Tag: Natural Calamity

Earthquake, A Natural Disaster

One of nature’s most catastrophic catastrophes, earthquakes have the power to significantly alter the planet’s physical features, including water bodies, ice caps, flora, and fauna. The abrupt release of energy in the Earth’s crust, which causes the ground to shake violently, is the source of earthquakes. Earthquakes can have a terrible effect, resulting in human casualties and property destruction. In this article, we’ll talk about how important geographic features, including water bodies and ice caps, have changed and how that has affected the local flora and fauna.

Geographical Features and Location Changes

Earthquakes can cause significant changes in the landscape and location of various geographical features. One of the most common effects of earthquakes is the creation of new landforms, such as mountains, valleys, and canyons. This is because earthquakes can cause the Earth’s crust to fold, break, and shift, which can create new landforms.

Earthquakes can also cause changes in water bodies, such as lakes and rivers. In some cases, earthquakes can cause these bodies of water to drain or dry up entirely. This can happen when an earthquake causes a shift in the Earth’s crust, which can block the flow of water or cause it to flow in a different direction. In addition, earthquakes can cause tsunamis, which are large waves that can cause significant damage to coastal regions and can also affect water bodies such as oceans, seas and bays.

Ice caps are also at risk due to earthquakes. These large masses of ice can be affected by seismic activity in various ways. Earthquakes can cause cracks in the ice, which can lead to melting and fragmentation. In addition, earthquakes can cause avalanches, which can be especially dangerous if they occur on or near glaciers.

Water Bodies

Earthquakes can cause significant changes in water bodies, such as rivers, lakes, and oceans. The most common change is the formation of new water bodies or the expansion of existing ones. For example, earthquakes can cause landslides, which can dam rivers, creating new lakes or widening existing ones. On the other hand, earthquakes can also cause the collapse of riverbanks, leading to the diversion of rivers and the creation of new river channels. Another significant impact of earthquakes on water bodies is the generation of tsunamis. Tsunamis are large waves that are triggered by earthquakes occurring in the ocean floor. These waves can travel long distances and cause significant damage to coastal communities.

Flora and Fauna

Earthquakes can also have significant impacts on flora and fauna. These impacts can be both direct and indirect. The direct impact of earthquakes on flora and fauna is the destruction of their habitats. Earthquakes can cause landslides, which can bury vegetation, and collapse buildings, which can crush wildlife. In addition, earthquakes can cause soil liquefaction, which can suffocate plant roots and prevent them from obtaining nutrients and water. The indirect impact of earthquakes on flora and fauna is the disruption of ecosystems. Earthquakes can alter the availability of resources, such as water and food, leading to changes in the distribution and behavior of wildlife. For example, earthquakes can cause changes in the flow of rivers, leading to changes in the distribution of fish species.

Effects of Changes

The changes in geographical features caused by earthquakes can have significant short-term and long-term effects on the environment and human communities.

Short-term Effects:

The short-term effects of changes in geographical features include immediate impacts on human communities, such as loss of life and property damage. The destruction of habitats can also lead to the displacement of wildlife, which can have long-term impacts on ecosystems.

Long-term Effects:

The long-term effects of changes in geographical features include changes in the environment that can persist for years or even decades. For example, the creation of new water bodies can lead to changes in the hydrology of an area, altering the flow of rivers and affecting the availability of water for human communities and wildlife. The melting of ice caps due to earthquakes can also contribute to rising sea levels, leading to the displacement of coastal communities and the loss of biodiversity.

The ecology, infrastructure, and economy can all be severely harmed by earthquakes, which are a serious natural calamity. Further to having a substantial impact on flora and fauna, they can alter the terrain and the placement of many geographical features. It is crucial to take precautions to be ready for and lessen the consequences of earthquakes because their effects can be profound and lasting.

Disaster and disaster management

Catastrophe (Disasters) are classified into three types: naturals, man‐made, and hybrid disasters. A natural disaster is a major adverse event resulting from natural processes of the Earth; examples include firestorms, dust storms, floods, hurricanes, tornadoes, volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, tsunamis, storms, and other geologic processes. A normal calamity can cause misfortune of life or harm property, and ordinarily clears out a few financial harm in its wake, the seriousness of which depends on the influenced population’s versatility and on the framework accessible.

A landslide is depicted as an outward and descending slant development of an wealth of slope-forming materials counting shake, soil, manufactured materials, or a combination of these. An seismic tremor is the result of a sudden discharge of vitality within the Earth’s hull that makes seismic waves. At the Earth’s surface, seismic tremors show themselves by vibration, shaking, and in some cases relocation of the ground. Volcanoes can cause far reaching pulverization and resulting catastrophe in a few ways. One danger is the volcanic emission itself, with the constrain of the blast and falling rocks able to cause hurt. Dust storm may be a spread of tidy in dry regions. A manmade disaster is more cascading than a natural disaster an example of natural disaster is Bhopal Gas Tragedy.

Bhopal Gas Tragedy, India : Imagine waking up in the middle of the night in agonizing pain with your eyes and lungs burning. You wonder if you’re going to make it. Many don’t. That was the experience countless residents of Bhopal, India had on December 2, 1984 when the Union Carbide India Limited pesticide plant sprang a gas leak. Over 500,000 people were exposed to methyl isocyanine gas and other chemicals. Thousands of people died within the first hours of the leak, but estimates between 5,000 to upwards of 16,000 deaths resulted from the leak overall.

Deepwater Skyline Oil Spill, Inlet of Mexico It’s difficult to disregard the most noticeably awful and biggest oil spill in human history since it as it were happened less than three a long time prior. It begun on April 20, 2010 when an blast on BP’s Deepwater Skyline oilrig murdered 11 specialists, harmed 17 others, and cleared out the well spouting oil. Initially, BP claimed the spill was fair 1,000 barrels per day, concealing the reality that the well was spilling anyplace from 40,000 to 162,000 barrels a day.

Worldwide Warming, Third Planet from the Sun: Global warming is one of the foremost neglected and continuous man-made fiascos — one that will have the most noteworthy long-term affect on humankind. Over the top sums of nursery gasses, especially CO2, presented into the air have expanded normal worldwide temperatures determining a number of desperate results. Impacts from rising ocean levels, desertification, and harm from strongly super storms like Typhoon Katrina have already created a few of the primary bunches of climate-change outcasts and a few appraise that number to rise to 150 million by 2050.

Hybrid disaster is the third type of disaster. A crossover catastrophe may be a artificial one, when powers of nature are unleashed as a result of specialized disappointment or disrupt. There are disasters that result from both human mistake and normal strengths. These are crossover catastrophes. An case of a crossover disaster is the broad clearing of wildernesses causing soil disintegration, and hence overwhelming rain causing avalanches.

Disaster management is how we deal with the human, material, economic or environmental impacts of said disaster, it is the process of how we “prepare for, respond to and learn from the effects of major failures”

Disaster management has three stages which include disaster prevention, disaster preparedness, and disaster response/relief UNISDR sees Calamity Anticipation as the concept of locks in in exercises which proposed to anticipate or dodge potential unfavorable impacts through activity taken in development, exercises planned to supply security from the event of catastrophes. WCPT so also highlight that whereas not all catastrophes can be avoided, great hazard administration, clearing plans, natural arranging and plan benchmarks can decrease chance of misfortune of life and harm relief. The HYOGO System was one such Worldwide Arrange for common Calamity Hazard Decrease, which was received in 2005 as a 10 year Worldwide Arrange, marked by understanding with 168 Governments which advertised directing standards, needs for activity and viable implies for accomplishing fiasco versatility for defenseless communities.

“The information and capacities created by governments, proficient reaction and recuperation organizations, communities and people to successfully expect, react to, and recoup from, the impacts of likely, inescapable or current danger occasions or conditions” “The provision of emergency services and public assistance during or immediately after a disaster in order to save lives, reduce health impacts, ensure public safety and meet the basic subsistence needs of the people affected”

The lingering effects of unexpected emergencies and disasters are different for everyone. Knowing what to do after an emergency can help reduce stress and aid in a quicker recovery. Recovery is a process the process to repair and restore your life after an emergency or disaster is not easy and takes time, flexibility and patience. Examples of recovery include: removing waste and debris, contacting your insurance company, replacing lost or destroyed documentation, finding a new home, getting mental health support etc.