Concept Of Hazards Flashcards
What is a natural hazard?
A threat which has the potential to cause injury, loss of life, damage to property, socio-economic disruption or environmental degradation.
What is risk?
The chance or probability of being affected by a natural event
What is mitigation?
Making a hazard less dangerous
What is vulnerability?
A high risk combined with a inability of individuals and communities to cope
What is capacity to cope?
The ability of affected communities to cope with a given hazard
What is a disaster?
A sudden accident or natural catastrophe that causes great damage or loss of life
What is severity?
How damaging or disruptive an event is
What are hydrological/atmospheric hazards?
A hazard formed by hydrological and atmospheric processes
Name 4 hydrological/atmospheric hazards
Wildfires
Tropical Storms
Floods
Droughts
What are geophysical hazards?
A hazard formed by tectonic/geological processes
Name 3 geophysical hazards?
Tsunami
Earthquake
Volcano
What are natural-technological hazards?
Where natural hazards trigger technological disasters
Name a na-tech hazard?
Dams bursting due to heavy rain
What are context hazards?
Widespread (global) threat due to environmental factors
Name a context hazard?
Climate Change
What does severity affect?
How lower the occurrence will be
Name 2 examples of low risk of occurrence but high severity?
VEI-8 eruption
Category 5 storm
What does VEI mean?
Volcanic Explosively Index
What are the 4 responses to hazards?
Prevention
Adaptation
Response
Fatalism
What are 3 ideas of plate tectonics?
Age of earth
Continental drift
Post World War 2 developments
What are used to calculate the age of the earth?
Long-lived isotopes
What were the original ideas of plate tectonics? Passive
That the plates were carried along by convention current and the mantle motion was what drove the process
What is the current understanding of plate tectonics? Active
The sinking of plates is what drives the process
Why are convention currents not a major mechanism of plate motion anymore ?? 2 reasons
No correlation between speed of plate motion and the size of plate
