Natural disaster

A natural disaster is the very harmful impact on a society or community brought by a natural phenomenon or hazard. Some examples of natural hazards include avalanches, droughts, earthquakes, floods, heat waves, landslides - including submarine landslides, tropical cyclones, volcanic activity and wildfires. Additional natural hazards include blizzards, dust storms, firestorms, hails, ice storms, sinkholes, thunderstorms, tornadoes and tsunamis.

A natural disaster can cause loss of life or damage property. It typically causes economic damage. How bad the damage is depends on how well people are prepared for disasters and how strong the buildings, roads, and other structures are.

Nowadays it is hard to distinguish between "natural" and "human-made" disasters. Human choices in architecture, fire risk, and resource management can cause or worsen natural disasters. Climate change also affects how often disasters due to extreme weather hazards happen. Some things can make natural disasters worse, like inadequate building norms, marginalization of people and poor choices on land use planning. Many developing countries do not have proper disaster risk reduction systems. This makes them more vulnerable to natural disasters than high income countries. An adverse event only becomes a disaster if it occurs in an area with a vulnerable population.

Terminology

A natural disaster is when a natural event causes big problems for people and places. These events can include things like earthquakes, floods, droughts, and storms. When these happen, they can hurt people, damage buildings, and make life very hard for everyone affected.

The word "disaster" means when something happens that a community cannot handle on its own. Natural disasters are just one type of disaster; others can come from human actions or technology. For example, an earthquake is a natural hazard. But when it hits a place and causes a lot of damage, it becomes a disaster. This shows that while natural events can happen, how badly they affect us often depends on how we prepare and what we do to keep ourselves safe.

Scale

Main articles: List of natural disasters by death toll and List of countries by natural disaster risk

By region and country

Some places face more natural disasters than others. As of 2019, countries like the Bahamas, Haiti, Zimbabwe, and Armenia have lost many years of health and well-being because of natural disasters. The Asia-Pacific area is where natural disasters happen most often. People there are five times more likely to face a natural disaster than people in other parts of the world.

From 1995 to 2015, the most natural disasters happened in America, China, and India. In 2012, there were 905 natural disasters around the world, and most of them were weather-related, like storms or floods.

Countries that are still developing often don’t have the best systems to warn people about disasters or to help them prepare. This makes them more likely to suffer when disasters happen.

Impacts

A natural disaster can harm people, damage buildings, disrupt daily life, and hurt the environment. It may cause injuries, damage to property, and problems for communities and the economy.

Natural disasters can also hurt the environment. During these events, waste management becomes harder, and lots of waste can be created quickly. This can pollute areas and make health problems worse. For example, after a big tsunami in Japan, huge amounts of waste were left behind, some of which ended up on distant coasts.

Disasters can also affect different groups of people in unequal ways. Women, for example, may face extra dangers because of disrupted services and changes in safety measures. It is important for communities to support everyone affected and work together to recover.

Disasters caused by geological hazards

Landslides

See also: List of landslides and List of avalanches

Avalanches

Earthquakes

Main article: Earthquake

See also: Lists of earthquakes and Soil liquefaction

An earthquake happens when energy suddenly bursts out in the Earth's crust, making the ground shake. Earthquakes occur because of movements along cracks called faults. Most of the time, earthquakes themselves don't hurt people; it's what they cause next, like buildings falling down, fires starting, big waves called tsunamis, or volcanic eruptions, that can be dangerous. Better buildings, safety plans, and early warnings can help protect people.

Sinkholes

Main article: Sinkhole

See also: List of sinkholes

A sinkhole is a hole that forms when the ground collapses. This can happen when the ground is weakened by natural processes or human activities like digging, causing the surface to sink or break open.

Coastal erosion

See also: Coastal management, Coastal and oceanic landforms, Coastal development hazards, Coastal geography, Coastal engineering, Coastal morphodynamics, and Bioerosion

Coastal erosion is when the land along coastlines wears away. Waves, currents, and storms can move the land, changing the shape of beaches and shores. This can damage buildings, roads, and other things people use near the coast.

Volcanic eruptions

See also: Types of volcanic eruptions and List of largest volcanic eruptions

Volcanoes can cause a lot of damage in different ways. The eruption itself can throw rocks and ash into the air. Lava flows from volcanoes can destroy anything in its path because of its intense heat. Volcanic ash can fall like a thick blanket and even collapse roofs when it piles up. Ash can also hurt people if they breathe it in. One of the most dangerous things from a volcano is a fast-moving cloud of hot ash and gas called a pyroclastic flow, which can travel down the slopes very quickly.

Tsunami

Main article: Tsunami

See also: List of historical tsunamis

A tsunami is a big series of waves in the ocean or a large lake caused when a lot of water is suddenly moved. This can happen after undersea earthquakes, landslides under the water, or volcanic eruptions. Tsunamis can travel very far and cause flooding and damage when they reach land.

Disasters caused by extreme weather hazards

Because of changes in our climate, some weather-related disasters are happening more often and with greater strength. This includes heat waves, droughts, wildfires, and flooding from coastal areas.

Hot and dry conditions

Heat waves

Main article: Heat wave

See also: List of heat waves

A heat wave is a time when the weather is unusually and very hot. In the past, heat waves were rare and needed special weather conditions to happen. But now, because the Earth is warming up, many places are seeing hotter temperatures more often. This has led to more wildfires in forests and even dangers to cities.

Droughts

Main article: Drought

See also: List of droughts

Droughts are long periods with very little rain. One famous drought happened in Australia from 1997 to 2009, causing water problems across the country. In 2011, the whole state of Texas had drought conditions all year, which hurt the economy and caused big fires.

Wildfires

Main article: Wildfire

See also: List of forest fires

Wildfires are huge fires that often start in areas far from towns. They can begin from natural causes like lightning or from human mistakes. Wildfires can spread to places where people live, putting homes and animals at risk.

Storms and heavy rain

Floods

Main article: Flood

See also: List of floods

A flood happens when water covers land that is usually dry. This can happen when rivers or lakes overflow, or when heavy rain fills up normal water areas. Floods can damage homes, roads, and farms.

Thunderstorms

Main articles: Thunderstorm and Lightning

Strong storms can create lightning, which can damage buildings and start fires. Lightning can also be dangerous to people outside. Most lightning-related dangers happen in places where storms are common and homes aren’t very strong.

Tropical cyclone

See also: Tropical cyclones and climate change

Typhoon, cyclone, cyclonic storm and hurricane are different names for the same kind of big storm that forms over the ocean. These storms have strong winds, lots of rain, and thunderstorms. The name depends on where the storm happens: hurricanes in the Atlantic and Northeast Pacific, typhoons in the Northwest Pacific, and cyclones in the South Pacific and Indian Ocean. Big storms like Hurricane Katrina have caused lots of damage to places like the United States.

Tornadoes

See also: List of tornadoes and tornado outbreaks

A tornado is a powerful spinning wind that touches the ground. It can be very dangerous, with winds that can blow things away. Tornadoes can look like funnels and come alone or in groups with many storms.

Cold-weather events

See also: Ice storm and Cold wave

Blizzards

Main article: Blizzard

Blizzards are big winter storms with lots of snow and strong winds. They can hurt farming and other work, especially where snow isn’t common. Some famous blizzards include one in the United States in 1888 and another in Iran in 1972.

Hailstorms

Main article: Hail

See also: List of costly or deadly hailstorms

Hail is ice that falls from thunderstorms. Hailstones can be small or big and can damage farms, crops, and equipment. One costly hailstorm happened in Munich, Germany, in 1984.

Multi-hazard analysis

Natural hazards like earthquakes, wildfires, and floods each have their own unique features. Sometimes, one hazard can cause another to happen. For example, an earthquake might trigger landslides, or a wildfire might make future landslides more likely.

To understand these risks better, experts study all possible hazards and how they might interact. This helps communities prepare and protect themselves from damage. Some types of risk, like those from earthquakes or strong winds, are easier to calculate, while others are still being studied.

Responses

Main articles: Disaster response and Emergency management

Disaster management is an important job for civil protection (or civil defense) groups. It helps with four main steps: stopping disasters before they happen, responding when they occur, getting better after, and getting ready for the future.

Mitigation and prevention

Disaster risk reduction

Response

Recovery

Preparedness

Society and culture

International law

The 1951 Refugee Convention and its 1967 Protocol help protect people who have to leave their homes because of dangerous events. The 1998 UN Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement and the 2009 Kampala Convention also work to keep people safe when they are moved from their homes by natural disasters.