A natural disaster is the effect of a natural hazard A natural hazard is a threat of a naturally occurring event that will have a negative effect on people or the environment. Many natural hazards are interrelated, e.g. earthquakes can cause tsunamis and drought can lead directly to famine. A concrete example of the division between a natural hazard and a natural disaster is that the 1906 San (e.g. flood A flood is an overflow of an expanse of water that submerges land. The EU Floods directive defines a flood as a temporary covering by water of land not normally covered by water. In the sense of "flowing water", the word may also be applied to the inflow of the tide. Flooding may result from the volume of water within a body of water,, tornado A tornado is a violent, dangerous, rotating column of air that is in contact with both the surface of the earth and a cumulonimbus cloud or, in rare cases, the base of a cumulus cloud. Tornadoes come in many shapes and sizes, but are typically in the form of a visible condensation funnel, whose narrow end touches the earth and is often encircled, volcanic eruption During a volcanic eruption, lava, tephra , and various gases are expelled from a volcanic vent or fissure, earthquake An earthquake is the result of a sudden release of energy in the Earth's crust that creates seismic waves. The seismicity or seismic activity of an area refers to the frequency, type and size of earthquakes experienced over a period of time. Earthquakes are measured with a seismometer; a device which also records is known as a seismograph. The, or landslide A landslide or landslip is a geological phenomenon which includes a wide range of ground movement, such as rock falls, deep failure of slopes and shallow debris flows, which can occur in offshore, coastal and onshore environments. Although the action of gravity is the primary driving force for a landslide to occur, there are other contributing) that affects the environment, and leads to financial, environmental and/or human losses. The resulting loss depends on the capacity of the population to support or resist the disaster, and their resilience.^[1] This understanding is concentrated in the formulation: "disasters occur when hazards meet vulnerability Vulnerability is the susceptibility to physical or emotional injury or attack. It also means to have one's guard down, open to censure or criticism. Vulnerability refers to a person's state of being liable to succumb, as to manipulation, persuasion or temptation."^[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]

Contents 1 Natural disasters 1.1 Land movement disasters 1.1.1 Avalanches 1.1.2 Earthquakes 1.1.3 Lahars 1.1.4 Volcanic eruptions 1.2 Water disasters 1.2.1 Floods 1.2.2 Limnic eruptions 1.2.3 Tsunami 1.3 Weather disasters 1.3.1 Blizzards 1.3.2 Cyclonic storms 1.3.3 Droughts 1.3.4 Hailstorms 1.3.5 Heat waves 1.3.6 Tornadoes 1.4 Fire 1.5 Health and diseases 1.5.1 Epidemic 1.5.2 Famine 1.6 Space 1.6.1 Gamma ray bursts 1.6.2 Impact events 1.6.3 Solar flares 1.6.4 Supernovae and hypernovae 2 Future of natural disasters 3 Insurance 4 See also 5 References 6 External links

Natural disasters

Main articles: disaster A disaster is a perceived tragedy, being either a natural calamity or man-made catastrophe. It is a hazard which has come to fruition. A hazard, in turn, is a situation which poses a level of threat to life, health, property, or that may deleteriously affect society or an environment and list of deadliest natural disasters A supervolcanic eruption at Lake Toba around 74,000 years ago could have wiped out as much as 99% of the global human population, reducing the population from a possible 60 million to less than 10 thousand; see Toba catastrophe theory. However, this theory is not widely accepted because the evidence is disputed, and there have been, for instance,

Land movement disasters

Avalanches

Avalanche An avalanche is a rapid flow of snow down a slope, from either natural triggers or human activity. Typically occurring in mountainous terrain, an avalanche can mix air and water with the descending snow. Powerful avalanches have the capability to entrain ice, rocks, trees, and other material on the slope. Avalanches are primarily composed of on the backside (East) of Mt. Timpanogos, Utah at Aspen Grove trail

Notable avalanches An avalanche is a rapid flow of snow down a slope, from either natural triggers or human activity. Typically occurring in mountainous terrain, an avalanche can mix air and water with the descending snow. Powerful avalanches have the capability to entrain ice, rocks, trees, and other material on the slope. Avalanches are primarily composed of include:

• The 1910 Wellington avalanche For nine days at the end of February 1910, the little town of Wellington, Washington was assailed by a terrible blizzard. Wellington was a Great Northern Railway stop high in the Cascades, on the west side of the first Cascade Tunnel, under Stevens Pass. As much as a foot of snow fell every hour, and, on the worst day, eleven feet of snow fell
• The 1954 Blons avalanches The Blons avalanches in Austria was one of the worst mass burials by avalanche in recorded history. This happened on February 10 and February 11
• The 1970 Ancash earthquake The 1970 Ancash earthquake or Great Peruvian Earthquake was an undersea earthquake that occurred on May 31 of that year. Combined with a resultant landslide, it was the worst catastrophic natural disaster ever recorded in the history of Peru
• The 1999 Galtür Avalanche On February 23, 1999 the worst Alpine avalanche in 40 years occurred, killing 31 people in the small Alpine village of Galtür, Austria. Three major weather systems originating from the Atlantic accounted for large snow falls totalling around four metres in the area. 'Freeze-thaw' conditions created a weak layer on top of an existing snow pack,
• The 2002 Kolka-Karmadon rock ice slide The Kolka-Karmadon rock-ice slide occurred on the northern slope of the Kazbek massif in North Ossetia, Russia on September 20, 2002 following a partial collapse of the Kolka Glacier. It started on the north-northeast wall of Dzhimarai-Khokh and seriously affected the valley of Genaldon and Karmadon. The resulting avalanche and mudflow killed 125
• The 2008 Wenchuan earthquake
• The 2010 Haiti earthquake
• The 2010 Chile earthquake
• The 2010 Yushu earthquake

Earthquakes

An Earthquake is a sudden shake of the Earth's crust.The vibrations may vary in magnitude. The underground point of origin of the earthquake is called the "focus". The point directly above the focus on the surface is called the"epicenter". Earthquakes by themselves rarely kill people or wildlife. It is usually the secondary events that they trigger, such as building collapse, fires, tsunamis A tsunami (Japanese: 津波 [tsɯnami], lit. 'harbor wave'; English pronunciation: /suːˈnɑːmi/ (t)soo-NAH-mee) or tidal wave is a series of water waves (called a tsunami wave train) caused by the displacement of a large volume of a body of water, usually an ocean, but can occur in large lakes. Tsunamis are a frequent occurrence in Japan; (seismic sea waves) and volcanoes, that are actually the human disaster. Many of these could possibly be avoided by better construction, safety systems, early warning and evacuation planning.

Earthquakes are caused by the discharge of accumulated along geologic faults.

Lahars

A lahar A lahar is a type of mudflow or landslide composed of pyroclastic material and water that flows down from a volcano, typically along a river valley. The term "lahar" originated in the Javanese language of Indonesia is a volcanic mudflow or landslide. The 1953 Tangiwai disaster The Tangiwai disaster on 24 December 1953 was the worst rail accident in New Zealand. An 11-carriage overnight express from Wellington to Auckland fell into the Whangaehu River at Tangiwai, ten kilometres west of Waiouru. The bridge carrying the North Island Main Trunk Railway over the river had been badly damaged just minutes earlier by a lahar was caused by a lahar, as was the 1985 Armero tragedy The Armero tragedy was the major consequence of the November 13, 1985, eruption of Nevado del Ruiz in Tolima, Colombia. This medium to small-sized dacitic eruption occurred after 69 years of dormancy at the volcano, catching the nearby towns unaware as it sent pyroclastic flows down the mountain. As they erupted from the volcano's crater, the in which the town of Armero was buried and an estimated 23,000 people were killed

Volcanic eruptions

Main article: Types of volcanic eruptions During a volcanic eruption, lava, tephra , and various gases, are expelled from a volcanic vent or fissure Pu'u 'Ō'ō

• An Eruption may in itself be a disaster due to the explosion of the volcano or the fall of rock but there are several effects that may happen after an eruption that are also hazardous to human life.
• Lava Lava is molten rock expelled by a volcano during an eruption. This molten rock is formed in the interior of some planets, including Earth, and some of their satellites. When first erupted from a volcanic vent, lava is a liquid at temperatures from 700 °C to 1,200 °C . Up to 100,000 times as viscous as water, lava can flow great distances before may be produced during the eruption of a volcano a material consisting of superheated rock. There are several different forms which may be either crumbly or gluey. Leaving the volcano this destroys any buildings and plants it encounters.
• Volcanic ash Volcanic ash consists of small tephra, which are bits of pulverized rock and glass created by volcanic eruptions, less than 2 millimetres in diameter. There are three mechanisms of volcanic ash formation: gas release under decompression causing magmatic eruptions; thermal contraction from chilling on contact with water causing phreatomagmatic - generally meaning the cooled ash - may form a cloud, and settle thickly in nearby locations. When mixed with water this forms a concrete like material. In sufficient quantity ash may cause roofs to collapse under its weight but even small quantities will cause ill health if inhaled. Since the ash has the consistency of ground glass it causes abrasion damage to moving parts such as engines.
• Supervolcanoes A supervolcano is a volcano capable of producing a volcanic eruption with ejecta greater than 1,000 cubic kilometers . This is thousands of times larger than most historic volcanic eruptions. Supervolcanoes can occur when magma in the Earth rises into the crust from a hotspot but is unable to break through the crust. Pressure builds in a large and : According to the Toba catastrophe theory The Toba supereruption occurred between 69,000 and 77,000 years ago at Lake Toba (Sumatra, Indonesia), and it is recognized as one of Earth's largest known eruptions. The related catastrophe theory holds that this supervolcanic event plunged the planet into a 6 to 10 year volcanic winter, which resulted in the world's human population being 70 to 75 thousand years ago a super volcanic event at Lake Toba reduced the human population to 10,000 or even 1,000 breeding pairs creating a bottleneck in human evolution. It also killed three quarters of all plant life in the northern hemisphere. The main danger from a supervolcano is the immense cloud of ash which has a disastrous global effect on climate and temperature for many years.
• Pyroclastic flows A pyroclastic flow is a common and devastating result of certain explosive volcanic eruptions. The flows are fast-moving currents of hot gas and rock (collectively known as tephra), which travel away from the volcano at speeds generally as great as 700 km/h (450 mph). The gas can reach temperatures of about 1,000 °C (1,830 °F). The flows consist of a cloud of hot volcanic ash which builds up in the air above under its own weight and streams very rapidly from the mountain burning anything in its path. It is believed that Pompeii was destroyed by a pyroclastic flow.

Water disasters

Floods

Main article: List of floods Categories: Weather | Floods | Weather events | Water | Water waves | Hydrology The Limpopo River The Limpopo River rises in central southern Africa, and flows generally eastwards to the Indian Ocean. It is around 1,750 kilometres long, with a drainage basin 415,000 square kilometres (160,200 sq mi) in size. Its mean annual discharge is 174.288 m³/s (6,155 cu ft/s) at its mouth. The Limpopo is the second largest river in Africa that drains to, in southern Mozambique Mozambique, officially the Republic of Mozambique , is a country in southeastern Africa bordered by the Indian Ocean to the east, Tanzania to the north, Malawi and Zambia to the northwest, Zimbabwe to the west and Swaziland and South Africa to the southwest, during the 2000 Mozambique flood The 2000 Mozambique flood was a natural disaster that occurred in February and March 2000. The catastrophic flooding was caused by heavy rainfall that lasted for five weeks and made many homeless. Approximately 800 people were killed. 1,400 km² of arable land was affected and 20,000 head of cattle were lost. It was the worst flood in the

Some of the most notable floods include:

• The Huang He The Yellow River is called "the cradle of Chinese civilization", as its basin is the birthplace of the northern Chinese civilizations and was the most prosperous region in early Chinese history. But frequent devastating flooding largely due to the elevated river bed in its lower course, has also earned it the unenviable names "China' (Yellow River) in China floods particularly often. The Great Flood of 1931 The 1931 Central China floods or the Central China floods of 1931 are a series of floods that occurred during the Nanjing decade in the Republic of China era. It is generally considered the deadliest natural disaster ever recorded, and almost certainly the deadliest of the 20th century and in China. The human casualties are estimated from lows of 4 caused between 800,000 and 4,000,000 deaths.
• The Great Flood of 1993 The Great Flood of 1993 was among the most costly and devastating ever to occur in the United States, with $15 billion in damages. The hydrographic basin affected covered around 745 miles in length and 435 miles (700 km) in width, totaling about 320,000 square miles (840,000 km²). Within this zone, the flooded area totaled around 30,000 square was one of the most costly floods in United States history.
• The 1998 Yangtze River Floods, also in China, left 14 million people homeless.
• The 2000 Mozambique flood The 2000 Mozambique flood was a natural disaster that occurred in February and March 2000. The catastrophic flooding was caused by heavy rainfall that lasted for five weeks and made many homeless. Approximately 800 people were killed. 1,400 km² of arable land was affected and 20,000 head of cattle were lost. It was the worst flood in the covered much of the country for three weeks, resulting in thousands of deaths, and leaving the country devastated for years afterward.

Tropical cyclones A tropical cyclone is a storm system characterized by a large low-pressure center and numerous thunderstorms that produce strong winds and heavy rain. Tropical cyclones feed on heat released when moist air rises, resulting in condensation of water vapor contained in the moist air. They are fueled by a different heat mechanism than other cyclonic can result in extensive flooding and storm surge Storm surge is an offshore rise of water associated with a low pressure weather system, typically a tropical cyclone. Storm surge is caused primarily by high winds pushing on the ocean's surface. The wind causes the water to pile up higher than the ordinary sea level. Low pressure at the center of a weather system also has a small secondary effect,, as happened with:

• Bhola Cyclone The 1970 Bhola cyclone was a devastating tropical cyclone that struck East Pakistan and India's West Bengal on November 12, 1970. It was the deadliest tropical cyclone ever recorded, and one of the deadliest natural disasters in modern times. Up to 500,000 people lost their lives in the storm, primarily as a result of the storm surge that flooded, striking East Pakistan East Pakistan was a province of Pakistan between 1947 and 1971. East Pakistan was created from Bengal Province based on a plebiscite in what was then British India in 1947. Eastern Bengal chose to join the Dominion of Pakistan and became a province of Pakistan by the name East Bengal. East Bengal, also comprised East Pakistan in 1956 and later (now Bangladesh Bangladesh (Bengali: বাংলাদেশ, pronounced /bæŋgləˈdɛʃ/; Bangladesh), officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh (Bengali: গণপ্রজাতন্ত্রী বাংলাদেশ Gônoprojatontri Banglādeśh) is a country in "South Asia." It is bordered by India on all sides except for a small) in 1970,
• Typhoon Nina Super Typhoon Nina was a short-lived but intense 1975 super typhoon that caused major damage and deaths in China, mainly from the collapse of the Banqiao Dam. Over 100,000 people died because of the resulting floods, making it one of the deadliest tropical cyclones recorded in history[citation needed]. The collapse of the dam due to heavy floods, striking China in 1975,
• Tropical Storm Allison Tropical Storm Allison was a tropical storm that devastated southeast Texas in June of the 2001 Atlantic hurricane season. The first storm of the season, Allison lasted unusually long for a June storm, remaining tropical or subtropical for 15 days. The storm developed from a tropical wave in the northern Gulf of Mexico on June 4, 2001, and struck, which struck Houston, Texas Houston is the fourth-largest city in the United States and the largest city in the state of Texas. As of the 2009 U.S. Census estimate, the city had a population of 2.2 million within an area of 600 square miles (1,600 km2). Houston is the seat of Harris County and the economic center of the Houston–Sugar Land–Baytown metropolitan area—the in 2001 and
• Hurricane Katrina Hurricane Katrina of the 2005 Atlantic hurricane season was the costliest natural disaster, as well as one of the five deadliest hurricanes, in the history of the United States. Among recorded Atlantic hurricanes, it was the sixth strongest overall. At least 1,836 people lost their lives in the actual hurricane and in the subsequent floods, making, which left most of New Orleans New Orleans (pronounced /njuː ˈɔrliənz/ or /ˈnjuː ɔrˈliːnz/, locally [nuː ˈɔrlənz] or [ˈnɔrlənz]; French: La Nouvelle-Orléans [la nuvɛlɔʁleɑ̃] ) is a major United States port and the largest city and metropolitan area in the state of Louisiana. The New Orleans metropolitan area, (New Orleans–Metairie–Kenner) has a under water in 2005. Much of the flooding was due to the failure of the city's levee system.

Limnic eruptions

A cow suffocated by gases from Lake Nyos Lake Nyos is a crater lake in the Northwest Province of Cameroon, located about 200 miles northwest of Yaoundé. Nyos is a deep lake high on the flank of an inactive volcano in the Oku volcanic plain along the Cameroon line of volcanic activity. A natural dam of volcanic rock hems in the lake waters after a limnic eruption A limnic eruption, also referred to as a lake overturn, is a rare type of natural disaster in which carbon dioxide suddenly erupts from deep lake water, 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

A limnic eruption A limnic eruption, also referred to as a lake overturn, is a rare type of natural disaster in which carbon dioxide suddenly erupts from deep lake water, 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 occurs when CO₂ Carbon dioxide is a chemical compound composed of two oxygen atoms covalently bonded to a single carbon atom. It is a gas at standard temperature and pressure and exists in Earth's atmosphere in this state. CO2 is a trace gas comprising 0.039% of the atmosphere suddenly erupts from deep lake water, posing the threat of suffocating wildlife, livestock and humans. Such an eruption may also cause tsunamis A tsunami (Japanese: 津波 [tsɯnami], lit. 'harbor wave'; English pronunciation: /suːˈnɑːmi/ (t)soo-NAH-mee) or tidal wave is a series of water waves (called a tsunami wave train) caused by the displacement of a large volume of a body of water, usually an ocean, but can occur in large lakes. Tsunamis are a frequent occurrence in Japan; in the lake as the rising CO₂ displaces water. Scientists believe landslides A landslide or landslip is a geological phenomenon which includes a wide range of ground movement, such as rock falls, deep failure of slopes and shallow debris flows, which can occur in offshore, coastal and onshore environments. Although the action of gravity is the primary driving force for a landslide to occur, there are other contributing, volcanic activity, or explosions can trigger such an eruption.Till date, only two limnic eruptions have been observed and recorded:

• In 1984, in Cameroon, a limnic eruption in Lake Monoun caused the deaths of 37 nearby residents
• At nearby Lake Nyos in 1986 a much larger eruption killed between 1,700 and 1,800 people by asphyxiation.

Tsunami

The tsunami caused by the December 26, 2004 earthquake strikes Ao Nang, Thailand.

Tsunamis 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.

• Ao Nang, Thailand (2004). The 2004 Indian Ocean Earthquake created the Boxing Day Tsunami and disaster at this site.
• Lituya Bay, Alaska (1953). A mega-tsunami occurred here, the largest ever recorded.

(This also fits within the "Land movement disaster" category because it started with an earthquake.)

• See also 2010 Chile earthquake

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