1.

Landslides occur when masses of rock, earth, or debris move down a

slope. Debris flows, also known as mudslides, are a common type of
fast-moving landslide that tends to flow in channels.[1]
2. Mudslides develop when water rapidly accumulates in the ground and
results in a surge of water-saturated rock, earth, and debris. Mudslides usually
start on steep slopes and can be activated by natural disasters.[2]
3. Areas where wildfires or human modification of the land have
destroyed vegetation on slopes are particularly vulnerable to landslides
during and after heavy rains.[3]
4. Landslides and mudflows can cause tons of damage, some of which
can lead to actual injury including: Rapidly moving water and debris can lead
to trauma; Broken electrical, water, gas, and sewage lines that can result in
injury or illness.[4]
1. It is not just on earth in which landslides occur. Throughout the solar
system there has been evidence that landslides have occurred, on Mars and
Venus specifically. Scientists have had trained satellites orbiting the planets to
view the landslides[8]
landslide (n.)
also land-slide, 1841, "fall or down-slide of a mass of rock, earth, etc. from a slope or
mountain," American English, from land (n.) + slide (n.). Earlier
was landslip (1670s), which is preferred in Britain. Old English used eorðgebyrst in
this sense; literally "earth-burst." Landslide in the political sense "lopsided electoral
victory" is attested from 1888.
A flood is an overflow of water that submerges land that is usually dry.[1] In the sense
of "flowing water", the word may also be applied to the inflow of the tide. Floods are an
area of study of the discipline hydrology and are of significant concern
in agriculture, civil engineering and public health.

Flooding may occur as an overflow of water from water bodies, such as a river, lake, or
ocean, in which the water overtops or breaks levees, resulting in some of that water
escaping its usual boundaries,[2] or it may occur due to an accumulation of rainwater on
saturated ground in an areal flood. While the size of a lake or other body of water will
vary with seasonal changes in precipitation and snow melt, these changes in size are
unlikely to be considered significant unless they flood property or drown domestic
animals.

Floods can also occur in rivers when the flow rate exceeds the capacity of the river
channel, particularly at bends or meanders in the waterway. Floods often cause damage
to homes and businesses if they are in the natural flood plains of rivers. While riverine
flood damage can be eliminated by moving away from rivers and other bodies of water,
people have traditionally lived and worked by rivers because the land is usually flat
and fertile and because rivers provide easy travel and access to commerce and industry.

Some floods develop slowly, while others can develop in just a few minutes and
without visible signs of rain. Additionally, floods can be local, impacting a
neighborhood or community, or very large, affecting entire river basins.

flood (n.)
Old English flōd "a flowing of water, tide, an overflowing of land by water, a deluge,
Noah's Flood; mass of water, river, sea, wave," from
Proto-Germanic *floduz "flowing water, deluge" (source also of Old Frisian flod, Old
Norse floð, Middle Dutch vloet, Dutch vloed, German Flut, Gothic flodus), from
suffixed form of PIE verbal root *pleu- "to flow" (also the source of flow). In early
modern English often floud. Figurative use, "a great quantity, a sudden abundance,"
by mid-14c.

A typhoon is a type of large storm system having a circular or spiral system of

violent winds, typically hundreds of kilometers or miles in diameter. The winds
spiral around a region of low atmospheric pressure. "Typhoon" is the name of
these storms that occur in the Western Pacific. "Hurricane" is the name given
to these storms in the Atlantic Ocean and Eastern Pacific. In the Indian Ocean,
they are called "Tropical Cyclones". For stronger typhoons, a characteristic
structure called the "eye" forms when the maximum wind speeds exceed about
85 miles per hour, or 140 kilometers per hour. The eye is a region of clear air
with no clouds, and is a few tens of kilometers in diameter. The energy that
powers typhoons comes from the evaporation of warm ocean water. The water
vapor rises to the top of the typhoon along the sides of the eye, then
condenses into clouds. Warmer ocean water produces more powerful
typhoons, which can grow into "super typhoons".

The physics of typhoons depends on a balance between the low pressure at

the center of the storm and the Coriolis force that comes from the rotation of
the earth. Since the Coriolis force is zero at the Earth's equator, typhoons can
only form at latitudes that are more than about 10 degrees north or south of the
Earth's equator. Due to the Coriolis force, the winds in a typhoon spiral in the
counter-clockwise direction in the northern hemisphere when observed from
above. The winds spiral in the clockwise direction in the southern hemisphere.

Typhoons are measured on the Saffir-Simpson scale. Category 1 storms have

the lowest wind speeds. Category 5 storms are the most powerful and have
the highest wind speeds.
A typhoon is a violent tropical cyclone, in meteorological term, which is a low
pressure system occurring in tropical oceans. The winds above the ground
circulate around the center counterclockwise for a typhoon occurring in the
northern hemisphere and clockwise for that occurring in the southern
hemisphere. As for the origin of the name, "typhoon" is generally believed to be
a phonetic derivation from the Cantonese pronunciation for "windy". But
according to the study of Professor Shao-hao Lin, it is probably a phonetic
derivation from the Southern Fukienese pronunciation for "phoon-ty" (wind
sieve). As Ding-mei Lu stated in his revised Taiwan County Annals, "The
so-called typhoon was a term used by native residents of Taiwan as symbolic
description of the phenomenon of hurricanes storming around like a wind
sieving the rain. The term was then phonetically transcribed into Chinese
characters but misused in reverse order and later evolved into the term
"typhoon". As of today, the Southern Fukienese for typhoon is still pronounced
like "phoon-ty" (wind sieve), which further solidifies Professor Lin's argument.
Aside from the digression of being either "windy" or "wind sieving", typhoon is a
violent tropical cyclone over the tropical Western North Pacific.

Earthquake
An earthquake is the result of a sudden release of stored energy in the Earth's
crust that creates seismic waves.
Earthquakes are accordingly measured with a seismometer, commonly known as a seismograph.

The magnitude of an earthquake is conventionally reported using the Richter scale or a related
Moment scale (with magnitude 3 or lower earthquakes being hard to notice and magnitude 7 causing
serious damage over large areas).

At the Earth's surface, earthquakes may manifest themselves by a shaking or displacement of the
ground.

Sometimes, they cause tsunamis, which may lead to loss of life and destruction of property.

An earthquake is caused by tectonic plates getting stuck and putting a strain on the ground.

The strain becomes so great that rocks give way by breaking and sliding along fault planes.

Earthquakes may occur naturally or as a result of human activities.

Smaller earthquakes can also be caused by volcanic activity, landslides, mine blasts, and nuclear
experiments.

In its most generic sense, the word earthquake is used to describe any seismic event—whether a
natural phenomenon or an event caused by humans—that generates seismic waves.

Most naturally occurring earthquakes are related to the tectonic nature of the Earth.

Such earthquakes are called tectonic earthquakes.

The Earth's lithosphere is a patchwork of plates in slow but constant motion caused by the release to
space of the heat in the Earth's mantle and core.

The heat causes the rock in the Earth to become flow on geological timescales, so that the plates
move slowly but surely.

Plate boundaries lock as the plates move past each other, creating frictional stress.

When the frictional stress exceeds a critical value, called local strength, a sudden failure occurs.

The boundary of tectonic plates along which failure occurs is called the fault plane.

When the failure at the fault plane results in a violent displacement of the Earth's crust, the elastic
strain energy is released and seismic waves are radiated, thus causing an earthquake.

This process of strain, stress, and failure is referred to as the Elastic-rebound theory.

It is estimated that only 10 percent or less of an earthquake's total energy is radiated as seismic
energy.

Most of the earthquake's energy is used to power the earthquake fracture growth and is converted
into heat, or is released to friction.

The majority of tectonic earthquakes originate at depths not exceeding tens of kilometers.

In subduction zones, where older and colder oceanic crust descends beneath another tectonic plate,
Deep focus earthquakes may occur at much greater depths (up to seven hundred kilometers).

These are earthquakes that occur at a depth at which the subducted lithosphere should no longer be
brittle, due to the high temperature and pressure.

A possible mechanism for the generation of deep focus earthquakes is faulting caused by olivine
undergoing a phase transition into a spinel structure.
Earthquakes may also occur in volcanic regions and are caused there both by tectonic faults and by
the movement of magma in volcanoes.

Such earthquakes can be an early warning of volcanic eruptions.

A recently proposed theory suggests that some earthquakes may occur in a sort of earthquake storm,
where one earthquake will trigger a series of earthquakes each triggered by the previous shifts on the
fault lines, similar to aftershocks, but occurring years later, and with some of the later earthquakes
as damaging as the early ones.

Such a pattern was observed in the sequence of about a dozen earthquakes that struck the North
Anatolian Fault in Turkey in the 20th century, the half dozen large earthquakes in New Madrid in
1811-1812, and has been inferred for older anomalous clusters of large earthquakes in the Middle
East and in the Mojave Desert.

A tsunami is a series of waves caused

by earthquakes or undersea volcanic eruptions.
Tsunamis are giant waves caused by earthquakes or volcanic eruptions under the sea.
Out in the depths of the ocean, tsunami waves do not dramatically increase in height.
But as the waves travel inland, they build up to higher and higher heights as the depth of
the ocean decreases. The speed of tsunami waves depends on ocean depth rather than
the distance from the source of the wave. Tsunami waves may travel as fast as jet planes
over deep waters, only slowing down when reaching shallow waters. While tsunamis
are often referred to as tidal waves, this name is discouraged by oceanographers
because tides have little to do with these giant waves. A tsunami generated close to
the shoreline is known as a near-field tsunami. A tsunami generated by a source
far from the point of impact is referred to as a far-field tsunami. Near-field
tsunamis pose a greater risk for coastal communities because the first waves
can move on shore in minutes. Far-field tsunamis will not reach the coast for
hours, and allow time for officials to issue warnings and evacuation notices. It
is also possible that a tsunami could hit the coast less than an hour after an
event at a moderate distance from the coast. In this case, the earthquake may
not be felt strongly by residents, so warnings and evacuation notices will be
essential for an effective response. In general, it takes a large earthquake
(magnitude 7.0 or greater) to generate a damaging tsunami in the near-field
and it takes a great earthquake (magnitude over 8.0) to generate a damaging
tsunami in the far-field. The earthquake faults that lie off of Washington’s
coast are capable of generating earthquakes large enough to cause either type
of tsunami.
A tsunami (/(t)suːˈnɑːmi, (t)sʊˈ-/ (t)soo-NAH-mee, (t)suu-;[1][2][3][4] from Japanese: 津

波, lit. 'harbour wave',[5]pronounced [tsɯnami]) or tidal wave[6] is a series of waves in

a water body caused by the displacement of a large volume of water, generally in an
ocean or a large lake. Earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and other underwater
explosions (including detonations, landslides, glacier calvings, meteorite impacts and
other disturbances) above or below water all have the potential to generate a tsunami

Drought is an extended period of unusually dry weather when there is not enough rain.
The lack of precipitation can cause a variety of problems for local communities,
including damage to crops and a shortage of drinking water. These effects can lead to
devastating economic and social disasters, such as famine, forced migration away from
drought-stricken areas, and conflict over remaining resources.

Because the full effects of a drought can develop slowly over time, impacts can be
underestimated. However, drought can have drastic and long-term effects
on vegetation, animals, and people. Since 1900, more than 11 million people have died
and more than 2 billion people have been affected by drought. Drought is also one of
the costliest weather-related disasters.

Most droughts occur when regular weather patterns are interrupted, causing disruption
to the water cycle. Changes in atmospheric circulation patterns can cause storm tracks
to be stalled for months or years. This disruption can dramatically impact amounts of
precipitation that a region normally receives. Changes in wind patterns can also be
disruptive to how moisture is absorbed in various regions.

Trees and other plants have adapted to withstand the effects of drought through various
survival methods. Some plants (such as grasses) will slow their growth or turn brown to
conserve water. Trees can drop their leaves earlier in the season to prevent losing water
through the leaf surface. However, if drought conditions persist, much vegetation will
die.However, many organisms cannot adapt to drought conditions, and the
environmental effects of extended, unusual periods of low precipitation can be severe.
Negative impacts include damage to habitats, loss of biodiversity, soil erosion, and an
increased risk from wildfires.
Drought can also create significanteconomic and social problems. The lack of rain can
result in crop loss, a decrease in land prices, and unemployment due to declines in
production. As water levels in rivers and lakes fall, water-supply problems can develop.
These can bring about other social problems. Many of these problems are health-related,
such as lack of water, poor nutrition, and famine. Other problems include conflicts over
water usage and food, and forced migration away from drought-stricken areas.

drought (n.)
Old English drugaþ, drugoþ"continuous dry weather injurious to vegetation, dryness,"
from Proto-Germanic *drugothaz, from Germanic root *dreug- "dry" with *-itho,
Germanic suffix for forming abstract nouns. See dry (adj.) + -th (2), and
compare high/height, etc. Drouth was a Middle English variant continued in Scottish
and northern English dialect and in poetry.
A volcano is simply an opening in the Earth’s surface in which eruptions of dust, gas,
and magma occur; they form on land and on the ocean floor. The

driving force behind eruptions is pressure from deep beneath the Earth’s surface as hot,
molten rock up wells from the mantle. The results of this

activity are a number of geological features, including the build-up of debris that forms
a mound or cone, which we commonly imagine when talking about a volcano.

1. A volcano is a mountain that opens downward to a pool of molten rock

below the surface of the earth. When pressure builds up, eruptions occur.[1]
2. In an eruption, gases and rock shoot up through the opening and spill
over or fill the air with lava fragments. Eruptions can cause lava flows, hot
ash flows, mudslides, avalanches, falling ash and floods.[2]
3. The danger area around a volcano covers about a 20-mile radius.[3]
4. Fresh volcanic ash, made of pulverized rock, can be harsh, acidic,
gritty, glassy and smelly. The ash can cause damage to the lungs of older
people, babies and people with respiratory problems.[4]
5. Volcanic lightning occurs mostly within the cloud of ash during an
eruption, and is created by the friction of the ash rushing to the surface.
Roughly 200 accounts of this lightning have been witnessed live.[5]
6. An erupting volcano can trigger tsunamis, flash floods, earthquakes,
mudflows and rockfalls.[6]
7. More than 80% of the earth's surface is volcanic in origin. The sea floor
and some mountains were formed by countless volcanic eruptions. Gaseous
emissions from volcano formed the earth's atmosphere.[7]
8. There are more than 500 active volcanoes in the world. More than half
of these volcanoes are part of the "Ring of Fire," a region that encircles the
Pacific Ocean.[8

The sound of an eruption volcano can be quiet and hissing or explosive and
booming. The loud cracks travel hundreds of miles and do the most damage,
including hearing loss and broken glass.

Vulcan is Greek God of beneficial and hindering fire. Vulcanization is another term
derived from the name of Vulcan God. Vulcanization is adding sulfur or other curatives
to rubber or other polymers to make them more durable. The rubber so produced is
called Vulcanite or ebonite. Vulcano is the name of an island near Sicily, the largest
island in the Mediterranean Sea and an autonomous region of Italy.