Natural disasters

NATURAL DISASTERS

AVALANCHES

• avalanches are small slides of dry powdery snow that move as a formless mass. These "sluffs" account for a tiny fraction of the death and destruction wrought by their bigger, more organized cousins. Disastrous avalanches occur when massive slabs of snow break loose from a mountainside and shatter like broken glass as they race downhill. These moving masses can reach speeds of 80 miles (130 kilometers) per hour within about five seconds. Once the avalanche stops, it settles like concrete. Bodily movement is nearly impossible.

• The world's largest recorded avalanche occurred on May 18, 1980 when Mount St. Helens erupted.

• The eruption had the energy of 1000 Hiroshima-sized bombs and resulted 2/3 a cubic mile of the north slope sliding down into the valley at over 150 miles per hour.

• This is enough material to cover Washington, D.C. 14 feet deep.

• The avalanche  resulted in deposits as deep as 600 feet and as far away as 15 miles, the 23 square mile valley was covered with an average of 150 feet of debris.

Mount St. Helens Before & After the Avalanche

EARTHQUAKES

• Earthquakes, also called temblors, can be so tremendously destructive, it’s hard to imagine they occur by the thousands every day around the world, usually in the form of small tremors.Some 80 percent of all the planet's earthquakes occur along the rim of the Pacific Ocean, called the "Ring of Fire" because of the preponderance of volcanic activity there as well. On average, a magnitude 8 quake strikes somewhere every year and some 10,000 people die in earthquakes annually. Collapsing buildings claim by far the majority of lives, but the destruction is often compounded by mud slides, fires, floods, or tsunamis.

• The biggest quake recorded since 1900 hit the coast of southern Chile on May 22, 1960. The 9.5-magnitude quake killed more than 1,600 and left about 2 million people homeless.

FLOODS

• There are few places on Earth where people need not be concerned about flooding. Any place where rain falls is vulnerable, although rain is not the only impetus for flood.

• Excessive rain, a ruptured dam or levee, rapid ice melting in the mountains causes the FLOOD.

• The 1931 China flood was the deadliest flood to be recorded in History.It killed 2,000,000-4,000,000 people.

HURRICANES

• Hurricanes are giant, spiraling tropical storms that can pack wind speeds of over 160 miles (257 kilometers) an hour and unleash more than 2.4 trillion gallons (9 trillion liters) of rain a day. These same tropical storms are known as cyclones in the northern Indian Ocean and Bay of Bengal, and as typhoons in the western Pacific Ocean.

• The Atlantic Ocean’s hurricane season peaks from mid-August to late October and averages five to six hurricanes per year.

• the deadliest tropical cyclone ever recorded the 1970 Bhola Cyclone hit East Pakistan (Bangladesh today) and India's West Bengal on November 12, 1970. While the exact death toll is unknown it is estimated that 300,000-500,000 people perished in the aftermath of this storm, making it one of the deadliest natural disasters recent history.

Lightning

TORNADOES

Tsunamis Killer Waves

Wildfires