Natural hazard by way of a physical occurrence namely volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, and landslides together with human activities trigger natural disasters. Now, there is one thing that you should trap in the corridor of your memory that calamity transpires when hazards meet vulnerability. Living on that thought, you just cannot consider events hazardous without human involvement. Thus any episode that affects people by means of natural catastrophe can be termed as a natural hazard.
The inevitable calamities leading to natural hazard
Avalanche is at it’s worst in the mountains in winter. It is a geophysical danger where a buildup of snow when on the loose down a slope causes the downslide of a huge rock mass. Here, heaps of material of different types fall or slide hurriedly under the force of gravity causing massive destruction to areas downstream. Conversely, a natural catastrophe like blizzard can even assist in spreading contractible disease like plague.
Floods are hugely disastrous in a lot of ways. Remember, the Great Flood of 1931, thanks to the Hwang Ho River in China. And think of the sorrow caused by the outbreak of an earthquake? It is an adversity, which is a result of the collision between the two tectonic plates within the earth’s crust causing ruptures in the respective area.
A hailstorm is a result of a thunderstorm that showers myriad hailstones that destroys almost everything that comes its way. The one disaster that comes to mind is the damaging hailstorm that struck Munich, Germany on August 31, 1986 and annihilated life and property. A heat wave is a peculiar and a rare disaster, which demands specific combinations of weather events to materialize. In the recent past the European Heat Wave of 2003 was the worst of the lot.
The cyclonic storm system that form over the oceans may come by way of hurricanes, tropical cyclones or even typhoons. The ruinous Atlantic hurricane, the Great Hurricane of 1780 that swallowed Martinique, St. Eustatius and Barbados and the Hurricane Katrina, which distressed the Gulf Coast of the United States in 2005 goes without mention. The impact event where an outer space piece of rock or other material bumps with the Earth is quite disastrous as well. If worse becomes worst then Lahar is a dangerous natural disaster. It is similar to a volcanic eruption that comprises a large amount of material, including mud, rock, and ash. It can engulf towns in no time, killing people in scores.
Moreover, a tsunami is a colossal wave of water that splashes over the coastal areas with a height of over 50 feet. Another cause of tsunami may be due to the undersea earthquakes like for example the 2004 Indian Ocean Earthquake, where the extensive scale of devastation took the world by surprise. Landslide and Mudslide can be pretty dangerous and it usually occurs due to earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, or general instability in the surrounding land. If all of the above wasn’t enough then there is wildfire, drought, solar flare, tornado, ice storm and not to mention a volcano to face up to.
Although natural hazard is inevitable, the only means to fight it out is through our resilience.
