Castro, Francis J. Student no.

: 01190001930
STEM 11-Y1-P4 REFLECTION # 3 & 4

Types of Hazards
What is hazard? Hazard is anything or something that could cause damage or disaster. Basically, a hazard is
the potential for harm or an adverse effect (for example, to people as health effects, to organizations as property or
equipment losses, or to the environment). There are 6 types of hazard namely: accidental, biological, chemical,
environmental, geological, and hydro-meteorological hazard. Let’s find out how do they different from each other.

The first one in the list is accidental hazard which is man-made or unexpected to happen. It is caused by
negligence, error, or unintended failure. Not giving attention to the particular objects or situation can triggered this type
of hazard like motor accidents, which very common most likely among teenagers. Accidents can be physical and non-
physical. Physical accidents include motor vehicle collision or falls, being injured by sharp objects such as knife,
dropping a glass or plate, airplane crash, fire due to negligence, ingesting poison and many more. While, the non-
physical accidents can be like revealing a secret, wrong accusement, and forgetting an appointment.

Another type of hazard is biological hazard; it is any viruses or bacteria causing diseases. This type of hazard
includes all the living organisms we can find in Earth that might cause us harm be it animals, plants, humans even the
microorganisms. The most common biological hazard is diseases cause by viruses or bacteria in other words
communicable disease that can infect other organisms. Communicable diseases with no proper treatment or studies
yet might be endemic, epidemic nor pandemic. Carnivorous animals which is the source of food is meat can also harm
other animals and humans. Poisonous plants are harmful when it is digested by other organisms. Human to human
hazard can also be in biological hazard like intended to kill someone or dragging someone to downfall/crab mentality.

The third one is chemical hazard; it is related to any synthetic substance that can cause harm. Being exposed
to chemicals in workplace can cause acute or long- term detrimental health effects. Substance such as ammonia,
cleaners and disinfectants which can be seen in houses or hospital can cause serious damage to one’s health.
Flammable substances such as petrol, ethanol, paint thinners, acetone, and diesel can start fire when it has no proper
storage. We can avoid chemicals by reading their instruction and most importantly proper storing.

The fourth hazard to the sixth type of hazard is environmental hazard which is the nature. It is also a
substance, state or event which has the potential to threaten the surrounding natural environment / or adversely affect
people's health, including pollution and natural disasters such as storms and earthquakes. Climate change is one of
the reasons that the whole globe experiencing different types of disaster. We should start to act now before we lose to
it.

The fifth one is geological hazard; related to Earth’s core, crust, and mantle. Geological activities such as
earthquakes, landslide, erosion, tsunamis, and volcanic eruption can affect large area and leaves destruction to it.
Even tsunamis are large waves of water it is considered geological because it is caused by tectonic earthquakes in
ocean floor. We should prepare always ourselves and be informed what we can do in these certain situations.
Castro, Francis J. Student no.: 01190001930
STEM 11-Y1-P4 REFLECTION # 3 & 4

Last but not the least is the hydro-meteorological hazard which is related to Earth’s atmosphere or body of
water. The examples of these are storms, hailstorm, surges, tornadoes, typhoon, and many more. These types of
disaster are inescapable due to strong winds and high amount of water. Like to the geological, we should be prepared
to disaster.

Hazards are everywhere we should be attentive to all the things surround us. Our life is only one and we
cannot respawn like in games, so we should value it and enjoy being alive by avoiding circumstances that might harm
us and our families.
Castro, Francis J. Student no.: 01190001930
STEM 11-Y1-P4 REFLECTION # 3 & 4

Earthquake Hazard

Before we start let’s define first what is earthquake? Earthquake is one of the disasters in geological hazard
which is the unexpected release of energy causing the ground to move. There 2 classification of earthquake namely:
Natural and Man-made earthquake. Let’s find out how these two works.

First, is the natural earthquake which is the naturally occurring earthquake cause by nature itself. The example
of these are tectonic and volcanic earthquake. What is a tectonic plate? Tectonic plate is a massive, irregularly shaped
slab of solid rock, generally composed of both continental and oceanic lithosphere. The tectonic earthquake is caused
by the movement of tectonic plates when the earth’s crust breaks due to geological forces on rocks and adjoining plates
that cause physical and chemical changes. One of the deadliest earthquake happened in history is the Sumatran
earthquake, that happened in 2004 in Indonesia that reach 9.1-9.3 magnitude that took almost 230,000 deaths. While,
the other one is volcanic earthquake which is caused by the movement of magma beneath the surface of the Earth. In
1991 the eruption of Mount Pinatubo happened at first it released an earthquake reaching 7.8 magnitude and several
months past it erupts due to the pressure. These movement cause the tectonic plates to move due to the pressure
changes.

The other classification of earthquake is man-made which is caused by human activity that alters the stresses
and strains on the Earth’s crust. Most of man-made is a low of magnitude. Explosion and collapse are such examples
of man-made earthquakes. Explosion is a violent and destructive or blowing apart of something, as is caused by a
bomb or other chemically made objects. Chemicals with no proper storage can react to the surrounding or other
chemicals that can cause explosion. The recent Beirut explosion in Lebanon caused a large mushroom cloud and
shock within the area. It was caused by a large amount of ammonium nitrate stored at the port of the city of Beirut. It
leaves at least 203 deaths and US $15 billion property damage. On the other hand, collapse is the fall down or in of a
structure. Infrastructures such as bridge, high rise building, tunnels and other structural projects can collapse when is
made of poor engineering and low-quality materials. Make sure to plan well the infrastructure your going to build and
use quality products to ensure the safeness of the said buildings.

How do earthquakes move? There are 3 classification of tectonic boundaries: divergent, convergent, and
transform. Divergent (←→) is where new crust is generated as the plates pull away from each other or divide. The
convergent (→←) is where the crust is destroyed as one plate dives under another or simply collide. Lastly, the
transform (↑↓) is where crust neither produced nor destroyed as the plates slide horizontally past each other. These 3
are responsible for the movement of Earth’s lithosphere.

What are the hazards can earthquake might trigger? 1.) ground shaking or the movement of the lithosphere.
2.) liquefaction- the softening of the soil where the structures stand. 3.) ground subsidence- is the sinking of the ground
that can cause the collapse of infrastructures in lithosphere. 4.) Landslide – is the erosion of the soil going to the lower
Castro, Francis J. Student no.: 01190001930
STEM 11-Y1-P4 REFLECTION # 3 & 4

areas it usually happens in high elevated areas like in Baguio City. 5.) Tsunamis- big waves of water that triggers by a
tectonic earthquake in ocean bed.

What we can do when there is earthquake? The first thing we should do is to calm ourselves and don’t panic
because it just makes us more vulnerable to be hitted by objects falling. We should the drop, cover, and hold when we
are inside of a building to lessen the chance we get hit.

Earthquakes are unpredictable even we the technologies we have. We should prepare ourselves always when
it’s occur, not only just earthquake but any other disastrous phenomenon. Thus, earthquakes are reminder to us to
care for our Mother Earth because it is only matter of time before we completely destroyed it by ourselves.
Castro, Francis J. Student no.: 01190001930
STEM 11-Y1-P4 REFLECTION # 3 & 4

INFOGRAPHICS ABOUT FIRST RESPONSE TO EARTHQUAKE