Natural Disasters
1. Earthquake
-Earthquake, any sudden shaking of the ground caused by the passage of seismic waves through Earth’s rocks. Seismic waves are produced when some form of energy stored in Earth’s crust is suddenly released, usually when masses of rock straining against one another suddenly fracture and “slip.” Earthquakes occur most often along geologic faults, narrow zones where rock masses move in relation to one another. The major fault lines of the world are located at the fringes of the huge tectonic plates that make up Earth’s crust.
2.Tsunami
-A tsunami is a series of ocean waves that sends surges of water, sometimes reaching heights of over 100 feet (30.5 meters), onto land. These walls of water can cause widespread destruction when they crash ashore. Most tsunamis–about 80 percent–happen within the Pacific Ocean’s “Ring of Fire,” a geologically active area where tectonic shifts make volcanoes and earthquakes common. Tsunamis may also be caused by underwater landslides or volcanic eruptions. They may even be launched, as they frequently were in Earth’s ancient past, by the impact of a large meteorite plunging into an ocean.
3. Volcanic Eruption
-A volcanic eruption occurs when magma is released from a volcano. Volcanic eruptions can be quite calm and effusive, or they can be explosive. Effusive eruptions produce lava flows, while explosive eruptions produce ash and pyroclastic density currents.
4. Tornado
-Tornadoes are vertical funnels of rapidly spinning air. Their winds may top 250 miles an hour and can clear a pathway a mile wide and 50 miles long. Also known as twisters, tornadoes are born in thunderstorms and are often accompanied by hail. Giant, persistent thunderstorms called super cells spawn the most destructive tornadoes.
5. Typhoon
-is a tropical cyclone with winds faster than 74 miles per hour that occurs in the North Atlantic Ocean, the Northeast Pacific Ocean east of the dateline, the South Pacific east of 160E and the Northwest Pacific Ocean west of the date line.
