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Environmental Hazards > Exam 1 > Flashcards

Exam 1 Flashcards

1
Q

What is an environmental hazard?

A

Natural process that poses a threat to human life or property

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2
Q

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Which disasters cause the most deaths?

A

Droughts and floods

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3
Q

What disaster causes the greatest damage costs in the US?

A

Hurricanes

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4
Q

What are ways we try and mitigate hazards?

A

Monitoring tech, engineering, government policies, and education to the public

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5
Q

What are some risks that comes with insurance with hazards?

A

It’s considered based on past events and how much they reoccur. The greater the hazard and the more frequent it is, the insurance will be greater.

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6
Q

What role does the US government have?

A

Research behavior, funding, analysis of different hazards, monitoring as a whole, FEMA as a whole, education, hazard management and reduction

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7
Q

What are the challenges in growing populations moving to hazardous locations?

A

More and more people are moving closer to coastlines (800 million people/ 10% of world’s pop) so more people are exposed to these dangers

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8
Q

What are some challenges for those less fortunate?

A

In the developing world, the availability of food and shelter aren’t as widespread. Building codes often don’t exist. Vulnerability reduction depends on economic, cultural, and political factors

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9
Q

Explain the structure of the earth

A

Core, Mantle, Crust.
Lithosphere: stiff, rigid outer ring of the earth
Asthenosphere: outer mantle. Hotter and easier to deform. Plate tectonic driver

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10
Q

What is Moho’s discontinuity?

A

Boundary between earth’s crust and mantle. Major difference in density

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11
Q

What is the difference between continental and oceanic plates?

A

Continental is much thicker and silica rich. Oceanic is much denser and iron/magnesium rich.

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12
Q

What are the 6 plate movements?

A

Divergent (move away)
Convergent (move towards each other)
Subduction (denser plate slides into asthenosphere)
Collision (Low density continental plates collide)
Transform (plates slide past each other)
Mid-Oceanic ridges (oceanic crust is spreading from a magma well [Hawaii])

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13
Q

What are the programs for Oregon?

A

Statewide Planning Goal 7 identifies and plans for these hazards (floods, landslides, earthquakes, tsunamis, coastal erosion, and wildfires). The Oregon Natural Hazards Mitigation Plan identifies and addresses 5 other hazards (droughts, dust storms, volcanoes, windstorms, and winter storms)

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14
Q

What are the programs for California?

A

The California Integrated Seismic Network (CISN) operates a reliable, modern, and statewide system for earthquake monitoring, research, archiving, and distribution of info for public safety, emergency response, and loss prevention

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15
Q

What are hotspots relating to plate tectonics?

A

Hotspots are plumes of magma that originate in the earth’s mantle and move outward through the crust. As crustal tectonic plates move over hot spots, mantle material upwells and erupts on the surface of the plate to form a volcano, seamount, or volcanic island

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16
Q

What is a fault and the types of faults?

A

Fault: a rupture in the earth’s crust

Normal: pulling apart
Reverse: compression; one is pushed up over the other. More energy
Thrust: low angle fault; merging
Strike-slip: sliding against each other

17
Q

Which faults are most likely to create the greatest earthquake?

A

Reverse and overthrust

18
Q

What are primary waves of an earthquake?

A

First, “primary”, sudden jolt, travels 5-8 km/sec thru rock, sometimes heard as low rumbling

19
Q

What are secondary waves of an earthquake?

A

Shear waves, feels like wiggling (difficult to stand), travels 3.5-4.5 km/sec thru rock, can be more destructive than primary waves

20
Q

What are love waves (surface waves)?

A

Horizontal motion

21
Q

What are Rayleigh waves (surface waves)?

A

Oscillation/ convective motion

22
Q

What are secondary effects from earthquakes?

A

Landslides, rockfall, liquefaction (soils become almost liquid-like)

23
Q

What was the most severe earthquake in history?

A

Chile, 1960. 9.5 Magnitude

24
Q

Where is a possible location of an earthquake in the eastern US?

A

New Madrid, Missouri

25
Q

What is the difference between the Mercalli and Richter scales?

A

The (modified) Mercalli scale was redeveloped in 1931 and reflects subjective observations of people and objective descriptions of damage.

The Richter scale is a scale based on the magnitude of an earthquake and is based on a logarithmic scale

26
Q

What are a few difficulties surrounding earthquake prediction?

A
  • Some areas are more susceptible to earthquakes than others
  • Researchers can track faults and anticipate when they might move
  • Different rock types have different strengths
  • Sometimes nearby smaller earthquakes can release stress in another area
  • Swarms of minor earthquakes/ foreshocks may announce onset of fault slippage
  • Foreshocks precede about 30-50% of earthquakes
27
Q

What are earthquake probabilities?

A

They describe the long-term chances that an earthquake of a certain magnitude will happen during a time window. Most are based off of the average rate of historical events. Sometimes, historical events aren’t available, but the rate of slip along the fault can be estimated

28
Q

What is NEHRP and what agencies follow them?

A

To develop earthquake risk reduction through agencies to improve earthquake resilience.
AGENCIES: FEMA, NIST, NSF, USGS

29
Q

What is earthquake resiliency?

A

A system’s ability to efficiently absorb stresses without significant disruption to its functioning

30
Q

What are some causes for tsunamis?

A
  • Earthquakes
  • Volcanic eruptions
  • Landslides/ rockfalls
  • Volcanic flank collapse
  • Asteroid impact
31
Q

What are the most common earthquake fault for tsunamis?

A

Reverse or thrust fault

32
Q

What factors affecting the height of a tsunami wave?

A
  • Earthquake magnitude
  • Area of rupture zone
  • Rate and volume of water displaced
  • Depth of water above rupture
  • Coastal shelf configuration
  • Coastal configuration
33
Q

What are examples of a few tsunamis?

A
  • Tohoku (tsunami made by an earthquake by Japan)
  • Tonga volcano tsunami
34
Q

Which island in the Atlantic is a potential threat to the eastern US?

A

The Canary Islands off the coast of west Africa

35
Q

What is the National Tsunami Mitigation Program?

A

A coordinated US national effort to mitigate the impact of tsunamis through public education, community response planning, hazard assessment, and warning coordination. Includes NOAA, FEMA, USGS, and 28 US states

36
Q

What are a few tsunami warning systems?

A
  • US Tsunami Warning System
  • NOAA/ NWS
  • www.tsunami.gov
  • Pacific Tsunami Warning Network (early warning with about 600 high seismic station)
  • Buoy warning systems (deep-ocean assessment and tsunami sesnors)
  • Satellites

Environmental Hazards (3 decks)

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