Disasters

What is the Ring of Fire? page 65

Hurricane
Hurricanes Categories
1: 74-95 mph
H urricanes—called typhoons or cyclones in the Pacific—
are Earth’s biggest storms. When conditions are right, they
form over the ocean from collections of storms and
2: 96-110 mph
3: 111-130 mph
clouds known as tropical disturbances. Strong winds 4: 131-155 mph
create a wall of clouds and rain that swirl in a circle 5: over 155 mph
around a calm center called the eye.
The eye develops as warm, moist air is forced upward in the storm by denser,
cooler air. From the outer edge of the storm to the inner eye, the pressure drops and wind
speeds rise sharply, creating swirling convection currents around the eye. If wind speeds
reach 39 mph, the storm is named. If wind speeds top 74
Convection Eye Cool dense air mph, the storm is called a hurricane.
currents
Hurricanes can be up to 300 miles wide. On land, the storm
can snap trees and tear buildings apart. Strong winds blowing
toward shore can create a rise in the ocean water called a
storm surge. It can combine with heavy rains to cause flooding
and massive damage.
For the Atlantic Ocean, Caribbean Sea, and Gulf of Mexico,
Warm
Hurricane winds moist air hurricane season runs from June 1 to November 30. Most
and rain hurricanes happen in August, September, and October, when
the oceans are warmest.

Notable U.S. Hurricanes

Date Location What Happened? Deaths
Sept. 8, 1900 Galveston, TX Category 4 storm flooded the island with 15-foot waves. 8,000+

Sept. 19, NY, CT, RI, “The Long Island Express,” with storm surges rising 600+
1938 MA 10-25 feet, caused $306 million in damages.
Aug. 24-26, FL, LA Hurricane Andrew swept across the Gulf of Mexico, 65
1992 leaving 250,000 homeless.
Aug. 25-29, LA, MS, AL, Hurricane Katrina, with 175 mph winds and a 25-foot 1,833
2005 GA, FL high storm surge, caused about $125 billion in damage.

Hurricane Names
The U.S. began using women’s names for hurricanes in 1953 and added men’s names in 1979.
When all letters (except Q, U, X, Y, and Z) are used in one season, any additional storms are
named with Greek letters. Six Greek letters were needed to name 2005 storms.
2010 Names: Alex, Bonnie, Colin, Danielle, Earl, Fiona, Gaston, Hermine, Igor, Julia, Karl,
Lisa, Matthew, Nicole, Otto, Paula, Richard, Shary, Tomas, Virginie, Walter

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 DISASTERS
Tornado
Categories Tornadoes
WEAK
EF0: 65-85 mph
T ornadoes are rapidly spinning columns of air.
They form when winds change direction, speed
up, and spin around in or near a thunderstorm. They
EF1: 86-110 mph can also spin off from hurricanes.
STRONG Tornadoes can happen any time that the weather is right, but
EF2: 111-135 mph they are more common between March and July. They can
happen in any state, but strong tornadoes touch down most
EF3: 136-165 mph often in the U.S. southeast or central plains.
VIOLENT According to the National Oceanic and
EF4: 166-200 mph Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA), an
average of 1,200 tornadoes occur in the
EF5: over 200 mph U.S. each year. They cause an average of
60 deaths and 1,500 injuries each year and
over $400 million in damage.
Tornadoes are measured by how much
damage they cause. In February 2007,
the U.S. began using the Enhanced Fujita
(EF) Scale (at left) to measure tornadoes.
The EF-Scale provides an estimate of
a tornado’s wind speed based on the
amount of damage. If a tornado doesn’t hit
anything, it may be hard to classify it.
Wind speeds are difficult to measure
directly, because measuring instruments
can be destroyed in more violent
winds. The highest wind speed ever
recorded—318 mph—was taken in May
1999 in an Oklahoma tornado.
The U.S. city hit by
the most tornadoes is
Oklahoma City, with
more than 100 recorded tornadoes.

U.S. Tornado Records (since record keeping began in 1950)

YEAR: The 1,819 MONTH: In May 2003, TWO-DAY PERIOD: On
tornadoes reported in there were a total of 543 April 3 and 4, 1974, 147
2004 topped the previous tornadoes, easily passing tornadoes touched down
record of 1,424 in 1998. the old record of 399 set in 13 states.
in June 1992.

For more information on storms and weather, go to the NOAA

Education page: www.education.noaa.gov/cweather.html

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EARTHQUAKES
T here are thousands
of earthquakes
each year, but most are
North
America
Europe Asia

Pacific
Africa
Ocean
too small to be noticed. Pacific South
Ocean
About 1 in 5 can be felt, America
Australia
and about 1 in 500 causes
damage.
Antarctica

WHAT CAUSES EARTHQUAKES?

To understand earthquakes, imagine the Earth as
an egg with a cracked shell. The cracked outer
layer (the eggshell) is called the lithosphere, and it
is divided into huge pieces called plates (see map
above). Underneath the lithosphere is a softer layer
called the asthenosphere. The plates are constantly
gliding over this softer layer, moving away, toward,
or past one another. Earthquakes result when plates
collide.
The cracks in the lithosphere are called faults. Many
quakes occur along these fault lines.

MAJOR EARTHQUAKES
The earthquakes listed here are among the largest and most destructive recorded in the
past 50 years.

Deaths
Year Location Magnitude
(estimated)
1960 near Chile 9.5 5,000
1970 Northern Peru 7.8 66,000
1976 Tangshan, China 8.0 255,000
1988 Soviet Armenia 7.0 55,000
1989 United States (San Francisco area) 7.1 62
1990 Western Iran 7.7 40,000
1994 United States (Los Angeles area) 6.8 61
1995 Kobe, Japan 6.9 5,502
1999 Western Turkey 7.4 17,200
2001 Western India 7.9 30,000
2004 Sumatra 9.0 225,000
2005 Pakistan and India 7.6 80,000
2008 Sichuan, China 7.9 87,652

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 VOLCANOES

DISASTERS
ash and gas
crater
A volcano is a mountain or hill
(cone) with an opening on top
known as a crater. Hot melted rock
(magma), gases, and other material
lava from inside the Earth mix together and
rise up through cracks and weak spots.
When enough pressure builds up, the
magma can escape, erupting through
the crater. Magma is called lava when it
reaches the air. Lava may be hotter than
2,000°F. The cone of a volcano is often
made of layers of lava and ash that have
erupted, then cooled.
Some islands, like the Hawaiian
magma Islands, are really the tops of
undersea volcanoes.

Some Famous Volcanic Eruptions

Deaths
Year Volcano (place)
(estimated)
The hundreds of active volcanoes near 79 Mount Vesuvius (Italy) 16,000
the edges of the Pacific Ocean make 1586 Kelut (Indonesia) 10,000
up what is called the Ring of Fire. They
1792 Mount Unzen (Japan) 14,500
mark the boundary between the plates
under the Pacific Ocean and the plates 1815 Tambora (Indonesia) 10,000
under the surrounding continents. 1883 Krakatau, or Krakatoa 36,000
(Earth’s plates are explained on page (Indonesia)
64, with the help of a map.) The Ring of 1902 Mount Pelée (Martinique) 28,000
Fire runs from Alaska, along the west 1980 Mount St. Helens (U.S.) 57
coast of South and North America, 1982 El Chichón (Mexico) 1,880
to the southern tip of Chile. The ring 1985 Nevado del Ruiz (Colombia) 23,000
also runs down the east coast of Asia,
1986 Lake Nyos (Cameroon) 1,700
starting in the far north. It continues
1991 Mount Pinatubo (Philippines) 800
down past Australia.

TSUNAMIS
Tsunami (pronounced tsoo-NAH-mee) comes water. They move at speeds of up to 500
from two Japanese words: “tsu” (harbor) miles per hour. As they near shore, they slow
and “nami” (wave). These huge waves are down and the great energy forces the water
sometimes called tidal waves, but they have upward into big waves.
nothing to do with the tides. On December 26, 2004, a magnitude-9.0
The strongest tsunamis happen when a earthquake off the Indonesian island of
big part of the sea floor lifts along a fault Sumatra triggered a tsunami in the Indian
(see page 64), pushing up a huge volume Ocean. The tsunami hit 12 countries. An
of water. The resulting waves are long and estimated 225,000 people were killed, and 1.6
low, and might not even be noticed in deep million were left homeless.

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MAJOR DISASTERS
Here are some other disasters the world
has faced.

Aircraft Disasters Hindenburg disaster

Date Location What Happened? Deaths

May 6, 1937 Lakehurst, NJ German zeppelin (blimp) Hindenburg 36
caught fire as it prepared to land.
Aug. 12, 1985 Japan Boeing 747 jet collided with Mt. 520
Osutaka. Japan’s worst single-aircraft
disaster in history.
March 27, 1977 Tenerife, Canary Two Boeing 747s collide on the runway 582
Islands of Los Rodeos airport.
Sept. 11, 2001 New York, NY; Two hijacked planes crashed into Nearly
Arlington, VA; the World Trade Center, one into the 3,000
Shanksville, PA Pentagon, one went down in a PA field.
June 1, 2009 Atlantic Ocean Airbus A330-200 crashed into the 228
(off the coast of Brazil) ocean.

Explosions and Fires

Date Location What Happened? Deaths
June 15, 1904 New York City General Slocum, wooden ship carrying church 1,021
members up the East River, caught fire.
March 25, 1911 New York City Triangle Shirtwaist Factory caught fire. 146
Workers were trapped inside.
Nov. 28, 1942 Boston, MA Fire swept through the Coconut Grove 146
nightclub; patrons panicked. Deadliest
nightclub fire in U.S. history.
Dec. 3, 1984 Bhopal, India A pesticide factory explosion spread toxic 15,000
gas; worst industrial accident in history.

Rail Disasters
Date Location What Happened? Deaths
Jan. 16, 1944 León Prov., Spain Train crashed in the Torro Tunnel. 500

March 2, 1944 Salerno, Italy Passengers suffocated when train stalled 521
in tunnel.
June 6, 1981 Bihar, India Train plunged off of a bridge into the river; 800
India’s deadliest rail disaster ever.

One of the most unusual disasters ever occurred in Boston on January 15,
1919. A giant steel vat holding 2.3 million gallons of molasses ruptured.
Thirty-foot waves of the gooey substance flooded the streets, killing 21
people and injuring 150.

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 DISASTERS
Lusitania disaster Ship Disasters
Date Location What Happened? Deaths
April 14, 1912 near Luxury liner Titanic collided with iceberg. 1,503
Newfoundland
May 7, 1915 Atlantic Ocean, British steamer Lusitania torpedoed and 1,198
near Ireland sunk by German submarine.
Jan. 30, 1945 Baltic Sea Liner Wilhelm Gustloff carrying German 6,000
refugees and soldiers sunk by Soviet sub. 7,000
Highest death toll for a single ship.
Aug. 12, 2000 Barents Sea Explosions sank Russian submarine 118
Kursk; multiple rescue attempts failed.
Sept. 26, 2002 Atlantic Ocean Senegalese ferry capsized. 1,863
near The Gambia
Feb. 3, 2006 Red Sea Egyptian ferry returning from Saudi Arabia 1,000
sank after fire broke out onboard.

Other Disasters
Date Location What Happened? Deaths
Aug. 1931 China Vast flooding on the Huang He River. 3,700,000
Highest known death toll from a flood.
1984 Africa (chiefly Several years of severe drought caused 800,000
Ethiopia) one of the worst modern famines.
April 1986 Chernobyl, USSR Explosions at a nuclear power plant 31
(now Ukraine) leaked radioactive material. 135,000
people were exposed to harmful levels of
radiation.
Summer 2003 Europe A severe summer heat wave swept 35,000
across Europe. More than 14,000 died in
France alone.
Feb. 2006 The Philippines Landslide on Leyte Island buries a village. 1,000

One of the worst snowstorms in

U.S. history happened March 11-
14, 1888, just a week before the
first day of spring. Much of the
northeastern U.S. was buried in up to four feet of snow,
with towering snowdrifts up to 30 feet high! At least 400
people died in the “Great White Hurricane,” many of
them in New York City. People were stranded by blocked
streets, huge drifts, and powerless streetcars. There was
no way to bring food or supplies into the city.

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