Geography
20 flashcards
~10 min
Natural Hazards and Disasters
Twenty flashcards covering natural hazards and disaster geography. Includes plate tectonics and boundary types, earthquake measurement, volcanic hazards, tropical storm formation and structure, flooding causes, and the core concepts of hazard risk, vulnerabili...
About this deck
Twenty flashcards covering natural hazards and disaster geography. Includes plate tectonics and boundary types, earthquake measurement, volcanic hazards, tropical storm formation and structure, flooding causes, and the core concepts of hazard risk, vulnerability and disaster management. Suited to A-Level and AP Human/Physical Geography.
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A large, rigid slab of the Earth's lithosphere that moves slowly over the underlying asthenosphere, driven by convection currents in the mantle.
Convergent (plates move together), divergent (plates move apart), and transform/conservative (plates slide past each other).
One plate is forced beneath another in a process called subduction, often producing deep ocean trenches, volcanic arcs and powerful earthquakes.
Plates move apart, allowing magma to rise and create new crust — forming features like mid-ocean ridges and rift valleys.
Measuring the magnitude (energy released) of an earthquake at its source; each whole number increase represents roughly 32 times more energy release.
The focus is the point underground where rupture begins. The epicentre is the point on the Earth's surface directly above the focus.
A series of large ocean waves, most often triggered by an undersea earthquake that displaces a huge volume of water, but also by underwater landslides or volcanic eruptions.
Shield volcanoes have gentle slopes from low-viscosity, effusive lava flows (e.g. Mauna Loa). Composite volcanoes are steep-sided, built from alternating layers of ash and viscous lava (e.g. Mount Fuji).
A fast-moving, extremely hot current of volcanic gas, ash and rock fragments that flows down a volcano's slopes, capable of destroying everything in its path.
Along the Pacific Ring of Fire, a horseshoe-shaped zone of subduction boundaries encircling the Pacific Ocean.
Warm ocean water (at least 26–27°C), high humidity, low wind shear, and location away from the equator (for the Coriolis effect to induce rotation).
The calm, low-pressure centre of the storm, typically clear of clouds, surrounded by the eyewall — the region of the storm's most intense winds and rain.
An abnormal rise in sea level during a storm, caused by strong winds pushing water toward the shore, often the deadliest hazard associated with tropical storms.
Flash floods occur rapidly, often within hours, typically from intense localised rainfall. River floods develop over longer periods as river discharge exceeds channel capacity.
Deforestation (reduces interception and infiltration), urbanisation (increases impermeable surfaces and surface runoff), and building on floodplains.
Hazard: a potential threat (e.g. earthquake). Vulnerability: susceptibility of a population to harm. Risk: the likelihood of a hazard causing loss, combining hazard and vulnerability.
A model showing the phases of response to a disaster over time: relief, rehabilitation and reconstruction, illustrating how quality of life dips then recovers.
Mitigation reduces the severity or likelihood of a hazard's impact (e.g. earthquake-resistant buildings). Adaptation adjusts human systems to live with ongoing hazard risk (e.g. flood-resistant crops).
Limited resources for early warning systems, weaker building codes and infrastructure, greater reliance on hazard-exposed agriculture, and slower emergency response capacity.
An area prone to more than one type of natural hazard simultaneously or in sequence, such as a coastal region facing both earthquakes and tsunamis (e.g. Japan).