Earthquakes and Volcanoes Natural Disasters Earthquakes and Volcanoes

Ring of Fire The “Ring of Fire” is a series of tectonic plate boundaries around the Pacific Ocean. 75% of the world’s volcanoes and 90% of the world’s earthquakes occur here

Volcanoes

What is a Volcano? An opening in the earth’s crust where magma (molten rock) flows from the mantle to the surface

Landslides/Mudslides Volcanoes create new land when molten rock reaches the surface, cools and hardens into solid rock This can sometimes cause fast-moving landslides of boiling mud

Divergent Zones Divergent boundaries – where two plates are moving away from each other (Katla volcano in Iceland)

Subduction Zones Subduction boundaries – where two plates are crashing into each other (Kyushu volcano in Japan)

Volcanoes in North America There are active volcanoes along the pacific coast of Canada (British Columbia) and USA at the Pacific Plate Subduction Zone Mount St Helens before it erupted in 1980 Mount St Helens after it erupted in 1980

How do volcanoes DESTROY land and life? How do volcanoes CREATE land and life? Destroys plants/ animals Landslides / lava flows Kill people (burning, smoke/gas) Land gets covered by new rock, ash, lava Plants can grown in volcanic soil Lava cools into new rock = new land Opportunity for new plants to grow

Paricutin, Mexico A crack opened up in a farmer’s cornfield in 1943 Ash and stone poured out, and it grew quickly – it reached 5 stories tall in one month After 1 year it was over 1,100 feet tall It kept erupting for 8 years

Underwater Volcano http://video.nationalgeographic.com/video/news/west-mata-submarine-volcano-vin

What is a Caldera? A caldera is a cauldron-like volcanic feature usually formed by the collapse of land following a volcanic eruption.

Mount Nyiragongo

Mount Nyiragongo An active volcano in the Democratic Republic of Congo The city of Goma (pop: 1 million) only lies 13-18 km south of the volcano It erupted in 2002, most people were evacuated in time But the lava destroyed more than 40% of the city

Mt Vesuvius

Mt Vesuvius Mount Vesuvius is best known for its eruption in AD 79 that led to the burying and destruction of the Roman cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum. An estimated 16,000 people died Vesuvius has erupted many times since Today, it is regarded as one of the most dangerous volcanoes in the world because of the population of 3,000,000 people living nearby and its tendency towards explosive eruptions

Yellowstone Supervolcano Yellowstone National Park is famous for its hot springs and its geysers, like Old Faithful There is an immense supervolcano there, it is one of the largest in the world

If the Yellowstone Supervolcano erupted...

Earthquakes

Earthquake Footage http://video.nationalgeographic.com/video/101-videos/earthquake-101 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WezExbO_XHU

The Richter Scale The Richter magnitude scale assigns a magnitude number to measure the energy released by an earthquake. It goes 1-10 An earthquake that registers 5.0 on the Richter scale is 10 times stronger than that of an earthquake that registered 4.0 A 3.0 earthquake is often felt by people, but very rarely causes damage. Shaking of indoor objects can be noticeable. A 8.0 earthquake would cause major damage to buildings. Will cause moderate to heavy damage to sturdy or earthquake-resistant buildings. Damaging in large areas.

2010 Haiti Earthquake It measured 7.0 in magnitude Deaths = 100,000-200,000 The poverty and poor housing conditions exacerbated the death toll

2004 Indian Ocean earthquake & tsunami An over 9.0 magnitude quake hit the ocean near Indonesia Triggered tsunamis that killed over 230,000 people in 14 countries 3rd strongest earthquake measured with modern equipment

Tsunami Footage https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oFHymR7cgn8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k3_m3lACJOo

The next California earthquake? According to a new study, there is so much built-up tension under the San Andreas fault, major earthquakes could be coming soon. This could affect millions living in the San Francisco Bay Area, as some of the fault lines are located underneath the heart of the area’s infrastructure.

California Earthquake 1989 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z7eABGpOHv8

Top 15 Natural Disasters Caught on Film https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AVIqOXB1HzU