A.

Ground shaking
The second primary earthquake hazard, ground
shaking, is the result of rapid ground acceleration.
Ground shaking can vary over an area as a result of
factors such as topography, bedrock type and the
location and orientation of the fault rupture.
These all affect the way the seismic waves travel
through the ground. If an earthquake generates
enough shaking intensity , built structures can be
severely damaged and cliffs and sloping ground can
be temporarily or permanently destabilised. In large
earthquakes, whole districts can be devastated by
the consequences of ground shaking.
Displacement, velocity and acceleration are also responsible for several secondary effects on the ground,
including liquefaction, settlement and lateral movement, which can compromise the soil’s ability to support
objects on the surface.
Ground shaking is also the primary way an earthquake affects buildings. The rapid acceleration of the ground
beneath the building creates inertial forces in the structure. This can cause damage if they become too large
or the building is not designed to withstand them.
Earthquake shaking causes movement on all three principal axes (up and down, left and right, forward and
back). Lateral movement in the horizontal plane (left and right, forward and back) can place additional stress on
structural elements normally intended to only carry vertical loads, such as walls, columns and beams.
B. Tornado
Tornadoes are some of the most destructive forces
of nature. A tornado is a violently rotating column of
air that extends from a thunderstorm to the ground.
It's often portended by a dark, greenish sky. Black
storm clouds gather. Baseball-size hail may fall. A
funnel suddenly appears, as though descending from
a cloud. The funnel hits the ground and roars
forward with a sound like that of a freight train
approaching. The tornado tears up everything in its
path. Tornadoes are vertical funnels of rapidly
spinning air. Their winds may top 250 miles an hour
and can clear a pathway a mile wide and 50 miles long.
Also known as twisters, tornadoes are born in thunderstorms and are often accompanied by hail. Giant,
persistent thunderstorms called supercells spawn the most destructive tornadoes.
These violent storms occur around the world, but the United States is a major hotspot with about a
thousand tornadoes every year. The most violent tornadoes come from supercells, large thunderstorms that
have winds already in rotation. About one in a thousand storms becomes a supercell, and one in five or six
supercells spawns off a tornado. Tornadoes form when warm, humid air collides with cold, dry air.
The denser cold air is pushed over the warm air, usually producing thunderstorms. The warm air rises
through the colder air, causing an updraft. The updraft will begin to rotate if winds vary sharply in speed or
direction.
C. Landslide
A landslide is the movement of rock, earth, or debris down
a sloped section of land. Landslides are caused
by rain, earthquakes, volcanoes, or other factors that make
the slope unstable. Geologists, scientists who study the
physical formations of the Earth, sometimes describe
landslides as one type of mass wasting. A mass wasting is
any downward movement in which the Earth's surface is
worn away. Other types of mass wasting include rockfalls
and the flow of shore deposits called alluvium.
Landslides have three major causes: Geology- refers to characteristics of the material itself. The earth or rock
might be weak or fractured, or different layers may have different strengths and stiffness; Morphology- refers
to the structure of the land. For example, slopes that lose their vegetation to fire or drought are
more vulnerable to landslides. Vegetation holds soil in place, and without the root systems of trees, bushes,
and other plants, the land is more likely to slide away; and Human activity-such as agriculture and construction,
can increase the risk of a landslide. Irrigation, deforestation, excavation, and water leakage are some of the
common activities that can help destabilize, or weaken, a slope.
Another factor that might be important for describing landslides is the speed of the movement. Some
landslides move at many meters per second, while others creep along at an centimeter or two a year. The
amount of water, ice, or air in the earth should also be considered. Some landslides include toxic gases from
deep in the Earth expelled by volcanoes. Some landslides, called mudslides, contain a high amount of water
and move very quickly. Complex landslides consist of a combination of different material or movement types.
D. Flood
Flooding is extremely dangerous and has the
potential to wipe away an entire city, coastline
or area, and cause extensive damage to life and
property. It also has great erosive power and
can be extremely destructive, even if it is a foot
high.
It is a natural event or occurrence where a piece
of land (or area) that is usually dry land,
suddenly gets submerged under water. Some
floods can occur suddenly and recede quickly.
Others take days or even months to build and discharge. When floods happen in an area that people live, the
water carries along objects like houses, bridges, cars, furniture and even people. It can wipe away farms, trees
and many more heavy items.
Flood imply a large amount of water rising and then spreading across a region, are one of the most common
causes of natural disasters in India. Heavy rains and landslides in India cause as much as 58 per cent of all
disaster loss in the country. Heavy rains, landslides, overflowing rivers, cyclones and tsunamis cause floods.

Global warming is causing more floods. As temperatures rise, the air holds more moisture. Rainfall becomes less
frequent, creating droughts. At some point, the skies release their moisture in a torrential downpour. That
creates floods. Instead of soaking into the ground, the water runs on hard-packed earth that has dried out
during the drought.
E. Indoor Fire
As more people live closer and closer together,
particularly as a result of urbanization,
risks associated with fire increase. House fires
are predominantly accidental, usually in relation to
the use of indoor lamps, stoves or heaters that
use an open flame. However careless use of
cigarettes are another leading cause of fires, and
fires may also be set deliberately as public
violence and arson.
Fire spreads quickly and can easily engulf a home
and neighboring structures within minutes. In
urban settings, fire risk is often aggravated by the
difficulty of access for fire response equipment into narrow streets and high-rise buildings present another
challenge where the middle and top floors of the building may only be accessible by stairs.
The biggest disaster threat to families in the United States isn’t floods, hurricanes or tornadoes; it’s fire.
The American Red Cross responds to a disaster every eight minutes and nearly all of these are home fires.
According to the U.S. Fire Administration (USFA), there are almost 365,000 residential fires reported in
the U.S. every year causing on average, the death of seven Americans in home fires every day.
F. Lava Flow
Lava flows are streams of molten rock that pour or
ooze from an erupting vent. Lava is erupted during
either nonexplosive activity or explosive lava
fountains. The speed at which lava moves across
the ground depends on several factors, including (1)
type of lava erupted and its viscosity; (2) steepness
of the ground over which it travels; (3) whether the
lava flows as a broad sheet, through a confined
channel, or down a lava tube; and (4) rate of lava
production at the vent.
Everything in the path of an advancing lava flow will be knocked over, surrounded, buried, or ignited by the
extremely hot temperature of lava. When lava erupts beneath a glacier or flows over snow and ice, meltwater
from the ice and snow can result in far-reaching lahars. If it enters a body of water or water enters a lava tube,
the water may boil violently and cause an explosive shower of molten spatter over a wide area.
Methane gas, produced as lava buries vegetation, can migrate in subsurface voids and explode when heated.
Thick viscous lava flows, especially those that build a dome, can collapse to form fast-moving pyroclastic flows.
Deaths caused directly by lava flows are uncommon because most move slowly enough that people can move
out the way easily. Death and injury can result when onlookers approach an advancing lava flow too closely or
their retreat is cut off by other flows.
G. Industrial Pollution
Generally referred to the undesirable outcome
when factories (or other industrial plants) emits
harmful by-products and waste into the
environment such as emissions to air or water bodies
(water pollution), deposition on landfills etc (land
pollution) or emission of toxic chemicals into the
atmosphere (air pollution). The video below will
provide an insight to the various forms of industrial
pollution.
This form of pollution has been exacerbated and aggravated by industrial revolution (which i will be discussing
in my subsequent post on the causes of industrial pollution). Thus, by reading (and sharing) this blog post of
mine, you (and I) have been indirectly contributing to industrial pollution, where the harmful effects may not be
experienced in the country of consumption (hence industrial pollution is trans-boundary in nature). We have to
look into the various stages (and countries) of production of electricity, computers, transportation of
computers etc.
Even though all nations are affected by Industrial Pollution, the ones who are most affected are the developed
nations, followed closely by developing countries. As the realization of the damage of industrial pollution is
increasing, stricter rules are being enforced to hopefully minimize potential environmental damage.
One of the most significant issues that are arising out of the awareness and stricter rules is that there are some
companies who fight against the change by outsourcing their work to countries that are less developed and do
not have severe environmental laws.
H. Typhoon
A typhoon is a mature tropical cyclone that develops
between 180° and 100°E in the Northern Hemisphere.
This region is referred to as the Northwestern Pacific
Basin,[1] and is the most active tropical cyclone basin
on Earth, accounting for almost one-third of the world's
annual tropical cyclones. For organizational purposes,
the northern Pacific Ocean is divided into three regions:
the eastern (North America to 140°W), central (140°W
to 180°), and western (180° to 100°E). The Regional
Specialized Meteorological Center (RSMC) for tropical cyclone forecasts is in Japan, with other tropical
cyclone warning centers for the northwest Pacific in Hawaii (the Joint Typhoon Warning Center),
the Philippines and Hong Kong. While the RSMC names each system, the main name list itself is
coordinated among 18 countries that have territories threatened by typhoons each year.
Most tropical cyclones form on the side of the subtropical ridge closer to the equator, then move poleward past
the ridge axis before recurving north and northeast into the main belt of the Westerlies. Most typhoons form in
a region in the northwest Pacific known as typhoon alley, where the planet's most powerful tropical cyclones
most frequently develop.
Most tropical cyclones form on the side of the subtropical ridge closer to the equator, then move poleward past
the ridge axis before recurving north and northeast into the main belt of the Westerlies. Most typhoons form in
a region in the northwest Pacific known as typhoon alley, where the planet's most powerful tropical cyclones
most frequently develop.
I. Forest Fire
Forest fires are large uncontrolled fires that
take place in the forest. Some of the fiercest
fires occur in the forest because there is so
much fuel (trees) to burn. Forest fires are a
type of wildfire. Other types of wildfires
include grass fires, brush fires, and hill fires.
The major cause of forest fires in the United
States is human activities. This can be
carelessness such as not putting out a
campfire or dropping a lit cigarette. It may also
be arson, which is setting a fire on purpose and is against the law. Around 80% of forest fires in the United
States are caused by humans.
Most fires that are started by natural causes are started by lightning. Other natural causes include volcanic
eruptions and sparks from falling rocks.
Forest fires can be extremely difficult to put out or control. Forest fires can be enormous in size and may quickly
change directions. They can move over 6 miles per hour and can jump over natural gaps such as rivers and roads.
That being said, modern firefighters are well trained and know how to control forest fires.
The forest fire is the burning of tropical, temperate and boreal forest either by natural fire or man-made fire and
is related to land clearing and deforestation. Natural forest fire includes an unplanned burning of forest due to
lightning, while human-induced forest fire results from the unauthorized burning practice of forests for
attaining farmland.
J. Liquefaction
Liquefaction is a phenomenon where saturated
sand and silt take on the characteristics of a
liquid during the intense shaking of an
earthquake, according to the United States
Geological Survey website.
It takes place when a quake has increased water
pressure in saturated soil and made particles in
the soil lose contact with each other, making the
soil - particularly sandy soil - act like liquid.
The effect has been likened to slapping a wet,
hard beach and the sand beneath your palm becomes jelly.
Liquefaction is most likely to happen in reclaimed land. Areas with shallow water tables and close to the sea or
rivers are also susceptible to liquefaction.
Liquefaction is a phenomenon that turns solid ground into a liquid-like state. This chapter explains the
mechanism of liquefaction and conditions that cause it. Liquefaction can cause underground pipes due to
buoyant forces to come to the surface (lifeline damage) and heavy structures to sink into the soil.
Liquefaction does not occur randomly in nature but is limited to a rather narrow range of sedimentary, seismic,
and hydrologic environments. Mapping or preliminary screening of liquefaction hazard is often based on
mapping of susceptible environments.
K. Storm Surge
Storm surge is the abnormal rise in seawater level
during a storm, measured as the height of the
water above the normal predicted astronomical
tide. The surge is caused primarily by a storm’s
winds pushing water onshore. The amplitude of
the storm surge at any given location depends on
the orientation of the coast line with the storm
track; the intensity, size, and speed of the storm;
and the local bathymetry.
Storm surge is an abnormal rise of water generated by a storm, over and above the predicted
astronomical tides. Storm surge should not be confused with storm tide, which is defined as the water level rise
due to the combination of storm surge and the astronomical tide. This rise in water level can cause extreme
flooding in coastal areas particularly when storm surge coincides with normal high tide, resulting in storm tides
reaching up to 20 feet or more in some cases.
Storm surge is produced by water being pushed toward the shore by the force of the winds moving cyclonically
around the storm. The impact on surge of the low pressure associated with intense storms is minimal in
comparison to the water being forced toward the shore by the wind.
Other factors which can impact storm surge are the width and slope of the continental shelf. A shallow slope will
potentially produce a greater storm surge than a steep shelf.