Natural Disaster, event of nature that takes human lives or

destroys
property.

A natural hazard is a threat of a naturally occurring event that will have a negative effect on people or the environment A natural hazard becomes a natural disaster when it affects people, officially
causing more than 10 deaths, injuring more than 100 people, and/or causing US$16,000,000 of damage

The resulting loss depends on the capacity

of the population

to support or resist the disaster, and their resilience.

This understanding is concentrated in the formulation: "disasters occur

when hazards meet vulnerability.

Because they are naturally occurring natural disasters pose an ever present

threat which can only be dealt with through and preparedness

proper planning

Information on the major sources of natural disasters have been provided

here to help educate the relate to emergency planning

public on their cause and effects as they

Extensive deforestation of large surface areas of the earth has resulted in significant changes in the water and radiation balance of the planet. land-originating pollution due to increases in urbanization and industrialization and increases in the use of fossil fuels. global warming and the rising sea level will have serious short and long-term impacts on human and animal life on our planet.

Earthquake - also known as a

quake, tremor, temblor or seismic activity, is the result of a sudden release of energy in the Earth's crust that creates seismic waves. Earthquakes are recorded with a seismometer, also known as a seismograph. At the Earth's surface, earthquakes manifest themselves by shaking and sometimes displacing the ground. When a large earthquake epicenter is located offshore, the seabed sometimes suffers sufficient displacement to cause a tsunami. The shaking in earthquakes can also trigger landslides and occasionally volcanic activity. Earthquakes are caused mostly by rupture of geological faults, but also by volcanic activity, landslides, mine blasts, and nuclear experiments.

Tornadoes - is a violent, rotating column of air which is in

contact with both the surface of the earth and a cumulonimbus cloud or, in rare cases, the base of a cumulus cloud. The most intense of all atmospheric phenomena, 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 by a cloud of debris and dust. Most tornadoes have wind speeds between 40 mph and 110 mph, are approximately 250 feet across, and travel a few miles before dissipating. The most extreme can attain wind speeds of more than 300 mph, stretch more than a mile across, and stay on the ground for dozens of miles. Tornadoes have been observed on every continent except Antarctica. However, the vast majority of tornadoes in the world occur in the Tornado Alley region of the United States, although they can occur nearly anywhere in North America. They also occasionally occur in south-central and eastern Asia, the Philippines, east-central South America, Southern Africa, northwestern and southeast Europe, western and southeastern Australia, and New Zealand. Tornadoes can be detected before or as they occur through the use of Pulse-Doppler radar by recognizing patterns in velocity and reflectivity data, such as hook echoes, as well as by the efforts of storm spotters.

Flood - is an overflow of an expanse of water that submerges land. 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, such as a river or lake, which overflows or breaks levees, with the result that some of the water escapes its usual boundaries. While the size of a lake or other body of water will vary with seasonal changes in precipitation and snow melt, it is not a significant flood unless such escapes of water endanger land areas used by man like a village, city or other inhabited area. Floods can also occur in rivers, when flow exceeds the capacity of the river channel, particularly at bends or meanders. Floods often cause damage to homes and businesses if they are placed in natural flood plains of rivers.

also known as 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 factors affecting the original slope stability. Typically, pre-conditional factors build up specific sub-surface conditions that make the area/slope prone to failure, whereas the actual landslide often requires a trigger before being released. Landslides are aggravated by human activities, Human causes include, deforestation, cultivation and construction, which destabilize the already fragile slopes. Landslides occur when the stability of a slope changes from a stable to an unstable condition. A change in the stability of a slope can be caused by a number of factors, acting together or alone. Natural causes of landslides include: groundwater pressure acting to destabilize the slope Loss or absence of vertical vegetative structure, soil nutrients, and soil structure erosion of the toe of a slope by rivers or ocean waves weakening of a slope through saturation by snowmelt, glaciers melting, or heavy rains earthquakes adding loads to barely-stable slopes earthquake-caused liquefaction destabilizing slopes volcanic eruptions

Landslide

From time to time, our beloved mother Earth would open up to spit lava, shake the ground to great magnitudes, ravish surroundings with enormous wind speed and distribute lengthy ocean waves leaving its inhabitants to face and suffer the effects of a natural calamity. The inevitability of a natural disaster have helped mankind to be humble and kind to each other no matter the differences. Whenever one of nature s disaster variants occur, wealthy

nations unite, together with the rest of the world to give aid and assistance
in whatever form they could provide

Diplomatic differences would have to be set aside for the common welfare of the victims. Relief organizations, emergency institutions and government agencies go hand in hand whenever the need arises in dealing with universal problems caused by natural disasters. Leading nations have created research centres to discover some sort of solution in preventing these disasters to materialize or reducing the damage to a minimum. However since it is the call of nature, humanity is faced with insurmountable difficulties on how to overcome them. Curtailing measures for the least damage seems to be the best option we could undertake because we cannot stop it altogether from happening.

Earthquakes and volcanic eruptions can be leading factors that cause a tsunami to materialize. They therefore can be interrelated, like a series of dominoes which when one piece drops, every other piece has to follow too. This is quite what the whole globe feels whenever massive destruction reach very great heights due to inevitable calamities. That is why even hostile countries have to accept foreign donations from the West and around the world despite disagreements in terms of local and foreign policies. When an act of nature strikes, everyone seems to cooperate in providing relief. Special teams from different nations are usually deployed and philanthropic hands from every available individual (disregarding nationality) would work non-stop until such time that the emergency situation can be deemed stable. Plus it does not just stop there, millions of monetary assistance is usually pledged so that the countries affected can be rehabilitated in the soonest possible time. Time-frames are drawn to target a definite schedule in the rehabilitation of a heavily affected area.

Many believe that we can feel suffering everywhere right now because the last days are growing near. All evidence points to the fact that

nobody is immune to the resulting effects of any kind of natural

disaster from happening. Children and women are not spared when a natural disaster occurs, that s why everyone should

always prepare themselves. Broaden your knowledge and

be quite prepared for the bitter effects whenever Nature decides to strike its hand. On the lighter side, news updates us of improvements on tsunami warning systems, the readiness of government relief agencies and the preparedness of emergency rescue units that every government has ensured whenever a natural disaster happens. Moreover, the private sector through private and corporate organizations is now keener on doing their part in terms with helping the victims of anticipated natural calamities.