Republic of the Philippines

Department of Education
REGION III
SCHOOLS DIVISION OF TARLAC PROVINCE
TARLAC NATIONAL HIGH SCHOOL ANNEX
SAN MIGUEL, TARLAC CITY

Environmental Science

Causes and Effects of Natural Disasters

Third Quarter: Module 2
Science is a way of life. Science is a perspective. Science is the process that takes us from confusion to
understanding in a manner that's precise, predictive and reliable - a transformation, for those lucky
enough to experience it, that is empowering and emotional.

- Brian Greene
MODULE 2: Cause and Effects of Natural Disasters
MELC: Explain the causes and effects of natural disasters to humans and the environment

NATURAL DISASTERS
Natural disasters include all types of severe
weather, which have the potential to pose a
significant threat to human health and safety,
property, critical infrastructure, and homeland
security. Natural disasters occur both seasonally and
without warning, subjecting the nation to frequent
periods of insecurity, disruption, and economic loss.
These resources serve to prepare IHEs for a variety
of natural disasters, including winter storms, floods, tornados, hurricanes, wildfires, earthquakes, or any
combination thereof.

Natural disasters as we all know are the consequences of events triggered by natural hazards that
overwhelm local response capacity and seriously affect the social and economic development of a region.
There is basically no human control over the natural disaster. We cannot stop these natural disasters but what
is in our hands is to be prepared for these. Also, there are a lot of ways through which we can minimize the
damage caused due to these natural disasters. Traditionally, natural disasters have been seen as situations
that create challenges and problems mainly of a humanitarian nature. There is no way to prevent or avert
these natural disasters, though scientists do claim to have found the ways to predict these natural disasters
at most of the times they have failed to predict natural disasters causing some serious destruction.

TYPES OF NATURAL DISASTERS

The natural disaster is the consequence when a natural hazard affects humans in an adverse manner.
Human vulnerability, caused by the lack of appropriate preparedness often leads to financial, environmental,
or human impact in a negative manner. A natural disaster always brings along loss of life and property damage,
and typically leaves economic damage in its wake, the severity of which depends on the intensity of the disaster.
At times there can be some minor losses only whereas human life has also witnessed few disasters that have
caused a major loss of life and property as well.

The resulting loss due to a natural disaster also depends on the capacity of the population or
authorities to support or resist the disaster as well as emergency preparedness. This understanding is
concentrated in the formulation: "disasters occur when hazards meet vulnerability". A natural hazard will
hence never result in a natural disaster in areas without vulnerability, e.g., strong earthquakes in uninhabited
areas. The term natural has consequently been disputed because the events simply are not hazards or
disasters without human involvement. Different types of natural disasters can be:

✓ Tsunamis
o A tsunami is a series of enormous ocean waves caused by earthquakes, underwater landslides,
volcanic eruptions, or asteroids. Tsunamis can: Travel 20-30 miles per hour with waves 10-100
feet high. Cause flooding and disrupt transportation, power, communications, and the water
supply.

On 11 March 2011, a magnitude 9.0 earthquake caused a huge tsunami that struck Northeast Japan, resulting in
nearly 20 000 deaths.

✓ Earthquakes
o An earthquake is a sudden, rapid shaking of the ground caused by the shifting of rocks deep
underneath the earth’s surface. Earthquakes can cause fires, tsunamis, landslides or
avalanches.

On April 22, 2019, a 6.1 magnitude earthquake struck the island of Luzon in the Philippines
 ✓ Avalanches
o An avalanche is a large amount of snow moving quickly down a mountain, typically on slopes
of 30 to 45 degrees. When an avalanche stops, the snow becomes solid like concrete and
people are unable to dig out.
✓ Volcanic Eruption
o Volcanic eruptions happen when lava and gas are discharged from a volcanic vent.

On January 12, 2020, the Taal Volcano in the Philippines awoke from 43 years of quiet and began to spew gases, ash, and
lava into the air.

✓ Landslides
o A landslide is defined as the movement of a mass of rock, debris, or earth down a
slope. Landslides are a type of "mass wasting," which denotes any down-slope movement of
soil and rock under the direct influence of gravity.

✓ Floods
o Flooding is a temporary overflow of water onto land that is normally dry.
✓ Droughts
o Drought is a period of time when an area or region experiences below-normal precipitation. The
lack of adequate precipitation, either rain or snow, can cause reduced soil moisture or
groundwater, diminished stream flow, crop damage, and a general water shortage.
✓ Forest fires or Wildfires
o Wildfires are unplanned fires that burn in natural areas like forests, grasslands or prairies. These
dangerous fires spread quickly and can devastate not only wildfire and natural areas, but also
communities.

Forest fire in Australia

✓ Hurricanes
o Hurricanes, known generically as tropical cyclones, are low-pressure systems with organized
thunderstorm activity that form over tropical or subtropical waters. They gain their energy from
warm ocean waters.

✓ Tornadoes
o Tornadoes are violently rotating columns of air that extend from a thunderstorm to the ground.
✓ Winter storms
o A winter storm is a weather event where the precipitation is mainly snow, sleet, or freezing rain.
Often coupled with strong winds and below-freezing temperatures, winter storms can be
dangerous.
✓ Heat Waves
o Heat wave, also called heatwave, period of prolonged abnormally high surface temperatures
relative to those normally expected.

CAUSES OF NATURAL DISASTERS

• There are different types of natural disasters and depending on different types of disasters the causes are also
different.
o For example, the causes of an earthquake cannot be the same as that of forest-fire. Natural disasters
are caused due to different reasons like soil erosion, seismic activity, tectonic movements, air pressure,
and ocean currents etc. natural disaster is not a new phenomenon these natural events have occurred
since the earth began forming and continue to cause serious damage and loss of life all over the globe
from many years. The root causes of most of the natural disasters that occur on earth can be attributed
to the imbalance created in our environment. This imbalance may either be in the form of air pollution,
noise pollution or water pollution and the collective effect of these imbalances are also one of the few
reasons for the natural disaster. Though it also a fact that we cannot blame anyone because this is just
one of the few reasons.
• Natural activities taking place in the earth’s crust, as well as surface, are the main reasons for these disasters.
o Seismic activity caused by earthquakes have been the root cause of volcanoes erupting and typhoons.
It has been studied that the continents sit on huge plates that occasionally shift and when these plates
shift they cause an increase in pressure underneath the earth’s surface which is also a cause of natural
disasters. Tectonic movements in the earth’s crust are responsible for the earthquakes, which at times
can get really dangerous and may lead to some heavy loss of life and property. In areas where volcanoes
have formed by solidified magma, pressure from gasses and magma can explode or erupt to send tons
of ash into the atmosphere.
• The activity of the moon determines the ocean waves which can get really high during the full moon and at
times these can be really dangerous.
o It was also observed that deadly December 2004 tsunami also occurred on a full moon night. The
earthquake was caused when the Indian Plate was subducted by the Burma Plate and triggered a series
of devastating tsunamis along the coasts of most landmasses bordering the Indian Ocean, killing over
230,000 people in fourteen countries, and inundating coastal communities with waves up to 30 meters
 (98 ft) high. It was one of the deadliest natural disasters in recorded history. Indonesia was the hardest-
hit country, followed by Sri Lanka, India, and Thailand.
• Changing ocean currents are also dangerous at times and can result in changes in water temperature which
could result in a global food shortage by killing fish and ocean plant life.
o These changing oceanic currents could also adversely affect the intensity as well as the frequency of
storms. Tornadoes which are really dangerous are often formed by the interaction of high and low-
pressure air and these have proved to be really dangerous as well as devastating for many communities
in the area of America, especially the area of Tornado Alley. Air pressure, high and low determines
whether or not we have thunderstorms, rain and hurricanes. Flooding and high winds are caused by the
crashing together of low and high-pressure air. Damage caused by flooding and hurricanes along coastal
cities and towns can be really difficult to overcome for their victims.
• Natural Disasters are a set of naturally occurring events which can directly or indirectly cause severe threats to
human health and well-being and adversely affects the human life for quite some time.
o It has been witnessed that the natural disasters have their root causes in the normal activities of the
earth. However during the past few years, we have witnessed some rapid modernization and growth,
man's increased knowledge and technology has served to trigger for some natural disasters. Flooding
and erosion can occur are really prone to the areas where mining, deforestation, and manufacturing
have taken place. Global warming, which could eventually affect the ocean currents, has its roots in
modern man's overuse of fossil fuels. Earthquakes resulting as a result of tectonic movements and
movements of plates inside the earth’s crust can also be triggered by drilling, bombing, mining, and
construction.

THE IMPACT OF HUMAN ACTIVITIES ON NATURAL DISASTERS

• It has been estimated that rapidly growing modernization is leading to ignorance towards the
environment. Today we are growing at a rapid rate neglecting the harm that we are causing to our
environment. Environmental bylaws are being neglected for personal gains by few businessmen. The
dual forces of global warming, as well as poor human management in the field of land and water
resources, combine to the cause of natural disasters. Humans have created a situation where ordinary
events like earthquakes and hurricanes become increasingly elevated to the level of natural disasters
which results in heavy losses in the terms of human life as well as property.
• Scientists researching on this topic from past many years have found that the increase in hydro-
meteorological disasters can be attributed to a combination of natural and human-caused factors.
o The main problem is global warming which is increasing the temperatures of Earth's oceans and
atmosphere, leading to more intense storms of all types, including hurricanes and floods due to
the melting of these oceans. Unplanned urbanization is at its peak, no one is really caring about
 the environmental risks and everyone is busy making money. There are a lot of constructions
coming up in flood-prone regions which have increased the likelihood that their towns and
villages will be affected by flash floods and coastal floods.
• In one way or the other we are hampering our environment, the rapidly growing industrialization has
led to a lot of air as well as water pollution. Though there are environmental laws that these industries
need to follow to treat the waste before disposing of into the environment but most of the times the
industry owners neglect these laws for their personal gain and even authorities are also quite relaxed
and do not take a prompt action against the culprits. Rapid construction has led to large land areas
being covered with cement, which means that the flow of water becomes very strong, and the runoff
from the water can't get absorbed by the soil anymore, so it keeps collecting and rushing down, getting
heavier and faster, which may ultimately lead to much bigger floods.
 SAVE OUR MOTHER EARTH!

References:
https://www.ready.gov/tsunamis
https://www.ifrc.org/en/what-we-do/disaster-management/about-disasters/definition-of-hazard/volcanic-
eruptions/
https://www.nationalgeographic.org/encyclopedia/drought/
https://scied.ucar.edu/learning-zone/storms/winter-storms
https://targetstudy.com/articles/natural-disasters-cause-and-
effects.html#:~:text=Natural%20disasters%20are%20caused%20due,pressure%2C%20and%20ocean%20currents
%20etc.&text=Natural%20activities%20taking%20place%20in,main%20reasons%20for%20these%20disasters.
ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE Name: _________________________________________
3RD Quarter: Module 1
CAUSE AND EFFECTS OF NATURAL DISASTERS
ACTIVITY 1. MULTIPLE CHOICE. Write the letter of the correct answer on the space provided.
A. Tsunami B. Landslides C. Hurricane
D. Earthquake E. Floods F. Tornado
G. Avalanche H. Droughts I. Winter Storms
J. Volcanic Eruption K. Wildfires L. Heat Waves

________ 1.