Learning Geography Through Natural Disasters

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Learning Geography Through Natural Disasters

• What is a natural disaster?

Where do natural disasters occur?
What map skills do I need to find natural
disasters?
What were the worst natural disasters of the 20th
century?
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There are many types of natural disasters

• Earthquakes Droughts
• Volcanoes Landslides
• Tornadoes Avalanches
• Floods Tsunamis
• Hurricanes Wildfires

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Wild fires
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Wild fires defined

• A fire that burns uncontrollably in a natural
  setting (e.g., a forest, or grassland).

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Wildfire Video
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Earthquakes
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Earthquake defined

• A sudden movement in the crust of the Earth
  caused by the rapid release of tectonic strain

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Earthquake video
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Tornadoes
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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.

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Tornado video
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Hurricanes
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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 .

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Hurricane video
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Drought
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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.

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Drought video
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Volcanoes
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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.

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Volcano video
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Avalanches
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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.

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Avalanche video
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Tsunamis
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Tsunami defined

• A great sea wave produced by a submarine
  earthquake, volcanic eruption, or large landslide

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Tsunami video
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Landslides
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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.

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Landslide video
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Floods
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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.

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Flood video
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Natural Disasters Occur All Over the World

• Earthquakes
• Avalanche/Landslides
• Hurricanes/Cyclones/Typhoons
• Drought/Famine
• Volcanoes
• Floods
• Tornadoes

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Tornadoes
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Earthquakes
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Avalanches/Landslides
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Hurricanes/Cyclones/Typhoons
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Drought/Famine
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Volcanoes
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Floods
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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

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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.
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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.
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Number 8

• Indian Ocean Tsunami The Deadliest in History
• On Dec. 26, 2004, a 9.0 magnitude earthquakethe
  largest earthquake in 40 yearsoccurred 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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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These are the map skills you may need to find
natural disasters.

• Map terms
• Map Projections
• Latitude and Longitude

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Map terms

• Prime Meridian
• International Dateline
• Equator
• Hemisphere
• Tornado Alley
• Dust Bowl
• Ring of Fire

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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.

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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.

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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"

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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.

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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"

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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).

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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.

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Ring of Fire

• The regions of mountain-building earthquakes and
  volcanoes which surround the Pacific Ocean.
  Sometimes referred to geographically as the
  Pacific Rim.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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