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 This article is about the natural disasters caused by natural hazards. For natural hazards, see Natural hazard.
A natural disaster is the consequence of a natural hazard (e.g. volcanic eruption, earthquake, or landslide) which affects human activities. Human vulnerability, exacerbated by the lack of planning or lack of appropriate emergency management, leads to financial, environmental or human losses. The resulting loss depends on the capacity of the population to support or resist the disaster, their resilience.[1] This understanding is concentrated in the formulation: "disasters occur when hazards meet vulnerability".[2] A natural hazard will hence never result in a natural disaster in areas without vulnerability, e.g. strong earthquakes in uninhabited areas. The term natural has consequently been disputed because the events simply are not hazards or disasters without human involvement.[3]
Natural hazardsA natural hazard is a threat of an event that will have a negative effect on people or the environment. Many natural hazards are related, e.g. earthquakes can result in tsunamis, drought can lead directly to famine and disease. A concrete example of the division between hazard and disaster is that the 1906 San Francisco earthquake was a disaster, whereas earthquakes are a hazard. Hazards are consequently relating to a future occurrence and disasters to past or current occurrences. Natural disastersLand movement disastersAvalanches
Notable avalanches include:
EarthquakesEarthquakes by themselves rarely kill people or wildlife. It is usually the secondary events that they trigger, such as building collapse, fires, tsunamis and volcanoes, that are actually the human disaster. As many of these could be avoided by better construction, safety systems, early warning and evacuation planning, the term unnatural disaster is not unwarranted. Some of the most significant earthquakes in recent times include:
LaharsThe Tangiwai disaster is an excellent example of a lahar, as is the one which killed an estimated 23,000 people in Armero, Colombia, during the 1985 eruption of Nevado del Ruiz. Landslides and MudflowsThese occur with some regularity in parts of California after periods of heavy rain. Volcanic eruptions
Water disastersFloods
Some of the most notable floods include:
Tropical cyclones can result in extensive flooding and storm surge, as happened with:
Limnic eruptions
A limnic eruption occurs when CO2 suddenly erupts from deep lake water, posing the threat of suffocating wildlife, livestock and humans. Such an eruption may also cause tsunamis in the lake as the rising CO2 displaces water. Scientists believe landslides, volcanic activity, or explosions can trigger such an eruption.To date, only two limnic eruptions have been observed and recorded:
Tsunamis
Tsunami can be caused by undersea earthquakes as the one caused in Ao Nang, Thailand by the 2004 Indian Ocean Earthquake, or by landslides such as the one which occurred at Lituya Bay, Alaska in.
This would also fit within Land movement category because it starts with an earthquake. Weather disasters
BlizzardsSignificant blizzards in the United States include:
DroughtsWell-known historical droughts include:
HailstormsA particularly damaging hailstorm hit Munich, Germany on August 31, 1986, felling thousands of trees and causing millions of dollars in insurance claims. Heat wavesThe worst heat wave in recent history was the European Heat Wave of 2003. Cyclonic stormsHurricane, tropical cyclone, and typhoon' are different names for the same phenomenon: a cyclonic storm system that forms over the oceans. The deadliest hurricane ever was the 1970 Bhola cyclone; the deadliest Atlantic hurricane was the Great Hurricane of 1780, which devastated Martinique, St. Eustatius and Barbados. Another notable hurricane is Hurricane Katrina, which devastated the Gulf Coast of the United States in 2005. FireWildfires are an uncontrolled fire burning in wildland areas. Common causes include lightning and drought but wildfires may also be started by human negligence or arson. They can be a threat to those in rural areas and also wildlife. Health and diseaseEpidemic
An epidemic is an outbreak of a contractible disease that spreads at a rapid rate through a human population. A pandemic is an epidemic whose spread is global. There have been many epidemics throughout history, such as Black Death. In the last hundred years, significant pandemics include:
Other diseases that spread more slowly, but are still considered to be global health emergencies by the WHO include:
FamineIn modern times, famine has hit Sub-Saharan Africa the hardest, although the number of victims of modern famines is much smaller than the number of people killed by the Asian famines of the 20th century. Space
Impact eventsOne of the largest impact events in modern times was the Tunguska event in June, 1908. Solar flareA solar flare is a phenomenon where the sun suddenly releases a great amount of solar radiation, much more than normal. Some known solar flares include:
References
See alsoExternal links
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