Geographic Hazards Mt. St. Helens Washington State USA – May 18, 1980 30 th Anniversary – May 18, 2010.

Geographic HazardsMt. St. Helens

Washington State USA – May 18, 1980

30th Anniversary – May 18, 2010

During This School Year…

The Haiti earthquake struck

Floods in the Portuguese Island of Madeira

Earthquake and Tsunami in Chile

Ash Cloud in Europe and North Africa

Stranded Passengers and Empty Airports

Beautiful Danger in Iceland

Oil Disaster in the Gulf of Mexico

Earthquake and Tsunami in Samoa

Geographic Hazards in Our Learning Circle

The schools of our Learning Circle face a variety of geographic hazards and risks; many share similar risks in common.

Let’s take a look…

Ontario, Canada

Ontario, Canada, faces a different kind of risk every season.

In winter, major snowstorms sometimes close schools and businesses.

Blizzards in CanadaWhile possibly fun for students (!),

blizzards can make travel unsafe and can hurt the economy.

Major Storms in Springtime and throughout the Year

Ontario faces the threat of severe storms that do not involve snow. They can have thunder and lightning all year-round.

This is the CN Tower in Toronto being struck by lightning.

Hailstorms can damage crops and buildings.

This is damage done to a soybean crop in Southwestern Ontario in June of 2008.

Not many leaves left for the new crop to grow…

Tornadoes

Two fishermen died when a tornado struck Ontario in July 2009.

Forest FiresIt can be very hot and dry in Ontario in the summer,

and a constant worry is forest fires.

Towns are often on fire alert and burning restrictions are in place.

FloodsFloods have been a problem in Ontario for a

very long time!

Chicago, Illinois, USAChicago has similar issues to Ontario; this is not surprising as they are not that far away from each other! In addition to thunderstorms, lightning, and snowstorms, Chicago faces a challenge of ice-covered roads in the winter, which make driving very hazardous; sometimes schools are closed.

The Sears Tower in Chicago being struck by lightning.

ChernobylIt is interesting that both Belarus and Ukraine cite human-made hazards as the greatest they face. Both faced extreme hazard after the devastating explosion of the nuclear reactor at Chernobyl in 1986.

Chernobyl18% of the territory of Belarus was contaminated with radioactive substances. Great damage was done to agriculture, forests, and people’s health. The damage is ongoing. Ukraine says, “We should speak of it as a technological hazard as a result of men’s activity.”

Chernobyl Memorial

BelarusBelarus also faces the more common challenges of heavy rains and flooding, and droughts and fires.

Ukraine Ukraine’s biggest challenge is the aftereffects of Chernobyl. 1000 square miles was

contaminated by radiation. In addition, Ukraine suffers from earthquakes, floods, droughts, and landslides.

In the Crimean region they suffer from earthquakes.

In the Western Ukraine, from floods.

Crimea and Sea of Azov

PakistanThe most recent earthquake in Pakistan was on May 6, 2010, and it registered at 4.3 on the Richter Scale. In 2005, in Kashmir, a terrible earthquake of 7.6 killed over 75,000 people.

Portugal• In addition to the flooding earlier this year, Portugal is an active earthquake

region. The Iberian Peninsula earthquake of 2007 was measured at 6.3.• One of the largest earthquakes in recorded history was an 8.7 in Lisbon in 1755.

The picture below shows people living in the streets after the earthquake.

Washington State, USAWhile Mt. St. Helens has rightly received much attention for the 1980 eruption, there are many volcanic hazards much closer to Seattle. An interesting threat comes from the beautiful and majestic Mt. Rainier.

Lahars

A lahar is a mudflow. Interestingly, there does not have to be an eruption for a lahar to take place. If the inside temperature of a volcano rises only a few degrees, it can cause snow to melt, mix with mud, and go rushing down the slopes of Mt. Rainier at enormous rates of speed and depth. Mt Rainier’s steepness can create mudflow speeds of 60 mph/96kmph.

Historic Lahars at Mt. RainierNote that many of the areas in green are now heavily populated. The town of Orting has a lahar warning system, and the schools practice lahar emergency evacuation drills the same way most schools practice fire drills.

Lahar at Mt. St. Helens

Nisqually Earthquake, February 28, 2001Seattle was struck by a 6.9 earthquake in 2001. We were very lucky that it was 44 miles/71km deep or otherwise there might have been far worse damage. We were also lucky that a major highway called the Alaskan Way Viaduct did not collapse, and construction has just begun on a project to replace it with a tunnel. It was a memorable day at school as all our years of earthquake drills proved worthwhile as no one was hurt and, after inspection of our buildings, we returned to classes - and watched the news! The viaduct is the roadway in the photo below; imagine if it had collapsed with many cars on it. As it was, it sank almost 6”/9.5cm into the soil.

Lightning Strike on the Space Needle!

Our Learning Circle members need to be careful around our tall buildings!

Morocco

We would like to close by saluting our friends at Essada Junior High School in Meknes, Morocco,

who endured the terrible tragedy of losing friends and family in the collapse of the mosque

there earlier this year.

We welcome you to future Learning Circles!

Our Thanks

We would like to thank all the students and teachers in Russia, Pakistan, Canada, Belarus, Ukraine, USA, Portugal, and

Morocco for your help and inspiration in making this project possible!

We have greatly enjoyed being in our Learning Circle with you.

Photo Creditswww. glaciercaves.com

• http://folbot.files.wordpress.com/2010/02/haiti-earthquake.jpg• http://www.ofm.org/ofm/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/madeirafloods415.jpg• http://i.telegraph.co.uk/telegraph/multimedia/archive/01582/madeira6_1582628c.jpg• http://www.watchpinoytv.info/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/earthquake-in-chile.jpg• http://assets.nydailynews.com/img/2010/03/03/alg_chile-earthquake.jpg• http://image3.examiner.com/images/blog/EXID2858/images/Santiago_Chile_8_8_Earthquake15(

1).jpg• http://stbjp.msn.com/i/EB/CB50A593B2D085391FC92C34C746E4.jpg• http://www.leaderpost.com/life/2592153.bin?size=620x400• http://www.arabianbusiness.com/images/magazines/arabianbusiness.com/web/ash-cloud-panel_t

humb.jpg• http://morrisonworldnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/Iceland-volcano-014.jpg• http://www.flyingfear.net/Images/ash_cloud.jpg• http://z.about.com/d/worldnews/1/0/x/D/-/-/98467865.jpg• http://media.kidk.com/images/320*240/100416_volcano_airlines.jpg• http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=stranded+passengers+volcano+heathrow&form=

QBIR&qs=n&sk=#focal=e9e8ffedbf3664d50cdd408e9cd396af&furl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.statesman.com%2Fmultimedia%2Fdynamic%2F00378%2FICELAND_VOLCANO_BRI_378960k.jpg

• http://www.pacificariptide.com/pacifica_riptide/images/2007/11/15/ba_oil_spill_0299_kr.jpg• http://www.google.com/images?hl=en&source=imghp&q=snow+piled+high&btnG=

Search+Images&gbv=2&aq=f&aqi=&aql=&oq=&gs_rfai=• http://www.911info.net/snow%20stormpklt_20091219.jpg

Photo Credits II• http://2pat.files.wordpress.com/2009/05/cn_tower_-_lightning.jpg

• http://www.omafra.gov.on.ca/english/crops/field/news/croppest/2008/08cpo08a2f1.jpg

• http://www.omafra.gov.on.ca/english/crops/field/news/croppest/2008/08cpo08a2f1.jpg

• www.ec.gc.ca/.../ch8-forestfire%5B1%5D.jpg

• http://www.blogcdn.com/www.greendaily.com/media/2008/03/chicago-snow.jpg

• http://weblogs.wgntv.com/chicago-weather/tom-skilling-blog/archives/LGlghtng051305.jpg

• http://www.thomasnet.com/articles/image/chernobyl-disaster.jpg• http://www.pictureninja.com/pages/ukraine/chernobyl-memorial.jpg• http://gdb.rferl.org/F9E41FF6-7450-4FB6-B9C2-A710D394CA97_mw800_mh600_s.jpg• http://www.eosnap.com/public/media/2009/04/crimea/20090405-crimea-full.jpg• http://www.thepakistanquake.com/pakistan-earthquake-pictures-1.jpg• http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/80/Lisbon1755hanging.jpg• http://www.geology.um.maine.edu/geodynamics/analogwebsite/UndergradProjects2007/morgan%20ers

%20416%202007/pictures/Seattle_Rainier.jpg• http://www.explorevolcanoes.com/volcanoimages/mt%20st%20helens%20lahar%20usgs.jpg• http://faculty.gg.uwyo.edu/neil/teaching/4880_files/rainier_mudflows.gif• http://benaxelrad.files.wordpress.com/2009/05/needlelightning.jpg