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Natural Disasters The natural disasters have existed since the world creation. The description of the first disaster, the Noah's Flood is given in the Bible. That was the Creators will to send the first flood to the man. Nowadays the natural disasters occur now and then in the various parts of the globe.
Natural disasters are caused by the natural cataclysms. Natural phenomena may turn to a disaster. The disaster may be defined as Calamity caused by nature resulting in loss of life or destruction of property 1 The disasters may be classified by the natural elements they are manifested by. Water may become the source of the most widely spread disaster.
Floods are caused by weather phenomena and events that deliver more precipitation to a drainage basin than can be readily absorbed or stored within the basin 2. The floods are closely intervened with the tectonic activity. The most dangerous disaster connected with water is tsunami. Recent tsunami in South Eastern Asia brought a lot of hazard to people. Tsunami is one of the most dangerous disasters caused by water. "Tsunami" is the Japanese word meaning tidal wave 3. Though Tsunami is classified in a group of disaster caused by water, it has its origin in tectonic processes like the earthquake and tilting the floor of the ocean.
Usually Tsunamis move across the ocean to the shore and may destroy the buildings and cause the damage at considerable distance from the coastline. Flood may also be caused by heavy rains. This type of disaster as well as heavy snowing is caused by the meteorological phenomena. Tsunami, heavy rains and snowing may cause heavy demolishing consequences.
Another disaster connected with the water, or it is better to say with its absence is drought. This is a real disaster for the areas with the deficit of rains. Droughts cause a lot of deaths in Africa especially in its central and Eastern part. Such countries as for example Ethiopia suffer from the droughts almost every year. A drought is a long-lasting weather pattern consisting of dry conditions with very little or no precipitation. During this period, food and water supplies can run low, and other conditions, such as famine, can result.
Droughts can last for several years and are particularly damaging in areas in which the residents depend on agriculture for survival 4. Hurricanes and tornados are the natural disasters connected with the atmospheric processes. Hurricanes develop from belts of low pressure called easterly waves. These regions of low pressure occur in ocean winds called trade winds.
On certain occasions, the easterly waves form into tropical depressions, which are characterized by a group of thunderstorms with cyclonic winds of up to thirty one miles per hour. The next stage in development is a tropical storm, with winds of up to seventy three miles per hour. Any wind speed higher than that and it is a hurricane. 5 A tornado is very similar to a hurricane. A tornado is a violent windstorm characterized by a twisting, funnel-shaped cloud.
It is spawned by a thunderstorm (or sometimes as a result of a hurricane) and produced when cool air overrides a layer of warm air, forcing the warm air to rise rapidly. The damage from a tornado is a result of the high wind velocity and wind-blown debris. Tornado season is generally March through August, although tornadoes can occur at any time of year. They tend to occur in the afternoons and evenings: over 80 percent of all tornadoes strike between noon and midnight. 6 Very hazardous natural disasters are resulted directly from the tectonic activity of the Earth. The most hazardous one is an earthquake. The earthquake may in its turn become a major cause of tsunami described above.
The earthquake is the shift of tectonic plate in the Earth's crust. The earthquake may cause the destruction of the building constructions and numerous victims as a result of such destruction. The earthquake may become the initial stage for the forthcoming disasters like volcano eruption and tsunami. Some earthquakes may be very destructive. During the cold war according to some publications the superpowers even worked out the ideas of developing the tectonic weapon, the weapon which by means of underground nuclear explosions could cause the earthquakes, tsunamis etc. There is no evidence whether it was the sick imagination of the conservative politicians or true but taking into consideration the rate of the arms race and the scientific progress no one can state that such weapon was principally impossible.
Another disaster connected with the tectonic activity is volcano. A volcano is a vent in the earth through which hot gases and molten rock rise to the surface. A cone shaped mountain of erupted material around such a vent is also called a volcano. The name is taken from Volcano, an island north of Sicily in the Mediterranean Sea.
The island was given its name by the ancient Romans because it spewed smoke like vapor, and was thought to be the home of Vulcan, their god of fire 7. Volcanoes are also result of tectonic activity. They are not as common as other disasters but they are no less destructive than the others. Volcano is formed by a fissure in the earth's crust, above which a cone of volcanic material has accumulated. At the top of the cone is a bowl-shaped vent called a crater.
The cone is formed by the deposition of molten or solid matter that flows or is ejected through the vent from the interior of the earth. The study of volcanoes and volcanic phenomena is called volcanology. Most volcanoes are composite landforms built up partly of lava flows and partly of fragmental materials. Italy's Mount Etna, in Sicily is an example of a composite cone.
Volcanoes occur very rarely but if they are not formatted in time they may be extremely destructive. Realizing the danger of the natural disasters the US Department of Homeland Security worked out the National Response Plan regulating the national actions aimed to prevent disasters, prepare and respond to them as well as recover after all types of disasters including the natural ones in December 2004. Citation Definition, Flood Tsunami Wikipedia Hurricanes What Is A Tornado? Volcanoes, Thinkquest. Bibliography Natural disaster. Definition.
Available at web retrieved 6. 12. 2005 Flood. Available at web retrieved 6. 12. 2005 Tsunami, available at web retrieved 6. 12. 2005 Disaster, Wikipedia, available at web retrieved 6. 12. 2005 Hurricanes, available at web retrieved 6. 12. 2005 What Is A Tornado? Available at web retrieved 6. 12. 2005
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