Learning Geography Through

Natural Disasters
What is a natural Where do natural
disaster? disasters occur?

What map skills do I What were the

need to find natural worst natural
disasters? disasters of the 20th
century?
There are many types of natural
disasters
Earthquakes Droughts
Volcanoes Landslides
Tornadoes Avalanches
Floods Tsunamis
Hurricanes Wildfires

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Wild fires
 Wild fires defined
 A fire that burns uncontrollably in a
natural setting (e.g., a forest, or
grassland).
Wildfire Video
Earthquakes
 Earthquake defined

 A sudden movement in the crust of

the Earth caused by the rapid release
of tectonic strain
Earthquake video
Tornadoes
 Tornado defined
 A violently rotating storm of small
diameter; the most violent weather
phenomenon. It is produced in a
very severe thunderstorm and
appears as a funnel cloud extending
from the base of a Cumulonimbus to
the ground.
Tornado video
Hurricanes
 Hurricane defined
 A strong tropical revolving storm of
force 12 or higher in the northern
hemisphere. Hurricanes revolve in a
clockwise direction. In the southern
hemisphere these storms revolve
counterclockwise and are known as
typhoons .
Hurricane video
Drought
 Drought defined
 A drought is an extended period
where water availability falls below
the statistical requirements for a
region. Drought is not a purely
physical phenomenon, but instead is
an interplay between natural water
availability and human demands for
water supply.
Drought video
Volcanoes
 Volcano defined
 A vent in the surface of the Earth
through which magma and
associated gases and ash erupt;
also, the form or structure, usually
conical, that is produced by the
ejected material.
Volcano video
Avalanches
 Avalanche defined
 A large mass of material or mixtures
of material falling or sliding rapidly
under the force of gravity.
Avalanches often are classified by
their content, such as snow, ice, soil,
or rock avalanches. A mixture of
these materials is a debris
avalanche.
Avalanche video
Tsunamis
 Tsunami defined
 A great sea wave produced by a
submarine earthquake, volcanic
eruption, or large landslide
Tsunami video
Landslides
 Landslide defined
 A large mass of material or
mixtures of material falling or
sliding rapidly under the force of
gravity. Avalanches and
landslides often are classified by
their content, such as snow, ice,
soil, or rock avalanches. A
mixture of these materials is a
debris avalanche.
Landslide video
Floods
 Flood defined
 The overflowing by water of the
normal confines of a stream or other
body of water, or the accumulation
of water by drainage over areas
which are not normally submerged.
Flood video
Natural Disasters Occur All
Over the World
Earthquakes
Avalanche/Landslides
Hurricanes/Cyclones/Typhoons
Drought/Famine
Volcanoes
Floods
Tornadoes

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Tornadoes
Earthquakes
Avalanches/Landslides
Hurricanes/Cyclones/Typhoons
Drought/Famine
Volcanoes
Floods
Top Ten Natural Disasters of
the 20th Century
Number 10
Number 9
Number 8
Number 7
Number 6
Number 5
Number 4
Number 3
Number 2
Number 1
 Number10
At the turn of the 20th century in
1906, Hong Kong was ravaged by
a typhoon that killed 10,000
people with wind gusts of up to
100 miles per hour. More recently
in 1984, typhoon “Ike” hit the
Philippines; while only 1,363
people lost their lives, over 1
million were left homeless.
Find this country on a map and put the number
of the disaster that occurred there.
 Number 9
In May of 1970, Peru succumbed to a
landslide that took the live of 18,000
people. No other landslide comes
close in terms of casualties.
However, when it comes to material
damage, California suffered over 140
million dollars in losses in January of
1969.
Find this country on a map and put the number
of the disaster that occurred there.
 Number 8
Indian Ocean Tsunami: The Deadliest in
History
On Dec. 26, 2004, a 9.0 magnitude earthquake—the
largest earthquake in 40 years—occurred in the Indian
Ocean, off the northwest coast of the Indonesian island
of Sumatra. The earthquake triggered the deadliest
tsunami in world history, so powerful that the waves
caused loss of life on the coast of Africa and were even
detected on the East Coast of the United States. More
than 283,106 people have died from the disaster, a half
a million have been injured, thousands still remain
missing, and millions were left homeless.

Find this country on a map and put the number

of the disaster that occurred there.
 Number 7
Just under 100,000 people died
when the Tambora volcano erupted
in Indonesia in April 1815.

Find this country on a map and put the number

of the disaster that occurred there.
 Number 6

Back in 1556, two provinces in China lost over

800,000 lives in a massive quake. In modern
times,China suffered another quake in July of
1976. Curiously, the death toll was revised
two times, while originally at over 300,000
deaths,it was then downgraded to 240,000
victims. While these certainly took more lives,
no earthquake parallels 1995,s Kobe shake
that cost in excess of $1 billion in damages.

Find this country on a map and put the number

of the disaster that occurred there.
 Number 5

Roughly 400,000 people died in

November 1970 when a violent cyclone
ravaged through East Pakistan (current
day Bangladesh). Winds hit up to 150
miles per hour, and the 50-foot tidal wave
slammed the coasts and raised the water
levels of the numerous surrounding rivers

Find this country on a map and put the number

of the disaster that occurred there.
 Number 4

Half a million people died of

starvation in the Sub-Saharan
African region of Sahel in the mid-
1980s, due to the severe droughts
that hit the region.

Find this country on a map and put the number

of the disaster that occurred there.
 Number 3
The Yellow River (or Huang He) in China's banks
burst in October 1887, and the ensuing flood
took with it over 900,000 people. In 1950, about
900,000 dwellings were inundated when the Hwai
and Yangtze rivers in eastern China flooded.
What made matters worse was the 3.5 million
acres that were destroyed for the rest of the
harvest season. In 1978, a flood in India's West
Bengal State left 15 million people homeless.

Find this country on a map and put the number

of the disaster that occurred there.
 Number 2

In 1970, a hurricane ravaged the Ganges

Delta Islands (Bangladesh), wiping out
almost 1 million people. Back home, most
people remember Hurricane Andrew that
hit Homestead, Florida in August 1992,
and caused over $15 billion in damages.
Andrew leaves a big tab everywhere he
goes.

Find this country on a map and put the number

of the disaster that occurred there.
 Number 1

Over a 2-year period circa 1960,

roughly 40 million Chinese perished
due to starvation in Northern China.

Find this country on a map and put the number

of the disaster that occurred there.
These are the map skills you may
need to find natural disasters.

Map terms

Map Projections

Latitude and Longitude

 Map terms

 Prime Meridian
 International Dateline
 Equator
 Hemisphere
 Tornado Alley
 Dust Bowl
 Ring of Fire
International Dateline
 The International Date
Line is the imaginary
line on the Earth that
separates two
consecutive calendar
days. That is the date in
the Eastern
hemisphere, to the left
of the line, is always
one day ahead of the
date in the Western
hemisphere. It has
been recognized as a
matter of convenience
and has no force in
international law.
 Prime Meridian
 Meridian of 0 degrees, the line from
which all lines of longitude are
measured.. The meridian of
Greenwich, England, is the
internationally accepted prime
meridian on most charts. However,
local or national prime meridians are
occasionally used.
 Equator
 An imaginary line around the Earth
forming the great circle that is
equidistant from the north and south
poles; "the equator is the boundary
between the northern and southern
hemispheres"
 Lines of Latitude
 Imaginary lines that cross the surface
of the Earth parallel to the Equator,
measuring how far north or south of the
Equator a place is located.
 Lines of Longitude
 An imaginary great circle on the surface
of the earth passing through the north
and south poles at right angles to the
equator; "all points on the same
meridian have the same longitude"
 Hemisphere
 Hemispheres are half of the earth's
surface. There are four hemispheres: The
northern hemisphere (north of the
equator); the southern hemisphere (south
of the equator); the eastern hemisphere
(east of the prime meridian); the western
hemisphere (west of the prime meridian).
 Dust Bowl
 An area of the U.S. Plains that included parts of Kansas,
Colorado, Oklahoma, Texas, and New Mexico. The term
was coined in the 1930s, when dry weather and high
winds caused many dust storms throughout the United
States, but particularly in this area.
 Ring of Fire
 The regions of mountain-building
earthquakes and volcanoes which
surround the Pacific Ocean. Sometimes
referred to geographically as the Pacific
Rim.
 Tornado Alley
 Tornado Alley is the designation of the American
Meteorological Society for the area of the United States in
which tornadoes are most frequent. It encompasses the great
lowland areas of the Mississippi, the Ohio, and lower Missouri
River Valleys. Although no state is entirely free of tornadoes,
they are most frequent in the Plains area between the Rocky
Mountains and Appalachians.
 There are three types of map
projections.

 Mercator Projection
 Azimuthal Projection
 Conic Projection

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 Mercator Projection
 The Mercator projection has straight meridians and
parallels that intersect at right angles. Scale is true at
the equator or at two standard parallels equidistant
from the equator. The projection is often used for
marine navigation because all straight lines on the map
are lines of constant azimuth.
 Azimuthal Projection
 Azimuthal equidistant projections are
sometimes used to show air-route distances.
Distances measured from the center are true.
Distortion of other properties increases away
from the center point.
 Conic Projection
 A conic projection that distorts scale and
distance except along standard parallels.
Areas are proportional and directions are true
in limited areas. Used in the United States and
other large countries with a larger east-west
than north-south extent