Plate Techtonics Flashcards
Hazard risk
The probabilistic that a natural hazard may take place.
Natural hazard
A natural event (for example an earthquake, volcanic eruption, tropical storm, flood) that threatens people or has the potential to cause damage, destruction and death.
Conservative plate margins
Tectonic plate margin where two tectonic plates slide past each other.
Constructive plates
Tectonic plate margin where rising magma adds new material to plates that are diverging or moving apart
Destructive
Tectonic plate margin where two plates are converging or coming together and oceanic plate is subducted. It can be associated with violent earthquakes and explosive volcanoes.
Earthquake
A sudden or violent movement within the Earth’s crust followed by a series of shocks.
Immediate response
The reaction of people as the disaster happens and in the immediate aftermath.
Long term responses
Later reactions that occur in the weeks, months and years after the event
Monitoring
Recording physical changes, such as earthquake tremors around a volcano, to help forecast when and where a natural hazard might strike.
Plate margins
The margin or boundary between two tectonic plates.
Planning
Actions taken to enable communities to respond to, and recover from, natural disasters, through measures such as emergency evacuation plans, information management, communications and warning systems
Prediction
Attempts to forecast when and where a natural hazard will strike, based on current knowledge. This can be done to some extent for volcanic eruptions (and tropical storms), but less reliably for earthquakes.
Primary effects
The initial impact of a natural event on people and property, caused directly by it, for instance the ground buildings collapsing following an earthquake.
Protection
Actions taken before a hazard strikes to reduce its impact, such as educating people or improving building design.
Secondary effects
The after-effects that occur as indirect impacts of a natural event, sometimes on a longer timescale, for instance fires due to ruptured gas mains resulting from the ground shaking.
