This report is about natural disasters.

It refers to the most devastating and powerful

natural phenomena that cause major destruction. These hazards include earthquakes,
hurricanes, floods, volcanic eruptions and tsunamis. All of the mentioned natural hazards are
described in great detail. It is important to understand the level of destruction these
phenomena bring and realise the necessity to take immediate actions if a natural disaster
occurs.
Natural disaster is an emergency situation posing significant danger to life and property
that results from a natural cause. There are several types of these natural phenomena:
avalanches, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, floods, tsunamis, blizzards, hurricanes, droughts,
hailstorms, heat waves, tornadoes, wildfires and other. They occur all over the world, and can
cause utter devastation to people and the environment. Although, there are many different
factors that lead to natural disasters and if everyone was aware of them, people would be
prepared when those disasters take place. Consequently, many lives could be saved.
Some of the most dangerous natural disasters are earthquakes. It is one of the most
destructive phenomenon of nature that can result in awfully high level of destruction. An
earthquake is a sudden, rapid shaking of the earths surface. In more detail, slowly moving
plates on the earths surface cause them. The shifting plates do not always interact smoothly
and can sometimes get stuck which leads to a build-up of pressure. It is when the pressure,
which has been compressed for a certain period of time, is released that an earthquake occurs.
Furthermore, earthquakes are extremely deadly, because when these hazards occur in a
densely populated area, they cause a large number of deaths or injuries and vast property
devastation. That is the reason why it is beneficial to predict the possible earthquakes. There
are a few ways of foreseeing a possible earthquake. One method of predicting these terrifying
accidents is by using laser beams to detect plate movement. Another method is using
seismometers to pick up the vibrations in the Earth's crust. A high rise in these vibrations may
indicate a possible danger of an earthquake. Levels of radon gas can also be monitored to
show a possibility of an earthquake occurring in the place where there is a sudden increase in
the mentioned gas. Radon gas actually escapes from cracks in the Earth's crust and thats why
it is used as one of the ways of predicting these natural disasters.
Hurricanes are among the most powerful natural disasters. One could define hurricane
as a severe, rotating tropical storm with heavy rains and cyclonic winds. These unstoppable
hazards are formed in a quite complicated manner. Three main elements are needed for a
hurricane to be created. First, the ocean waters must be warm enough to supply the hurricane
with energy just like any mechanism needs fuel or energy in order to work. Second, the

moisture from the sea water evaporation must mix with that heat and energy to form a
powerful engine needed to maintain a hurricane. Third, there must be a right amount of wind
for the hurricane to be able to finally form. This is basically the way these powerful
phenomena start.
Moreover, hurricanes can dramatically damage not only coastlines, but also several
hundred miles inland. These storms can bring destruction on land in several intimidating
ways. When a hurricane reaches the shore it often produces a devastating storm surge.
Interestingly enough, ninety percent of all hurricane deaths result from storm surges. High
winds of a hurricane are also destructive and may cause tornadoes to develop. Torrential rains
can lead to even worse natural disasters, such as floods and landslides.
What is more, there has been a tradition of naming hurricanes. There is a simple
explanation to why people do it. These natural hazards occur every year and sometimes
several can be active at the same time. Naming hurricanes makes it much simpler for
meteorologists, police officers, weather forecasters and ordinary citizens to communicate
about specific storms and be clearly understood. Some of many different names used for the
Atlantic Tropical Storms include names like Arthur, Sam, Gabrielle, Laura, Katrina and many
other.
Even though some hurricanes are quite mild and do not wreck peoples houses or bring
many fatalities, there have been many extensively destructive hurricanes in the world.
Throughout history there were some extreme hurricanes and tropical storms which have
caused massive amounts of damage to many regions of the United States. One of the most
devastating is hurricane Katrina which is listed in the sixth position of the most powerful
hurricanes in the world. It is the third most powerful hurricane in the US.
Another highly destructive and powerful natural phenomenon is flooding. It actually is
the most common of all the natural hazards. A flood could be defined as an overflowing of
water onto land that is normally dry. Just like any other natural hazard, floods are hard to
predict most of the time, because of the fact that they occur irregularly, vary in size, duration
and the affected area. A very important factor is that water naturally flows from high areas to
low lying areas. Therefore, low-lying areas may be filled with water before it reaches the
higher grounds. Additionally, some floods develop gradually over a longer period of time,
while others such as flash floods, can develop in just a matter of a few minutes and without
visible signs of rain. Flash floods can develop in just a few minutes or hours of excessive
rainfall, a dam failure, or a sudden release of enormous amount of water held by an ice jam.
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Moreover, some of the most deadly floods happen in China. The Yellow River in China has
had the four deadliest flood events in the worlds history. The fatalities caused by floods all
over the world are rather big in numbers as well. An interesting fact is that flood losses in the
United States averaged two billion dollars per year for the last decade.
Another severely dangerous natural disaster is a volcanic eruption. It is a sudden
occurrence of a violent discharge of steam and volcanic material. These phenomena are rather
complex just like hurricanes that were mentioned earlier. A volcano is a mountain which has a
reservoir of molten rock below the surface of the earth. Unlike most mountains, volcanoes
have openings in their centres through which molten rock escapes to the earths surface. When
a certain amount of gases produced by the molten rock create a strong enough pressure in the
reservoir of the volcano, an eruption occurs. Lava and other volcanic material is burst out
from volcanos in many distinct ways. These ways were named after the manner in which
some well-known volcanoes erupted. These are as follow: Strombolian eruption (looks like
fireworks), Vulcanian eruption (whitish clouds of ash are formed), Vesuvian eruption (thick
cauli-flower shaped ash-clouds are formed), Phreatic eruption (cold ground or water comes
into contact with hot molten rock) and several other types.
Actually somewhere, around the world, there are about twenty active volcanoes
erupting at this very moment. Between fifty to seventy volcanoes erupted last year, and about
a hundred and sixty went off in the last decade. What is more, some of the most deadly
volcanoes in the entire world include Krakatoa. This eruption occurred in 1883, releasing a
tsunami that killed about thirty six thousand people.
This leads to the final natural hazard tsunami. A very large ocean wave that is caused
by an underwater earthquake or a volcanic eruption and often causes extreme destruction
when it strikes land is called a tsunami. Most tsunamis happen as a result of underwater
earthquakes; however, not all underwater earthquakes cause tsunamis - an earthquake has to
be over a certain magnitude on the Richter scale for it to be able to result in a tsunami. From
the original area where the tsunami forms, waves travel outward in all directions. Once the
wave approaches the shore, it builds in height.
What is more, while there is no evidence of a tsunami caused by a meteorite, some
scientists have formed a hypothesis which states that a meteorite may have created a tsunami
that wiped out life on Earth more than three and a half billion years ago. Moreover, reports
show that attempts of escaping tsunamis using vehicles are ineffective most of the time,
because of getting stuck in traffic jams or encountering other obstacles. Probably the best way
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to escape is on foot, climbing up any higher grounds nearby as quickly as possible. Moreover,
about ninety percent of all tsunamis in the whole world take place in the Pacific Ocean.
However some of the deadliest tsunamis in the worlds history include the tsunami in the
Indian Ocean in 2004 which took the lives of more than two hundred thousand people. On the
other hand, a large number of lives are saved due to successful prediction of tsunamis. Many
tsunamis can be detected before they hit land (and the loss of life is certainly minimized) with
the use of modern technology, including seismographs (which detect earthquakes),
computerized offshore buoys that measure changes in wave height, and a siren systems on
beaches that alert people if there is a potential tsunami danger.
All in all, there are many different natural hazards that cause major danger to our lives.
Earthquakes, hurricanes, floods, volcanic eruptions and tsunamis are all highly destructive
and may cause many fatalities. We cannot do much to avoid them, unless they are predicted
beforehand. This is the reason why it is necessary to acknowledge the possible occurrence of a
natural disaster and take actions to avoid having to face it. Many lives could be saved if
people were able to predict all of the natural disasters.

References

1. http://www.ready.gov/
2. http://environment.nationalgeographic.com/environment/naturaldisasters/hurricane-profile/
3. http://www.sciencekids.co.nz/sciencefacts/weather/floods.html
4. http://www.universetoday.com/32185/10-interesting-facts-about-volcanoes/
5. http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/
6. http://www.myinterestingfacts.com/hurricane-katrina-facts/
7. http://www.statista.com/statistics/269649/earthquake-deaths-by-country/
8. http://www.weatherwizkids.com/weather-hurricane.htm
9. http://geology.com/hurricanes/hurricane-names.shtml
10. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flood#Deadliest_floods
11. http://geology.campus.ad.csulb.edu/people/bperry/Geol303photos/waves/Tsuna
miDiagramEWNZ.jpg
12. http://facts.randomhistory.com/tsunami-facts.html