2GG3: Natural Disasters - Final Exam Review

What is the difference between a disaster and a catastrophe?

• Hazard
o An unavoidable danger or risk
o Naturally occurring
• Disaster
o The effect of a hazard on society
o Property damage, injury, loss of life
• Catastrophe
o A sudden and widespread massive disaster

Know where Earthquakes happen:

Plate Boundary Earthquakes
• Transform Fault Boundaries
o A fault which runs along the boundary of a tectonic plate. The
relative motion of such plates is horizontal
o Ex. San Andreas Fault in California
o Boundary between North American and Pacific plates
• Subduction Zones
o Convergence between a continental and oceanic plate
 Ex. Cascade Mountains
o Convergence between two oceanic plates
 Ex. Aleutian Islands

Intraplate Earthquakes
• Earthquakes that occur within plates.
• New Madrid seismic zone
o Located near St. Louis, MO
o Historic earthquakes similar in magnitude to West Coast quakes
• Earthquakes are often smaller than plate boundary quakes.
o Can be large and cause considerable damage due to lack of preparedness
and because they can travel greater distances through stronger
continental rocks

Volcanoes
Formation of Volcanic Craters:
• Craters
o Depressions formed by explosion or collapse of volcano top
• Calderas
o Very large craters formed from violent explosions
• Vents
o Any opening for lava and debris
o Can produce flood basalts

Geographic Regions:
• Ring of fire
 o is an area where large numbers of earthquakes and volcanic eruptions
occur in the basin of the Pacific Ocean
 Pacific Ocean Subduction zones
• Hot spots
o a portion of the Earth's surface that may be far from tectonic plate
boundaries and that experiences volcanism due to a rising mantle
 Hawaii and Yellowstone Park
• Mid-ocean ridges
o an underwater mountain system that consists of various mountain ranges
typically having a valley known as a rift running along its spine, formed
by plate tectonics
 Iceland
• Rift valleys
o a linear-shaped lowland between highlands or mountain ranges created
by the action of a geologic rift or fault
 East Africa

Relationship of Volcanoes to Climate Change:

• CO2 (and other gasses) from eruption alters climate

Tsunamis-review how to minimize hazard:

Detection and warning:
- Monitor earthquake zones
- Tsunami warning system:
- Seismographs to detect earthquakes
- Tidal gauges to determine sea level changes
- Buoy sensors to detect tsunami in open ocean
Structural control:
- Building codes for susceptible coastline areas
Run-up maps:
- Show the height to which water is likely to rise
Land use:
- Native vegetation may provide defence.
- Development of land must be monitored.
Probability analysis:
- Similar to earthquake analysis.
Education:
- Educate people on the signs of tsunami.
- Differences between tsunami watch and tsunami warning.
Tsunami-ready status:
- Establish emergency operation center
- Be able to receive tsunami warnings
- Have ways to alert the public
- Develop a preparedness plan with drills
- Promote community awareness program
What Individuals Can Do
- If you feel an earthquake, leave the beach or low- lying area.
- If you see the ocean receding, run from beach.
- A small tsunami in one location may be larger nearby.
- If you hear the tsunami siren, move to higher ground.
- Do NOT go down to the beach to watch the tsunami. If you can see it, you are already in
danger.

Flooding-review how flooding can be prevented / mitigated, circumstances

that cause flooding:
Minimizing the Hazard-Physical Barriers
- Levees are barriers built to keep flood waters contained.
- Earthen, concrete flood wall, reservoirs, storm water basins

- Levee breaks cause higher energy flows.

- Levees can produce bottlenecks in upstream areas.

- Levees need to be maintained.

Channelization:
- Straightening, deepening, widening, clearing, or lining existing stream channel.

- Have adverse affects on fish and wetland wildlife

- Can cause benefits to some urban and rural areas, and improves navigation

Channel Restoration:
- Clean urban waste to allow channel to flow freely

- Protecting existing channel banks by not removing trees

- Planting additional trees or vegetation where necessary

Perception of Flood Hazard:

- Local governments have prepared maps of flood- prone areas.

- Federal government encourages local governments to adopt floodplain

management plans.

- Public safety campaigns are created to educate public.

Flood Insurance:
- FEMA manages U.S. National Flood Insurance Program.

- Maps of 100-year floodplain were created to determine risk.

- Areas where there is a 1% chance of floods in any given year.

- New property owners are required to purchase flood insurance.

- Building codes limit new construction on floodplain.

- Codes prohibit building on 20-year floodplain.

Flood Proofing:
- Raising foundation above flood hazard
- Constructing flood walls or mounds
 - Using waterproofing construction
- Installing improved drains and pumps
Floodplain regulation:
- Land-use specification for floodplains in urban areas
Relocation:
- Government purchasing and removing homes damaged by floodwaters
Landslides-review causes of slope failure:
Driving forces move materials down slope
- Weight of slope material
- Due to things placed on the slope such as vegetation, fill material, or
buildings
Resisting forces oppose down slope movement.
- Shear strength of the material
- Resistance of material to sliding or flowing along slip planes
- Safety Factor (SF) is ratio of resisting forces to driving forces.
- Stable when >1; unstable <1
Mineral composition:
- Shale or weak volcanic pyroclastic materials failure occurs as creep,
earthflow’s, debris flows, or
slumps
- Rock falls occur when very resistant rock overlies weak rock.
Degree of consolidation:
- Slumps are common in unconsolidated materials.
- Soil slip occurs when unconsolidated materials are over bedrock.
Presence of zones of weakness:
- Slip planes, natural breaks in consistency of materials.
- Bedding planes in sedimentary rocks, weak clay layers, foliation planes
in metamorphic rocks
Rotational slides have curved slip surfaces.
Translational slides have planar slip surfaces.
Permeability – Ability to transmit water
- Soil slips occur when layers have contrasts in permeability
Steepness of slope or incline
-Steeper the slope, the greater the driving force.
- Steep slopes are associated with rock falls, avalanches, and soil slips.
- Moderate slopes are associated with earth flows.
- Gentle slopes are associated with creep.
Topographic relief or height of hill above land
- Mass wasting occurs more in high-relief areas.
REASONS WHY SLOPES FAIL:
-weight of material on slope
-mineral composition (weak vs strong)
-weak zones
-degree of consolidation
-permeability
-slope steepness- more than 25 degrees is unstable
-relief zones

Type and abundance of hillside vegetation:

- Arid regions prone to rock falls, debris flows, and soil slips
- Humid regions prone to complex landslides, earthflows, and creep
 - Vegetation provides protective cover that slows surface erosion.

- Roots add strength and cohesion to slope materials.

Vegetation adds weight to slopes.

- Water saturates soil, causing soil slips and debris flows.

- Slumps develop after deep infiltration of water.

- Water erodes base of slope to decrease stability.

Water can cause spontaneous liquefaction or quick clay.

- Fine-grained material that loses strength when disturbed and flows like a liquid.

Forces change with time.

- Driving and resisting forces change with season due to changes in moisture
content or water table.

- Chemical erosion occurs slowly over time.

- Carbonic acid from plants dissolves lime stones.

Avalanches:
- Rapid downslope movement of snow and ice.

- Depend on steepness of slope, stability of snowpack, weather.

- Angle of repose describes the steepest angle at which any lose material is stable.

- Slopes >250 are unstable, depends on temperature, wetness, and shape

of snow grains
Loose-snow/Point release avalanches
- Widen as move downslope
- uncompacted snow, V-shape
Slab avalanches
- Move as cohesive block
- Triggered by overloading slope or zones of weakness in the snowpack
Avalanches move down chutes: Avoiding these areas minimize hazard
- Weak layers form snowpack

- Lighter snow under heavy compact snow

- Hoar layers are layers of ice crystals that are on snow surface in in layers-do not
become ice and can be very weak

- Wind can accumulate snow and ‘top-load’ it on slopes

Avalanches- know avalanche risks:
Minimizing Avalanche Risk
- Areas of previous avalanches are testes using shovel, snow compression and
rutchblock tests
- Monitoring weather conditions (wind, temperature, snowfall)
- Not going into areas that have avalanche warnings
- Carry beacons/beepers, collapsible shovels, probes
- Over 90% of avalanche victims survived if they are found and unburied within
the first 15
minutes; 30% after 30 minutes and rarely after 2 hours

Soils and Subsidence

• Subsidence is ground failure characterized by sinking or vertical deformation of
land associated with:
o Dissolution of rocks beneath the surface
o Thawing of frozen ground
o Compaction of sediment
o Earthquakes and drainage of magma
• Soil volume change results from natural processes.
o Changes in water content of soil
o Frost heaving
 These are probably not life threatening, but are some of the most
widespread and costly natural hazards.
• Expansive Soils
o These soils expand during wet periods and shrink during dry periods.
o Common in clay, shale, and clay-rich soil containing smectite.
o Can produce cracks and popcorn-like texture.
o Can produce wavy bumps in surfaces
o Can create tilting and cracking of sidewalks and foundations
o Can create tilting of utility poles and headstones
• Caves
o Karst topography groundwater level drops, leaving behind caves and
sinkholes.
o Caves create direct access between surface and groundwater.
o This access can make water vulnerable to pollution, especially during
drought and when sinkholes are used as landfills.
o Many species of animals can live only in caves.
 o Caves also provide shelter for other animals.
o Cave systems are formed when dissolution produces a series of caves.
 Related to fluctuating groundwater table.
 Groundwater seepage causes flowstone, stalagmites, and
stalactites.
• Sinkholes
o Sinkholes in large numbers form a karst plain.
o Groundwater dissolves soluble rock, creating fractures and caves.
o Dissolving continues to form larger caves and fractures.
o Collapse sinkholes
 Form when top of the sinkhole falls because groundwater levels
drop.
o Solutional sinkholes
 Form when the bedrock continues to be dissolved.
o Sinkholes are common in human climates
o Flooding in salt mines can also cause sinkholes

Atmosphere and Severe Weather

• Hydrologic cycle

Heat Energy
o Energy transferred between two objects at different temperatures
• Sensible heat
o Heat that is monitored by a thermometer
• Latent heat
o Energy necessary to cause a change in state
o Ex: Latent heat of vaporization is energy necessary to change liquid water
into water vapor.
Heat Transfer
• Conduction
 o Transfer through atomic or molecular interactions
o Two bodies in contact with one another
• Convection
o Transfer through mass movement of a fluid
o Hot air rises and displaces cool air, which falls
 Creates a convection cell
• Radiation
o Transfer through electromagnetic waves
• Absorption
o Alters molecules or causes them to vibrate.
o Some of this may be re-emitted to space.
Atmospheric Pressure
• Weight of a column of air above a given point
o Force exerted by molecules on surface
• Decreases with increasing altitude
• Air rises in locations of low atmospheric pressure.
o Cools, condenses, and forms clouds and precipitation.
• Air descends in locations of high atmospheric pressure.
o Sky conditions are mostly clear.
• Air temperature.
o Cold air is denser and exerts greater pressure on surface.
• Air movements.
o Air that converges creates pile up of air to increase pressure.
o Air that diverges lowers the atmospheric pressure.
Highs & Lows
• Air moves from surface high pressures (H) to low pressures (L).
o Air at low rises into atmosphere and then diverges in the upper
atmosphere.
o A surface low is often associated with a high aloft and vice versa
• A difference in absorption of radiation leads to differences in temperature.
o Temperature differences lead to changes in pressure.
o Changes in pressure are the driving forces for the wind.
• high pressure systems cause clear skies (keeping warm air from rising), low
pressure systems cause storms (warm air rises, cools, condenses and causes
clouds)
Fronts
• Boundary between cooler and warmer air masses
• Cold front
o when cold air is moving into warm air
• Warm front
o when warm air is moving into cold air
• Stationary front
o where boundary shows little movement
• Occluded front
o where rapidly moving cooler air overtakes another cold air mass, wedging
warm air in between
Thunderstorm Development
 • Moist air is forced upwards, cools, and water vapor condenses to form cumulus
clouds
• Cumulus Stage
o Moisture supply and updrafts continue clouds grow.
o A continuous release of latent heat from condensation warms the
surrounding air, causing the air to rise further.
o Expanding the cloud into colder air causes water droplets to freeze.
o Larger snowflakes fall and melt as raindrops.
o Large droplets grow until they cannot be supported by updrafts.
• Mature stage
o Downdrafts and falling precipitation leave the base of the cloud.
o Updrafts and downdrafts are present.
o Cloud continues to grow until it reaches the top of unstable atmosphere
(tropopause).
o Storm produces heavy rain, lightning and thunder, and occasionally hail.
• Dissipative stage
o Upward supply of moist air is blocked by downdrafts.
o Thunderstorm weakens, precipitation decreases, and the cloud dissipates.
• This process may take less than an hour and cause little damage.

Severe Thunderstorms
• Need 3 things to form- moisture, rapid change in temp, updraft/lifting force
• National Weather Service, classified severe if:
o Winds > 93 km (58 mi) ph, or
o Hailstones >1.9cm (0.75 in), or
o Generates a tornado
• Necessary conditions
• Wind shear
o Large differences in wind speed and direction
• High water vapor content in lower atmosphere
• Uplift of air
• Dry air mass above a moist air mass

Severe Thunderstorm Types:

• Mesoscale convective systems (MCS)
o Most common type
o Very large clusters of self-propagating storms
o Downdrafts from one creates a new storm
o Can last for more than 12 hours
• Squall lines
o Long lines of individual storm cells
o Common along cold fronts ahead of the cold air
o Updrafts form anvil-shaped clouds extending ahead of the line
o Downdrafts surge forward as gust front in advance of precipitation
o Can develop along drylines
 Fronts with differing moisture content
• Supercells
o Smaller than MCSs and squall lines
 o Extremely violent and spawn most tornadoes
o Last from 2-4 hours

Hail
• Round pieces of ice originating from thunderstorms
• Contain rings due to adding coatings during updrafts
o Hail moves up and down in lower part of the storm, adding layers of
liquid water, which then freezes.
• Cause mostly property damage

Tornado Development–Organizational Stage

• Wind shear causes rotation to develop
o Mesocyclone
• Updrafts lower part of the cloud.
o Wall cloud
• Wall cloud rotates and funnel descends.
• Dust and debris swirl below the funnel.
Tornado Development – Shrinking and Rope Stage
• Supply of warm air is reduced and tornado begins to thin.
o More dangerous because wind speeds increase as diameter decreases
• Downdrafts cause tornado to move erratically and disappear.
Tornado Development–Mature Stage
• Visible condensation funnel extends to ground.
• Moist air drawn upward.
• Smaller whirls may develop within tornado.
o Suction vortices

Ice Storms
 • Prolonged periods of freezing rain
• Develop during winter on the north side of a stationary or warm front
• Three conditions for freezing rain:
1. Ample source of moisture
2. Warm air over shallow layer of cold air
3. Objects on land close to or at freezing
• Upon contact with cold objects, rain immediately freezes to form a coating of ice.

Fog
• A cloud in contact with ground
• Form by air cooling to condensation or adding water to cooled air through
evaporation
• Cooling
o At night, heat radiates from land.
o Warm air blows over cold water.
o Humid air rises up a mountain side.
• Evaporation
o Cold air flows over warm body of water.
o Warm rain falls through cool air.
• How fogs form:

Cyclones
• An area or center of low pressure with rotating winds
o Counter-clockwise in Northern Hemisphere
o Clockwise in Southern Hemisphere
o Why?
 • Tropical or extra-tropical
o Based on origin and core temperature
• Characterized by intensity
o Wind speeds and lowest atmospheric temperature

Tropical and Extra-tropical Cyclones

• Tropical cyclones
o Form over warm tropical or subtropical ocean water (50–200)
o Have warm central cores
o Tropical depressions, tropical storms, hurricanes
o High winds, heavy rain, surges, and tornadoes
• Extra-tropical cyclones
o Form over land or water in temperate regions (30o–700)
o Associated with fronts and cool central cores
o Strong windstorms, heavy rains, surges, snowstorms, blizzards

Classifications
• Nor’easter
o Extra-tropical cyclone that moves along northward along East Coast U.S.
• Hurricanes
o Tropical cyclones in Atlantic and eastern Pacific Oceans
• Typhoons
o Tropical cyclones in Pacific Ocean west of International Dateline and
north of the equator

Saffir-Simpson Scale
• A 1 to 5 rating based on the hurricanes present intensity and wind speed

Category 1:
• 119-153 km/h winds
• No real damage to building, damage primarily on mobile homes, shrubs, and
trees
• Coastal road flooding and minor pier damage
o E.g. Hurricane Lili 2002 & Hurricane Gaston 2004
Category 2:
• 154-177 km/h winds
• Some roofing material, door and window damage
• Considerable damage to shrubs, trees, mobile homes, poorly constructed signs,
and piers
o E.g. Hurricane Isabel 2003 & Hurricane Frances 2004
Category 3:
• 178-209 km/h winds
• Some structural damage to small residences and utility buildings with minor wall
failures
• Foliage blown off trees and large trees blown down
• Mobile homes are destroyed
• Low lying escape routes cut off by rising water
o E.g. Hurricane Ivan & Jeanne 2004
Category 4:
• 210-249 km/h winds
• More extensive wall failures, completely roof structure failures on small
residences
• Shrubs, trees, and all signs blown down
• Complete destruction of mobile homes
• Extensive damage to doors and windows
o E.g. Hurricane Charley 2004 & Hurricane Denis 2005
Category 5:
• 249+ km/h winds
• Complete roof failure on many residencies and industrial buildings
• Some complete building failures
• All trees, shrubs blown down
• Complete destruction of mobile homes
• Severe and extensive window and door damage
• Massive evacuation of residential areas on low ground
• Three category 5 hurricanes in the states since 1935;
o E.g. labour day hurricane 1935
o Hurricane Camille 1969
o Hurricane Andrew 1992
o In 2005, hurricane Wilma
o
Geographic Regions at Risk from Cyclones, Summary
• Tropical cyclones
o East and Gulf Coasts
o Hawaii and Atlantic Canada
o Baja California and West Coast Mexico
• Extra-tropical cyclones
o Winter windstorms in Pacific Coast
o Winter snow Sierra Nevada, Rocky Mountains, and east
o Spring and summer thunderstorms and tornadoes in U.S. and Canada

Hurricane Development
• The atmospheric pressure in the center of the eye is lower than its surrounding
atmosphere, so warm, moist air spirals inward towards the center of the storm
and then cools as it rises.
• The water vapour the air is carrying condenses and forms clouds and rain.
• Upward rotation also causes air to flow out the top of the storm, allowing
additional warm air to feed bottom of the storm
• Hurricane energy comes from warm ocean water
• As hurricane moves over land, it loses energy (can become extra-tropical cyclone)
Hurricane Katrina
• Was made worse by human intervention by removal of marshes, subsidence due
to oil extraction, levee construction

Waves and Coastlines-review how waves work, review coastline types, how
sea-levels change, how erosion mitigation strategies work (or don’t):
Introduction to Coastal Hazards
 - Continental and oceanic processes converge to produce landscapes that are
capable of rapid change.
- Most coasts are influenced by plate tectonics.
- East Coast U.S. and Canada, Canadian Arctic is passive.
-Because they are not close To convergent boundary
- Have wide continental shelves with barrier islands and sandy
beaches

- West Coast U.S. and Canada is active.

- Close to convergent and transform boundaries
- Have sea cliffs and rocky shorelines

Introduction to Coastal Hazards, cont.

Coast also influenced by climate and organisms:
- Alaska, Canada, and Great Lakes affected by seasonal ice or glaciers.
- Temperate region coastlines affected by marsh vegetation.
- Tropical and subtropical coasts affected by mangroves and coral reefs.
Coastal hazards include:
- Strong coastal currents
- Coastal erosion
- Storm surge
- Tsunamis
Waves:
“Winds blowing produce friction over water surfaces causing waves to form, the size
depends on the wind speed, depth of ocean, and fetch, and the energy is dependent on
the height (square of it). Waves move in circular propulsion, the radius of these circles
get smaller as you go deeper, and become more elliptical as you get closer to the shore.”

- Winds blowing produce friction over water surface causing waves.

- Size of waves depend on:

- Speed of wind
- Duration of wind
- Fetch – Distance wind blows over water surface

Waves become sorted into groups.

- Rogue waves are exceptions to these groups.
Wave Description
Wave height: Distance from crest to trough
Wavelength: Distance from crest to crest
Wave period: Time between crests

Wave Motion
- Motion is circular in open ocean.
- Circles decrease in diameter with increasing depth.
- Waves in shallow water become ellipses as waves “feel bottom.
- ”When depth is ½ wavelength
Wave Energy
- Waves can move long distances in open ocean with little change in energy.
- Energy is spent on reaching coastline.
 - Wave energy is proportional to square of wave height.
- On coast, wavelength and velocity decrease, wave height increases, wave period is
constant.
Storm Waves
Swells
- Storm-generated waves
- In shallow water become unstable and break on shore
- Predictions of velocity and height of storm waves can help estimate when strong
waves will strike shoreline.

Wave Variations along a Coastline

- Irregularities in topography cause variations in wave height as it approaches
shore.

- Irregular coastlines have headlands that the waves reach first.

- Waves slow down upon reaching this shallow water, causing the wave to
bend or refract.

Visualizing Wave Refraction

- Picture wave normals as lines perpendicular to wave fronts
- Wave refraction causes normal to converge and diverge
- Convergence:
- Wave heights and energy increases
- Waves are bigger here
- Divergence:
- Wave heights and energy decreases

Breaking Waves
Plunging breakers
- Waves that pick up quickly
- Typical on steep beaches
- More erosive

Spilling breakers
-Waves that spill gently
-Typical on wide, flat beaches
-More likely to deposit sand

Sand Transport
Littoral transport
- Sand movement parallel to shore
- Beach drift
- sand moving in zig zag pattern in swash zone
- Longshore drift
- Transport of sand by longshore currents
Longshore currents: Current that flows parallel to shoreline as a result of up and back
movement of water in swash zone
Sea Level Change–Eustatic Sea Level
- Global sea levelAffected by changes in amount of water in oceans
Climate/average air temperature
- Temperature increases, causing volume of water to expand
- Temperature decreases, causing more ice to form on land
- Volume of water in ice sheets, glaciers increases, ocean water
decreases
Tectonic processes: Changes ocean basin shape over long period of time
Sea Level Change–Relative Sea Level
- Location of the sea at shoreline
- Glacier melt or earthquakes can cause uplifting of land
- Decrease in sea level
- Rates of deposition, erosion, or subsidence
- Tides
- Weather conditions

Effects of Coastal Processes- Beach Erosion

Beach-Budget
- InputLongshore and Beach drift bringing sediment from upshore
- Local erosion of dunes and cliffs
Output
- Longshore and Beach drift bringing sediment away from shore
- Storm waves
- On-shore winds
Storage
- Sediment on the beach

-Beach grows when input exceeds output

-Beach erodes when output exceeds input
Effects of Coastal Processes– Cliff Erosion
- Sea cliffs and lakeshore bluffs erode due to wave action, running water, and
landslides.

- Causes the cliffs and bluffs to retreat.

- Human activities increase erosion rate.

- Increase surface runoff
- Increase groundwater discharge
- Addition of weight to cliff

Can be monitored using LIDAR

- (Light Detection and Ranging).
Minimizing the Effects of Coastal Hazards
Hard stabilization: Creating structures meant to protect shoreline
Soft stabilization: Adding sand to depleted beaches
Hard Stabilization–
- Seawalls:
- Structures built parallel to shoreline
- Vertical design reflects waves and redirects energy to shore
- Promotes beach erosion
- Groins:
- Structures built perpendicular to shoreline usually in groups
 - Traps sand from longshore drift
- Causes increased erosion in down-drift area

- Breakwaters:
- Built parallel to shore
- Intercepts waves to protect boats or ships in harbour
- Blocks littoral transport, increasing erosion and deposition in different
locations

- Jetties
-Built in pairs perpendicular to shoreline near river or inlet
-Designed to keep channel open
- Causes increased erosion and deposition in other locations

Soft Stabilization: (Beach Nourishment)

- Adding sand to replace sand that has eroded.
- Aesthetically preferable to hard stabilizations.
- Temporary solution
- Sand must be chosen carefully to match conditions at beach.
Five Principles of Living with Coastal Erosion
-Coastal erosion is a natural process rather than a natural hazard.
- Any shoreline construction causes change.
- Stabilization of the coastal zone through engineering structures protects
property, not the beach itself.
- Engineering structures designed to protect a beach may eventually
destroy it.
- Once constructed, shoreline engineering structures produce a costly
trend in coastal development that is difficult, if not impossible, to
reverse.
• Climate and Climate change-know how climate change affects different
disasters, difference between weather and climate, review Koeppen climate
system (general), and review how gases affect atmosphere:
Climate and Weather
- Weather refers to atmospheric conditions over short periods of time.
----Whereas---
- Climate refers to characteristic atmospheric conditions over a long period of time.

The Koeppen Climate: The system is based on the concept that native vegetation is the
best expression of climate. Thus, climate zone boundaries have been selected with
vegetation distribution in mind. It combines average annual and monthly temperatures
and precipitation, and the seasonality of precipitation with different types of vegetation
areas:
A-Tropical
B-Dry
C-mild midlat
D-sever midlat
E-polar
H-highlands

Lecture 22
Wildfires

Learning Objectives

Understand wildfire as a natural process that becomes a hazard when

people live in or near wildlands

Wildfire is a natural process because it is self-sustaining, rapid, has a high temperature

biochemical reaction. It requires fuel, oxygen and heat.
•External reactions liberate heat and light.
Lightning, volcanic activity, and human action

Understand the effects of fires

•Initiates plant re-growth, when the cycle restarts.

•Natural fires allowed humans to harness fires for their uses.

–Heat, light, cooking, hunting, etc.

Three wildfire Phases

•Begins with ignition.
–Preignition absorbs energy, combustion releases energy.

•Flaming combustion
–Dominates early fire
–Rapid high temperature conversion of fuel into heat
–Characterized by flames and large amount of unburned material

•Smoldering combustion
–Takes place at lower temperatures
–Does not require pyrolysis for growth

Know how wildfires are linked to other natural hazards

•Landslides, hurricanes, and tornadoes can arrange debris to facilitate fires.

Know potential benefits provided by wildfires

Benefits to soil
Increases nutrient content
Reduce populations of microorganisms
Benefits to plants and animals
Reduces the number of species of plants
May trigger a release of seeds in some species
Removes surface litter for grasses
Recycles nutrients in system
Animals benefit from increased plant life
Know the methods employed to minimize the fire hazard

• Task is decide when fires should be allowed and when suppressed

• Science
Fire regime for site
-Types of fuel available
-Fire behavior
-Fire history

• Education
-Educating people to reduce their risk

• Data collection
-Mapping vegetation and potential fuel
-Moisture content
-FPI (Fire Potential Index) maps

• Prescribed burns
–Controlled burns to manage forests
–Reduces fuel for more catastrophic fires
–Necessary to predict the behavior of the fire and control it

Know the potential adjustments to the wildfire hazard

-Fire danger alerts and warnings

–Red-flag warnings
-Fire education
-Codes and regulations
-Fire insurance
-Evacuation

Lecture 23
Impacts and extinctions

Learning Objectives

Know the difference between asteroids, meteoroids, and comets

Asteroids 10m (30ft)–1000 km(620 mi).

– Found in asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter
– Composed of rock, metallic, or combinations
– Meteoroids are broken up asteroids.
– Meteors are meteoroids that enter Earth’s atmosphere.

Comets
– have glowing tails
– composed of frozen water or carbon dioxide
– Originated in Oort cloud

• Understand the physical processes associated with airbursts and impact

craters

Airbursts and Impacts

• Objects enter Earth’s atmosphere at 12–72 km/s
(27,000–161,000 mph)
– Metallic or stoney
– Heat up due to friction as they fall through atmosphere, produce bright light
• Meteorites
– If the object strikes Earth
– Concentrated in Antarctica
• Airbursts
– Object explodes in atmosphere 12–5o km (7 –31 mi)
– Ex: Tunguska: 1908 explosion in Russia 1000 times more powerful than
Hiroshima atomic bomb

Impact Crater
• Provide evidence of meteor impacts.
– Bowl- shaped depressions with upraised rim
– Rim is overlain by ejecta blanket
– Broken rocks cemented together into breccia
• Features of impact craters are unique from other craters.
– Impacts involve high velocity, energy, pressure, and temperature.
– Kinetic energy of impact produces shock wave into earth.
• Compresses, heats, melts, and excavates materials
– Rocks become metamorphosed or melt with other materials.

Simple Impact Craters

• Typically small < 6 km (4 mi)
Complex Impact Craters
• Larger in diameter > 6 km (4 mi)
• Rim collapses more completely
• Center uplifts following impact

Craters are much more common on Moon.

1. Most impacts are in ocean, buried, or destroyed.
2. Impacts on land have been eroded or buried by
debris.
3. Smaller objects burn up in Earth’s atmosphere
before impact.
• Understand the possible causes of mass extinction

Sudden loss of large numbers of plants and animals relative to number of new species
being added

Defines the boundaries of geologic periods or epochs

Usually involve rapid climate change, triggered by

– Plate tectonics
– Moves habitats to different locations
– Volcanic activity
• Large eruptions release CO2 , warming Earth
• Volcanic ash reflects radiation, Cooling Earth
– Extraterrestrial impact

Six Major Mass Extinctions

1. Ordovician, 446 mya, continental glaciation in
Southern Hemisphere
2. Permian, 250 mya, volcanoes causing global warming and cooling
3. Triassic–Jurassic boundary, 202 mya, volcanic activity associated with breakup
of Pangaea
4. Cretaceous–Tertiary boundary (K-T boundary), 65
mya, asteroid impact
5. Eocene period, 34 mya, plate tectonics (Himalayas)
6. Pleistocene epoch, initiated by airburst, caused by human activity, diseases, climate
changes, still continues today

• Know the evidence for the impact hypothesis that produced the mass
extinction at the end of the Cretaceous period

K-T Boundary Mass Extinction

• Dinosaurs disappeared with many plants and animals.
– 70% of all genera died
– Set the stage for evolution of mammals

• First question: What does geologic history tell us about K-T Boundary?
– Walter and Luis Alvarez decided to measure concentration of Iridium in clay
layer at K-T boundary in Italy.
– Fossils found below layer were not found above.
– How long did it take to form the clay layer?

• Iridium deposits say that layer formed quickly.

• Probably extinction caused by single asteroid impact.
• Alvarez did not have a crater to prove the theory.
• Crater was identified in 1991 in Yucatan Peninsula.
– Diameter approx. 180 km (112 mi)
– Nearly circular
– Semi-circular pattern of sinkholes, cenotes, on land defining edge
– Possibly as deep as 30–40 km (18–25 mi)
 – Slumps and slides filled crater
– Drilling finds breccia under the surface
• Glassy indicating intense heat

Sequence of Events
a) Asteroid moving at 30 km (19 mi) per second

b) Asteroid impacts Earth, produces crater 200 km (125 mi) diameter, 40 km (25
mi) deep
• Shock waves crush, melt rocks, vaporized rocks on outer fringe

c) Seconds after impact:

• Ejecta blanket forms
• Mushroom cloud of dust and debris
• Fireball sets off wildfires around the globe
• Sulfuric acid enters atmosphere
• Dust blocks sunlight
• Tsunamis from impact reach over 300 m (1000 ft)

• Month later
– No sunlight, no photosynthesis
– Continued acid rain
– Food chain stoppes
–
– • Several months later
– Sunlight returns
– Acid rain stops
– Ferns restored on burned landscape

Impact caused massive extinction, but allowed for evolution of mammals.

• Another impact of this size would mean another mass extinction probably for humans
and other large mammals.
• however, impacts of this size are very rare.
– Occur once every 40–100 my
• Smaller impacts are more prown dangers.

Know the likely physical, chemical, and biological consequences of impact

from a large asteroid or comet

• Risk related to probability and consequences

• Large events have consequences, will be catastrophic

– Worldwide effects
– Potential for mass extinction
– Return period of 10’s–100’s millions of years

• Smaller events have regional catastrophe

– Effects depends on site of event
– Return period of 1000 years
 – Likelihood of an urban area hit every few 10,000 years

• Risk from impacts is relatively high.

– Probability that you will be killed by

• Impact: 0.01%-0.1%

• Car accident: 0.008%

• Drowning: 0.001%

• However, that is AVERAGE probability over

thousands of years.

• Events and deaths are very rare!

• Understand the risk of impact or airburst of extraterrestrial objects and

how that risk might be minimized

• Identify nearby threatening objects.

– Spacewatch

• Inventory of objects with diameter > 100 m in Earth crossing orbits

• 85,000 objects to date

– Near-Earth Asteroid Tracking (NEAT) project

• Identify objects diameter of 1 km

– Use telescopes and digital imaging devices

• Most objects threatening Earth will not collide from several 1000’s of years from
discovery.

• Options once a hazard is detected

– Blowing it up in space

• Small pieces could become radioactive and rain down on earth

– Nudging it out of Earth’s orbit

• Much more likely since we will have time to study object

• Technology can change orbit of asteroid

• Costly and need coordination of world military and space agencies

– Evacuation

• Possible if we can predict impact point

• Could be impossible depending on how large an area would need to
be evacuated

How Natural Disasters are linked:

Earthquakes can also cause other disasters including tsunamis and volcanic eruptions.

Tsunami
• Causes of tsunamis
o earthquakes - earthquakes at a Subduction zone from the convergence of
two oceanic plates can cause tsunami
o landslides - mass rock crashing into water can cause a small tsunami
o volcanic explosions - debris from volcanic action can cause small
tsunamis
o asteroids - self explanatory
• Caused by Tsunamis
o Coastline erosion - water smashing against mountain sides and coasts
causes erosion

Volcano
• Links to other Hazards
o earthquakes
o landslides
o fire - hot lava ignites plants and structures
o Climate Change - CO2 (and other gasses) from eruption alters climate

Flooding
• Caused by
o Earthquakes
o Landslides
o Hurricanes
o subsidence

Landslides
• Caused by
o Floods
o Earthquakes
o Storms
o Fires
• Causes of
o Flooding
o tsunamis

Subsidence & Soil

 • Earthquakes - in Subduction boundaries, when fault is locked, land can become
uplifted
o after an earthquake, the land subsides

Volcanoes
• magma uplifts the land during an eruption, and afterward, land subsidies
• lava tubes form when molten lava drains out from underneath cooled surface lava
• low viscosity lava forms hard surface as it cools, but not lava still flows
underneath
• cause of climate change
o adds to the drying of soils altering of groundwater table
• May cause flooding and mass wasting
o frost heaving and swelling soils cause creep
o areas subsiding due to groundwater mining are most susceptible to
flooding

Atmosphere and severe weather

• caused by
o flooding
o mass wasting
o subsidence

Cyclone
• caused by
o Coastal erosion
o Flooding
o mass wasting
o other severe weather - tornadoes, severe thunderstorms, snowstorms, and
blizzards

Waves, Coastline
• caused by
o Earthquakes, Volcanic eruptions, tsunamis
o change the shape of the shoreline
o storm waves, storm surge, coastal flooding
o increase coastal erosion

Landslides
• caused by eroding cliffs and bluffs
 • climate change
o storm frequency and intensity change with climate change

Climate Change
• Volcanic Forcing
• Ash from eruptions becomes suspended in the atmosphere, reflects sunlight
having a cooling effect.
• Mount Tambora, 1815 eruption contributed to cooling in North America and
Europe.
• Mount Pinatubo in 1991 counterbalanced global warming during 1991 and 1992.

Wildfire
• Climate change increases intensity and frequency of wildfires.
• Caused by changes in temperature, precipitation, and the frequency and intensity
of severe storms.
• Increases in temperature, decreases in humidity.
o Grasslands replacing forests creating more fuel.
o Lightning strikes increase ignitions.
o Insect infestations make trees more vulnerable to fire.

Asteroids
• Volcanic activity
• Large eruptions release CO2, warming Earth.
• Volcanic ash reflects radiation, Cooling Earth
• Cause
o Tsunamis
o Wildfires
o Earthquakes
o Mass wasting
o Climate change
o Volcanic eruption
Sample Questions
• How do volcanoes contribute to climate change?
A) Volcanoes release hot air into the atmosphere, contributing to global warming.
B) Lava from volcanoes heats up the air in the atmosphere, contributing to global
warming.
C) Lava cools into black rock that absorbs heat from the atmosphere, heating up the
earth itself.
D) Volcanoes release CO2 into the atmosphere, contributing to global warming.
E) Ash coats the Earth’s surface, trapping heat and heating up the earth itself.
Sample Question
• Which of the following are important indicators of whether a region is prone to
wildfires?
A) Humidity
B) Topography
C) Vegetation type
D) Temperature
E) All of the above are important in determining whether an area is prone to wildfires
Sample Question
• What does the Koeppen system use to describe climate in a region?
A) Average monthly temperature and precipitation
B) Average monthly temperature and latitude
C) Average rainfall and atmospheric pressure
D) Atmospheric pressure and average monthly temperature
E) Average cloud cover and proximity to ocean
Sample Question
• Which of the following affect whether a river will flood?
A) Amount of precipitation in the drainage basin
B) Rate at which the precipitation soaks into earth
C) Rate at which the runoff moves towards the river
D) Amount of moisture in the soil
E) All of the above affect flooding
Sample Question
• Why do clouds form?
A) Raindrops converge in points in the upper atmosphere
B) Air reaches its dew point, cools and condenses
C) Water vapor heats up, making steam
D) Snow in the upper atmosphere is visible as clouds
E) None of the above describe how clouds form