Top 10 Natural Disasters
Published on October 20, 2007 - 30 Comments
The earth’s weather is very mysterious. One day it is sunny the next it is raining. In fact, sometimes as you are driving down the road, you hit the “wall” between a sunny day and a sever thunderstorm. Man has spent years trying to predict weather patterns but it is still an inexact science. This is a list of the most common occurring disasters of nature:
10. Landslide Wikipedia
A landslide is a disaster involving elements of the ground, including rocks, trees, parts of houses, and anything else which may happen to be swept up. Landslides can be caused by an earthquake, volcanic eruptions, or general instability in the surrounding land. Mudslides or mudflows, are a special case of landslides, in which heavy rainfall causes loose soil on steep terrain to collapse and slide downwards.
9. Avalanche Wikipedia
An avalanche is a geophysical hazard involving a slide of a large snow or rock mass down a mountainside, caused when a buildup of material is released down a slope, it is one of the major dangers faced in the mountains in winter. As avalanches move down the slope they may entrain snow from the snowpack and grow in size. The snow may also mix with the air and form a powder cloud. An avalanche with a powder cloud is known as a powder snow avalanche. The powder cloud is a turbulent suspension of snow particles that flows as a gravity current.
8. Drought Wikipedia
A drought is an extended period of months or years when a region suffers a severe deficiency in its water supply. Generally, this occurs when a region receives consistently below average rainfall. It can have a substantial impact on the ecosystem and agriculture of the affected region. Although droughts can persist for several years, even a short, intense drought can cause significant damage and harm the local economy.
7. Wildfire Wikipedia
Wildfires, or forest fires, are uncontrolled fires burning in wildland areas. Common causes include lightning, human carelessness, arson, volcano eruption, and pyroclastic cloud from active volcano. The can be a threat to those in rural areas and also to wildlife. Wildfires can also produce ember attacks, where floating embers set fire to buildings at a distance from the fire itself.
6. Flood Wikipedia
A flood is an overflow of an expanse of water that submerges land, a deluge. It is usually due to the volume of water within a body of water, such as a river or lake, exceeding the total capacity of the body, and as a result some of the water flows or sits outside of the normal perimeter of the body. It can also occur in rivers, when the strength of the river is so high it flows right out of the river channel , usually at corners or meanders.
5. Tsunami Wikipedia
A tsunami is a series of waves created when a body of water, such as an ocean, is rapidly displaced. Earthquakes, mass movements above or below water, volcanic eruptions and other underwater explosions, landslides, large meteorite impacts comet impacts and testing with nuclear weapons at sea all have the potential to generate a tsunami. A tsunami is not the same thing as a tidal wave, which will generally have a far less damaging effect than a Tsunami.
4. Volcanic eruption Wikipedia
A volcanic eruption is the point in which a volcano is active and releases lava and poisonous gasses in to the air. They range from daily small eruptions to extremely infrequent supervolcano eruptions (where the volcano expels at least 1,000 cubic kilometers of material.) Some eruptions form pyroclastic flows, which are high-temperature clouds of ash and steam that can travel down mountainsides at speeds exceeding that of an airliner.
3. Tornado Wikipedia
Tornadoes are violent, rotating columns of air which can blow at speeds between 50 and 300 mph, and possibly higher. Tornadoes can occur one at a time, or can occur in large tornado outbreaks along squall lines or in other large areas of thunderstorm development. Waterspouts are tornadoes occurring over water in light rain conditions.
2. Earthquake Wikipedia
An earthquake is the result of a sudden release of energy in the Earth’s crust that creates seismic waves. Earthquakes are recorded with a seismometer, also known as a seismograph. The magnitude of an earthquake is conventionally reported on the Richter scale, with magnitude 3 or lower earthquakes being mostly imperceptible and magnitude 7 causing serious damage over large areas. Intensity of shaking is measured on the modified Mercalli scale. At the Earth’s surface, earthquakes manifest themselves by shaking and sometimes displacement of the ground.
1. Hurricane Wikipedia
Hurricanes, tropical cyclones, and typhoons are different names for the same phenomenon: a cyclonic storm system that forms over the oceans. It is caused by evaporated water that comes off of the ocean and becomes a storm. The Coriolis Effect causes the storms to spin, and a hurricane is declared when this spinning mass of storms attains a wind speed greater than 74 mph. Hurricane is used for these phenomena in the Atlantic and eastern Pacific Oceans, tropical cyclone in the Indian, and typhoon in the western Pacific.
Contributor: Ravyn
This article is licensed under the GFDL. It uses material from the Wikipedia articles: Natural Disasters and those mentioned in the body of the article itself.
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1. Ryan - October 20th, 2007 at 4:48 am
This is quite interesting to me, as where I live has a very stable weather system. Probably the most likely we are to face here in Ireland are wildfires, and even then they only happen every few years and are almost always arson. I’ve never personally experienced any of these!
2. jfrater - October 20th, 2007 at 5:37 am
Ryan: wow - you are very lucky. I have experienced hurricanes and earthquakes; the latter are very scary. Luckily I have not been in one that has caused much damage.
3. Juggz - October 20th, 2007 at 6:12 am
Man I hate IE 6, it does not play well with wordpress!
4. jfrater - October 20th, 2007 at 6:26 am
Juggz: is the site playing up? Can you explain in more detail at the forums?
5. Juggz - October 20th, 2007 at 6:54 am
i posted a little explanation under your site updates topic. it is not a big deal though i think it is mainly the browser settings my job enforces.
6. Laura - October 20th, 2007 at 8:48 am
I have lived through a bunch of Hurricanes, countless earthquakes, several floods both minor and major (none have directly affected my home, but we did have to overhaul the engine in the car due to water damage about 5 years ago) and a volcanic eruption (Mt Saint Helens) My grandmother lived in Centralia washington, near Mt St Helens and for many years my cousins and I would play with matchbox cars in the ash drifts under her holly trees that were left after the eruption.
7. Laura - October 20th, 2007 at 8:49 am
my favorite has to be earthquakes though. Scary as hell!
8. jfrater - October 20th, 2007 at 9:00 am
Laura: wow - remind me not to move next door to you!! It is amazing that you have suffered all of those. I agree about quakes being scary - I grew up in Wellington (NZ) which is built on a fault line - people are still waiting for the “overdue” big one to hit.
9. Ravyn - October 20th, 2007 at 9:04 am
I have been through a hurricane, a minor earthquake, and many many many tornados. The fun.
10. Laura - October 20th, 2007 at 9:42 am
Hehe i haven’t suffered. I grew up in Portland Oregon near the river. While I never was the victim of a flood it was almost a yearly occurance in some parts of my area. This is also the case here in texas where I live, because some people were dumb and built homes in the flood plain. Not us though!
I moved to several places in the south (North Carolina, Texas) as an adult and have had hurricanes in both places. In oregon and California I experienced earthquakes several times. I was a small child when Mt Saint Helens blew up in southern Washington State. The ash cloud affected a large area at the time and removed the paint from my father’s volkswagen.
11. jfrater - October 20th, 2007 at 10:29 am
Ravyn: How do you cope with tornados? I presume you must have a cellar? Should we be calling you Dorothy?
Laura: that is amazing - I didn’t know the ash clouds could melt paint - I guess it is acidic ash?
12. Ravyn - October 20th, 2007 at 11:12 am
Jfrater: Tornados are cake. For 15 years I lived in a trailor. (Yeah yeah yeah I know). Was entertaining watching them come and go. Then we moved into one of those homes that they truck in in 2 parts (we call them toothpick homes here cause that is what is left after it tangos with a tornado) I remember watching one form right over the house. It didn’t touch down til it crossed the creek. We had some wind damage, the siding was bubbled, the tv antenna was pulled out of the ground and then body slammed point first (we pulled it out of the ground and the point was unbent), all of our outside stuff (grill, pool, riding lawnmower) were thrown across the street and we found most of it littered through the woods the rest in the creek. It was so entertaining.
13. Kelsi - October 20th, 2007 at 2:40 pm
Natural disasters terrify me so much! I’m very lucky to have been brought up in New England, where the worst we get are snowstorms…Which I suppose could cause an avalanche in the right area, but I’ve never even heard of one happening around where I’m from.
14. steve - October 20th, 2007 at 3:17 pm
I too have had the good luck to not have to live through any of these.
That being said, I do want to witness a few of them before i die.
The main one being an F5 tornado, that’s one of the things I really really want to see one day.
I know they’re deadly and all, but they are one of the most powerful forces on the planet…
15. Hannah - October 20th, 2007 at 3:46 pm
Juneau, Alaska (my home) has the distinction of being the most avalanche prone city in North America. Nova did a special on it. A large percent of the population live directly in the path of a potential avalanche. IMHO, it’s also the most beautiful city…
16. ben - October 20th, 2007 at 4:59 pm
Those were all really cool pictures. I’m pretty lucky, ive never had tornados hit where i was but theyve hit my town before, and we had a big flood in ‘93 but i was still a baby so i missed that
17. Fe - October 20th, 2007 at 7:41 pm
This last summer, here in Texas the drought was broken rather spectacularly by incessant rain, complete with flooded rivers and lakes, repeated evacuations of cities and homes and many many quips about building arks and canoes. Nothing compared to real flooding, but we’ll take it until something better comes along. I live back from the highway several hundred yards and there were several days when it was a good thing I did not have to be anywhere because nothing was getting down the lane that connects my home to the highway unless it had fins and gills.
To continue fun weather stories
several years ago we had a micro burst or micro tornado right over the farm. It ripped the roof off the house, as well as off the pump house, uprooted a crabapple tree that was at least 150 years old and tossed an empty windmill tank (roughly the size of a small car) over a mile down the highway, among other damage. It took over a year for the crabapple tree to die and - lying on its side - the roots were nearly twice as tall as my dad.
Last one, I promise. One summer it was so dry that nearly ever week there was a fire. Hundreds of acres were blackened, half our fields burned, houses were blackened shells. My uncle was coming home from work one day and the smoke was so thick that traffic was stopped several miles from the center of the blaze and people were actually getting out of their cars and helping to beat out the flames because the firefighters were so overwhelmed.
Fun times, yeah?
18. batesman - October 21st, 2007 at 1:15 am
The only thing I have really experienced is an earthquake, in Tokyo of all places. I woke up at 3am with the hotel building shaking and my first thought was: “How incredibly cool, an earthquake in Tokyo!” But after about 10 seconds I got reeeeally scared…
19. Laura - October 21st, 2007 at 8:52 am
for more St Helens eruption information, here’s a pretty cool blog someone put up on the 25th anniversary: http://www.tdn.com/helens/noFl.....ex.php?w=D
20. jfrater - October 21st, 2007 at 9:21 am
Fe - wow - unbelievable!
batesman: I know the feeling exactly - I usually wait for a few seconds to see if it will pass and if not - move very quickly under a doorway.
Laura: that is a great blog - thanks for posting it.
21. Mr. Mojo - November 8th, 2007 at 9:15 am
I also live in Texas…Sweetwater to be specific. The storms Fe mentioned were a lifesaver here. In a 7 hour period, our local lake went from a small puddle (seriously no more than 2 feet deep at the lowest point) to completely full. I have a friend that owns a lake house, he said he sat on his back deck and watched the boat houses come up. The lake rose fast enough you could actually see it happen.
Tornadoes are also a threat around here. Many people build or purchase “storm shelters”, which are basically just a small basement type room buried under the ground. I’m lucky enough to live in a cave
It’s a cinderblock house surrounded by dirt on 3 sides, with an 8″ thick slab of reinforced concrete for a roof. My garage/shop is above the house. It’s fun to bring new people over to see the place. They like the layout of the house until I tell them they are standing under a 1950 Ford truck and about 3 tons of tools. Then they develop what I call “cave face”. They hunch their shoulders and cast furtive glances at the ceiling. It’s hilarious to watch.
22. stefxx - November 8th, 2007 at 7:45 pm
u will all die, because u live in bad areas. and i dont care. u should move houses.
23. Jacki - December 1st, 2007 at 3:57 pm
I was expecting Earthquakes to be number 1 as many on the list (Floods, Landslides, Tsunamis, possibly Avalanches and fires) are secondary effects of the earthquake…
24. NSEW - December 2nd, 2007 at 10:08 pm
i dont want this to sound mean but screw all of u who say that u want to see or experience some of these before u die.
i personally have lived through two wild fires and lost my home in one of them. let me tell you it is not fun at all…
25. jesse - January 19th, 2008 at 10:02 am
I went through Hurricane Andrew it was really bad my windowsill came of and bricks and glass came in my room but i hid under my bed (their was a passageway their that led to my basement)everyone in my family has one in their room so i saw themtheir my sister had scars on her face but they weren’t serious and we all huddled together and we heard the wind stop i thought we were inthe eye but that was 2 hours ago so i was glad.That i will always remember.
26. D. J. - April 23rd, 2008 at 12:36 pm
Sorry to burst your bubble, but the picture of a “hurricane” is not an actual hurricane.
Read: http://www.snopes.com/photos/natural/isabel.asp
Seems to be an image of a shelf cloud or wall cloud, although the picture cuts off so I can’t tell which one it is.
27. Don - May 5th, 2008 at 11:20 pm
The picture of the “hurricane” is really a picture of a thunder storm. Even so, it’s impressive.
28. Vera Lynn - June 15th, 2008 at 10:03 pm
I have pictures of people in Africa, victims of drought and famine. They are so thin and emaciated, words cannot describe. There is flooding in Iowa City (my alma mater) and it breaks my heart. I drove through a tornado. I cannot even speak of it. I was terrified. I hope I am never that scared again. I shook for hours. There was an earthquake here in Illinois in 1987. Small. Moved all the pix on the wall. Weather is wild. We cannot control or stop it. One of the furies we bow down to. Amazing.
29. charlevo - August 15th, 2008 at 2:24 pm
The image associated with “hurricane” is not a hurricane at all. It is a wall cloud associated with a supercell thunderstorm. The photo has been circulating around the internet with claims it is from hurricane Isabel - that is not correct. See: http://www.snopes.com/photos/natural/isabel.asp
30. Jackaloo - August 18th, 2008 at 6:48 am
The largest tsunami was 520 feet high :O