Recap natural disasters

What is it? Can you match the four definitions

with the terms we learned last week?
A. Any event that is caused by natural processes.
B. An abnormally severe natural event, like a storm, flood,
tropical cyclone, landslide or tsunami.
C. An extreme natural event which could threaten people.
D. An extreme natural event that affects people.
 Measuring a Disaster
How do we determine how severe a disaster is?
Objectives
- To understand different ways to measure a
disaster
- To reflect on the difficulty of choosing the
‘worst’ disasters
- To explore some of the world’s worst natural
disasters
- To identify the impacts of natural disasters
Magnitude scales
● Mercalli scale
● Palmer Drought Severity Index (PDSI)
● Saffir-Simpson Scale
● Volcanic Explosivity Index (VEI)
● Richter Magnitude Scale
● Fujita Scale

Do you know what each one measures? Look up

a simple definition
 Judging the “worst”
Death, Destruction or Size?
Consider the following: Which one was the worst?

Shaanxi Earthquake 1556 2011 Japan Earthquake and 1960 Chilean Earthquake and
Tsunami Tsunami

830,000 casualties 18,000 casualties 1,500

- unknown $235 billion approx. $400 million

8.0 (Richter Scale) 9.0 9.5 (biggest ever)

Casualty vs cost
What might make a disaster more deadly?

What might make a disaster more costly?

Examining some of the ‘worst’ natural
disasters
-How do natural disasters affect us?
-What are some consequences of natural
disasters?
-What are some of history’s ‘worst’ natural
disasters?

You will explore one disaster and present it to the class