natural hazards
DESCRIPTION
Natural Hazards. [email protected]. Presentation on line at: www.geophysik.uni-muenchen.de/~malservisi/classes/NaturalHazards.htm. Class schedule:. NATURAL HAZARDS ??. A natural process that poses a threat to human life or property. - PowerPoint PPT PresentationTRANSCRIPT
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Natural HazardsNatural Hazards
[email protected] on line at: www.geophysik.uni-muenchen.de/~malservisi/classes/NaturalHazards.htm
Mo Tu We Th Fr8-99-10
10-1111-1212-1313-1414-1515-1616-17
Class schedule:
OCTOBER NOVEMBER DECEMBER JANUARY FEBRUARYmon 16 1tue 17 2wed 18 1 3thu 19 2 4 1fri 20 3 1 5 2sat 21 4 2 6 3sun 22 5 3 7 4mon 23 6 4 8 5tue 24 7 5 9 6wed 25 8 6 10 7thu 26 9 7 11 8fri 27 10 8 12 9sat 28 11 9 13 10sun 29 12 10 14mon 30 13 11 15tue 31 14 12 16wed 15 13 17thu 16 14 18fri 17 15 19sat 18 16 20sun 19 17 21mon 20 18 22tue 21 19 23wed 22 20 24thu 23 21 25fri 24 22 26sat 25 23 27sun 26 24 28mon 27 25 29tue 28 26 30wed 29 27 31thu 30 28fri 29sat 30sun 31
NATURAL HAZARDS ??
A natural process that poses a threat A natural process that poses a threat to human life or propertyto human life or property
List of Natural Hazards on whiteboard
Geological Climatical Biological
•Earthquake•Volcanoes•Tsunami•Mass movement•Extraterrestrial impact
•Extreme Weather•Flood•Ocean Waves•Drought•Fires
•Diseases•Plant diseases
Natural Hazards Global EffectsAll these events can have a big impact both socially and economically on the affect societies and environment. Many times they have a global effects.
Some of global effects can be extreme:
Cretaceous Extinction: Asteroid impact and Volcanism; 85% of all species died in the End-Cretaceous (K-T, 65 million years ago) extinction.
Permian Mass Extinction: Cause not really know but probably associated with Climate Fluctuation, Glaciations of Gondwana and formation of Pangaea, or Volcanic Activity. 95% of marine species became extinct!!
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Natural Hazards Global Effects
Examples of global effect:
Toba (Sumatra, Indonesia)
eruption ~75000 years ago.
Probably 5C global average
decrease in temperature
(combined with ice age).
Population of Homo Sapiens
From >100000 to <2000
Genetic bottleneck
Natural Hazards Global EffectsAll these events can have a big impact both socially and economically on the affect societies and environment. Many times they have a global effects.
Some of global effects can be extreme:
Cretaceous Extinction: Asteroid impact and Volcanism; 85% of all species died in the End-Cretaceous (K-T, 65 million years ago) extinction.
Permian Mass Extinction: Cause not really know but probably associated with Climate Fluctuation, Glaciations of Gondwana and formation of Pangaea, or Volcanic Activity. 95% of marine species became extinct!!
QuickTime™ and aTIFF (Uncompressed) decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
Natural Hazards Global Effects
Examples of global effect:
Toba (Sumatra, Indonesia)
eruption ~75000 years ago.
Probably 5C global average
decrease in temperature
(combined with ice age).
Population of Homo Sapiens
From >100000 to <2000
Genetic bottleneck
Natural Hazards Global Effects
Examples of global effect:
Laki (Iceland) eruption 1783: 75% of livestock in Iceland died; 25% of the Iceland population died for the following famine; fluorine poisoning of animals as far away as Britain; ~1.5C diminution of the average year temperature in US and Europe (France Revolution??)
Natural Hazards Global Effects
Examples of global effect:
•Santorini eruption+tsunami 1645 BC: Destruction of the Minonian culture (legend of Atlantis?)
•Tambora, Indonesia 1815, average decrease of temperature in northern hemisphere ~0.7C; 1816 “year without summer” (snow in July in Washington DC).
•ChiChi Earthquake, Taiwan 1999:
prices of computers chips double worldwide for few months
Geological Climatical Biological
•Earthquake•Volcanoes•Tsunami•Mass movement•Extraterrestrial impact
•Extreme Weather•Flood•Ocean Waves•Drought•Fires
•Diseases•Plant diseases
Number of Disasters
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•10 or more people reported killed •100 people reported affected•declaration of a state of emergency•call for international assistance
Bias: International database created in 1980s
IMPORTANT!!! This does not means that the number of eventsare increasing (the number of earthquake for example is constant)but the effects on human activity are increasing!!
Number of Disasters
Another bias:
Disasters are related. For example the casualty of december 2004 are listed as tsunami (should we count them as earthquake?).
The casualty of 1998 Papa New Guinea are listed as earthquake since majority of damages were related to the earthquake, but the majority of the victims were related to a tsunami generated by a landslide generated by the earthquake.
How much different hazards affects our society?
Total damages costs since 1900
Earthquake
Flood
Extreme Temp
Drought
Slide
Storm
Volcano
Wave
For all the natural hazard the global costs have been increasing
Total damages costs since 1900
Earthquake
Flood
Extreme Temp
Drought
Slide
Storm
Volcano
Wave
In term of costs Earthquakes, Tropical Storms, and Floods are the most expensive “geological” hazardsEpidemic and Famine have been historically the most devastating in term of casualtyPlague in middle age killed 1 every 3 european, Spanish Flu Pandemic 1920 30 million
Total damages vs Population
Increase in total damages correlate well with increase in population
Where do the Hazard Happens?
Geographical Distribution
Earthquake RiskVolcanoesStormsTornado
Almost all the areas of the planet are affected by some kind of hazardStable interior of continent more “safe” but often not suitable to life
Population distribution vs Risk map
Population distribution vs Risk mapThe human population is concentrated in “risky areas”
We need water, topography is controlling the hydrological cycleOften river flows in valleys controlled by fault positionRivers are more “manageable” in flat costal regions.Stable interiors of continents are often deserts.
We need soil: volcanoes produce excellent fertile soil. Water and plants are essential in soil formations (see point 1). River floodPlanes have excellent soil brought by periodic floods
We need communications way: flat costal areas are often the only suitable regions to build houses and roads.
We are too many and we start to build in places where we should notBuild and our ancestor were not building (river banks, beaches…)
Population distribution vs Risk map
Active tectonic is a necessity to have a planet where we can live!
We live in a dangerous planet but probably there is life On Earth because our planet is dangerous!