Catastrophic Events

Catastrophic Events
 Catastrophic Event
– Any event naturally occuring or caused
by human action that:
 Causes severe damage to the land
 Endangers human life or causes loss of life
 Speeds up the effects of erosion and
deposition
– Also known as natural disasters
 Tornadoes
•High speed rotating winds often greater
than 250 mph forming a funnel shaped
cloud
• Extreme low pressure causing materials
to be sucked up into the funnel like a
vacuum
•Ranked from F-0 Tornado (light damage
such as broken tree limbs)
to
F-5 Tornado (total demolition of and area
including concrete sucked up from the
ground)
•Causes erosion
 Droughts
Long periods of time with little to no
significant precipitation
What other disasters can this cause?

Famine, Dust Storm, Erosion of soil.

 Wildfires

•Caused by lighting or careless

handling of fire
•What conditions could make fire
more likely to occur?
•Lighting, drought, high winds
•What other disasters could this
bring?
•Floods, Erosion, smoke blocking out
sunlight
 Floods
 Occurs when a body of water overflows its
normal boundaries
 What disasters could cause a flood?
 Caused by heavy rains from hurricanes or
thunderstorms
 melting snow or ice
 Causes damage to home, property and
erosion of top soils
 Hurricanes/Typhoons/Cyclones
A large, swirling, low pressure system
forming over a warm ocean with a
calm “eye” in the center
Called a hurricane in the Atlantic Ocean, a typhoon in
the Pacific Ocean and a cyclone in the Indian Ocean

What other disasters can this cause?

Often bring storm surge (flooding), tornadoes

and heavy rain onto land causing erosion.

The more people move towards the coasts

the greater in damage costs
 Earthquakes
Earthquakes occur when the plates, making up the crust
of the Earth, move causing energy to be released in the
form of a wave

The movement is along the boundary of the plates called

a fault and the waves are called seismic waves

Seismic waves are measured by the Richter Scale on a

machine called a seismograph
Tsunamis
After an earthquake occurs on the ocean
floor, the shift can cause a huge wave to form
and rush towards land

Most tsunamis are less than 1 meter deep on

formation however as the distance from the
seafloor to the surface of the water decreases
as the wave moves towards land, the height of
the tsunami increases (can be as high as 30m
above sea level) racing towards land at
speeds averaging 700 meters per hour.

Not all ocean floor earthquakes form a

tsunami, however, a tsunami cannot form
without the earthquake occurring
 Volcano
Magma from deep within the Earth rises
to the surface of a cone shaped mountain
scorching everything in its path

Volcanoes form where there is movement

of the plates of the Earth’s crust (both at
convergent and divergent boundaries)
 Volcanic Eruptions
 How can a Volcanic Eruption cause
problems away from the immediate area?
 Volcanic dust and ash are thrown into the
air blocking sunlight for long periods.
 How would this affect climate?
 Colder temperatures and fewer plants
 Higher amounts of sulfur producing ACID
RAIN.
 Potential for flooding, mudslides erosion.
 Ring Of Fire
 Area along the Pacific Plate boundaries
where volcanic eruptions and
earthquakes occur.
 9. Mass movements
Large areas of land changes location over a
period of time
(change can be gradual or can occur
quickly)
What are different types of mass
movement?
Avalanche
Landslides
Mudflows
Usually occurs with another event such as:
floods, earthquakes, volcanic
eruptions or after wildfires
 Summary Questions
 Scientists hypothesize that a large meteorite
struck the Earth and killed all the dinosaurs,
even those on the other side of the Earth.
Describe how this event could have caused
their extinction.

 How do we plan ahead in order to survive

catastrophic events?
 Yet more Summary Questions
 Explain possible impacts of a volcanic
eruption on the Earth’s surface.

 If cities along coasts and major inland

waterways experienced a population
growth, what affects would this growth
cause if floods and hurricanes occur.