Natural Hazards Flashcards
What is a constructive plate margin?
A constructive plate boundary occurs when tectonic plates move apart, forming volcanoes as magma wells up to fill the gap and eventually creating new crust.
Example: mid-Atlantic Ridge.
What is a destructive plate margin?
A destructive plate boundary occurs when oceanic and continental plates move together, with the oceanic plate being forced under the continental plate, causing melting and potentially triggering earthquakes.
What is a conservative plate margin?
A conservative plate boundary occurs where plates slide past each other in opposite directions or at different speeds, leading to sudden movements and earthquakes when friction is overcome.
What are primary effects of an earthquake?
Primary effects are immediate consequences of an earthquake, such as deaths and injuries.
What are secondary effects of an earthquake?
Secondary effects occur in the hours, days, and weeks following an earthquake, including indirect consequences like fires and food shortages.
What are immediate responses to a disaster?
Immediate responses involve actions taken in the days and weeks after a disaster, primarily focused on search and rescue and assisting the injured.
What are long-term responses to a disaster?
Long-term responses are actions that continue for months and years after a disaster, including rebuilding infrastructure and revitalizing the local economy.
What is monitoring in the context of natural disasters?
Monitoring involves using scientific equipment to detect warning signs of events like volcanoes and tropical storms.
What does protection mean in relation to natural disasters?
Protection refers to constructing buildings that are safe to live in and will not collapse during disasters, such as using rubber shock absorbers for earthquakes.
What is adaptation to climate change?
Adaptation involves changing behaviors to cope with new conditions resulting from climate change, such as farmers altering crops due to increased temperatures or low rainfall.
What are sun spots?
Sun spots are dark patches that appear on the sun’s surface, indicating changes in temperature.
What is eccentricity in Earth’s orbit?
Eccentricity describes the irregularity of Earth’s orbit around the sun, changing from circular to elliptical every 100,000 years.
What is axial tilt of Earth?
Axial tilt refers to how Earth is tilted at an angle of 23.5 degrees, which changes back and forth every 41,000 years.
What is precession of planet Earth?
Precession is the natural wobble of Earth on its axis as it rotates, similar to a spinning top, with a wobble cycle lasting 26,000 years.
What is the greenhouse effect?
When the Earth’s temperature rises due to heat from the sun being trapped in the Earth’s atmosphere due to gases in the atmosphere.
What are greenhouse gases?
Gases in the atmosphere which absorb solar radiation and so heat up the Earth, e.g. carbon dioxide.
What are fossil fuels?
Resources which have taken millions of years to form from the fossils, oil and gas.
What is carbon capture storage?
Technology used to trap Carbon Dioxide before it is released into the air by power stations, factories, etc. A way of trying to reduce climate change.
