Blue & Orange terms Flashcards
What is a Natural Disaster?
An extreme natural event in which a large amount of energy is released in a short time with catastrophic consequences for life and infrastructure in the vicinity
What is the key aspect of natural disasters?
The impact on society
What is a natural hazard?
a source of danger that exists in the environment and that has the potential to cause harm. Hazards are potentially damaging
What is vulnerability?
the likelihood that a community will suffer, both in terms of fatalities and physical damage when exposed to hazards in the environment
Summary of terms: Natural disaster, natural hazard and vulnerability
Natural disaster: the event, past tense
Natural Hazard: the danger source
Vulnerability: the impact on humans/community
What is frequency regarding a metric to describe hazard levels
number of similar events per unit time. For example, on average 4 tropical cyclones affect canada every year.
What is a return period?
length of time between similar events. Severe hurricanes strike the US on average every 6 years. This does not mean that there is a severe hurricane every six years.
What is magnitude?
The amount of energy fuelling a natural event
What is gravity?
Force of attraction between masses m1 and m2 separated by a distance of r. F=Gm1m2/r2. G is the gravitational constant
What is risk?
Risk= Vulnerability x Harm
What is response?
The Immediate actions taken after a natural disaster has occured to put the event under control
What is recovery?
Middle term activities to put the situation back to normal
What is mitigation?
Long term actions taken to minimize the risk associated with natural hazard. Specifically, damage on infrastructure
What is preparedness?
Actions taken in advance to ensure people are ready when a disaster strikes. applied to humans and communitiies
What is adaptation?
new term applicable mainly to climate change and weather events. Long term actions taken to lower risk and gradual adjustments to minimize harm
What is important to remeber about where earthquakes and volcanoes occur?
They do not occur at random locations, most coincide with plate boundaries
What is differentiation?
Process by which gravity causes denser material to gradually migrate to the center of a planet
What are the 3 most important layers of the earth in the theory of plate tectonics (based on strength)?
Rigid lithosphere, soft plastic asthenoshpere, and stiff plastic mesosphere
What are tectonic plates?
lithospheric plates floating on top of the asthenoshpere
What is the depth of the lithosphere- asthenosphere boundary?
boundary is at a depth of about 100km
What is convection?
Heat transfer by liquid circulation. Warm low density water rises, and cool high density water rises.
Where are large convection cells located?
in the asthenosphere and mesophere
What does tectonic mean?
related to the deformation forces acting on the earths surface
What is a tectonic cycle?
it is an episode of large scale deformation of the earths surface. One cycle ~250 million years
According to the theory of plate tectonics, which plates slide over which other plate?
Rigid lithopshere plates slide over the plastic asthenosphere
What is lithosphere?
continental and oceanic crust and rigid upper mantle
What is the athenosphere?
the plastic upper mantle
What sets the plates into motion?
Convection in the asthenosphere and mesosphere sets plates into motion
What is subduction?
process in which a lithospheric plate descends beneath another, pulled down by gravity
In the subduction process, What is the less dense plate called?
The overriding plate
In the subduction process, what is the denser plate called?
the subducting plate
What is the hypocentre?
the point of origin of an earthquake in the subsurface
What is the epicentre?
Point on earths surface directly above the hypocenter. Epicentre locations outline plate boundaries.
What is tension?
force that pulls a body apart
what is compression?
force that shortens a body (pushes together)
what is shear?
force applied parallel to the surface, causing slippage
What is a divergent zone?
The dominant force is tension. It is an elongated region where two plates are being pulled away from each other. New lithosphere is formed as molten asthenosphere is forced upward into the gap
What is a convergent zone?
The dominant force is compression. It is a region where two plates collide.
What is collision style controlled by?
by the density of the plates
What happens where an oceanic plate and a continental plate collide?
The oceanic plate which is always denser subducts beneath the continental plate which is always less dense
(subduction zone)
What happens where 2 oceanic plates collide?
the denser oceanic plate slides under the less dense plate (becomes a subduction zone)
What is a continent to continent collision zone?
Where 2 continental plates collide both plates are too buoyant to subduct so plates compress and crumple which leads to thickening of the crust.
What is a transform fault?
The dominant force is shear. A fault that accomodates horizontal movement of tectonic paltes against each other. No material is created nor consumed
What is a hot spot?
The dominant force is mainly tension and some compression. Plume of slowly rising hot rocks that create volcanism on the earths surface. It originates in the mesophere, passes through the asthenosphere and lithosphere as magma and supplies an active volcano
Where are earthquakes and volcanoes most frequent?
They do not occur at random locations and they are most frequent in tectonic environments
What is the hypocenter depth boundary and why can earthquakes not occur past this depth?
No earthquake below ~700km because the material in the plastic asthenosphere is not rigid enough to break abruptly
What kind of earthquakes occur at convergent zones?
They are infrequent and great (immense amount of energy is stored and then realized suddenly magnitude of 8-8.5+). Shallow, intermediate and deep earthquakes occur.
What happens at subduction zones with depths <30 km?
Crustal earthquakes (shallow) due to compression in both overriding and subducting plates
What happens at subduction zones with depths ~30km?
Megathrust earthquakes due to shear stress at the contact b/w the overriding and subducting plates
What is a megathrust fault?
boundary between the subducting and overriding plates
What happens at subduction zones at depths >100km
Intraslab earthquakes in the subducting plate due to cold rock being consumed into the hot asthenosphere.
What are megathrust earthquakes?
The worlds largest earthquakes
What type of earthquakes have the highest risk in the Cascadia subduction zone?
Crustal earthquakes, average return period ~30 years
What type of earthquake has the most catastrophic risk?
A megathrust earthquake, average return period~600 years
What kind of earthquakes occur at transform faults?
Stress from plates being stuck is released on infrequent, major (M=7-7.9) and shallow earthquakes
What kind of earthquakes occur at hot spots?
Tension and compression forces, result in frequent, strong (M= 6-6.9) and shallow earthquakes
What is a fault?
fracture across which two blocks of rock move realtive to each other
What is a slip?
Displacement between the two rock blocks
What is a rupture area?
Surface area where rocks have moved?