed millions of people, adversely affected the lives of at least billion more people, and resulted in substantial economic damages (Watson, Gayer, & Connolly, 2007).

Tsunamis are waves caused by sudden movements of the ocean due to earthquakes, landslides on the sea floor, land slumping into the ocean, large volcanic eruptions or meteorite impact in the ocean.

A simple slip of a tectonic plate does not sound detrimental. The result of this plate slip, a “big wave” also sounds fairly innocent. However, when we see these two things come to life, it can be disastrous. Tsunamis can travel at speeds of 500 miles per hour and it is very hard for them to lose energy. Tsunamis retain their energy, meaning they can travel across entire oceans with very small amounts of energy being lost. These tsunami waves can reach heights above 100 feet. Two tsunamis that stand out from all others are the Sumatra tsunami and the Japan tsunami. Looking at these allows us to see just how destructive tsunamis can be.

In addition ,tsunamis occur in many different places .This natural disaster mainly occurs in the Pacific ocean and Indonesia.This happens because the Pacific rim

Gigantic waves of up to 100 feet high that can travel of speeds in excess of 500 miles per hour the Tsunami is one of the fiercest forces of nature there is. The name Tsunami derived from Japan because that is where a lot occur but it was an Earthquake in the “Big Bend” territory that registered an 8.5 on the Richter scale that produced 70-foot waves and was the worst ever to strike South America. Forty percent of all damaging Tsunamis come from South America. Chile and Peru account for more Earthquakes per square mile than anywhere else in the world.