HAZARDS

Our diverse landscapes and coastal areas can be affected by

many natural hazards
EARTHQUAKES
 TSUNAMI
TSUNAMI

Catastrophic ocean wave, usually caused by a submarine earthquake occurring less

than 50 km (30 miles) beneath the seafloor, with a magnitude greater than 6.5 on the
Richter scale. Underwater or coastal landslides or volcanic eruptions also may cause a
tsunami.
 SOIL EROSION

Conservation problem involved in soil

erosion is the accelerated erosion that
occurs when soil cover in the form of living
or dead plant material is removed. In such
cases the soil then erodes at a rate faster
than it can be replaced by normal
deposition of particles on the soil surface or
by the breakdown of rocks and minerals. In
severe cases, such erosion leads to the
formation of deep gullies that cut into the
soil and then spread and grow until all the
soil is removed from the sloping ground.

It is particularly severe in the tropics, where

high rainfall and steeply sloping ground
favour the rapid loss of any soil exposed by
agriculture, and around the edges of the
world's deserts, where destruction of natural
plant cover by cultivation or livestock
grazing causes soil loss through wind action
and the spread of desert-like conditions.
 Floods caused by the shifting of river
courses are common.

FLOODS
FLOODS IN IMAGERIES
Gulf of Cambay

The silting and filling of natural channels, the cutting and creation of new channels,
the filling of swamps, the creation of new wetlands, the ebb and flow within the
shallow aquifers are all natural processes which occur due to the action of water.
Science and technology as applied to flood control and water resource development
have made the same tremendous strides as in other areas of human activity.
 LANDSLIDE

Slope failure & mass movement

Slope failure with ruptured ground

and tension cracks
Downward mass movement of earth or rock on unstable slopes, including a number of
forms that result from differences in rock structure, coherence of material involved,
degree of slope, amount of included water, extent of natural or artificial undercutting at
the base of the slope, relative rate of movement, and relative quantity of material
involved.
Barik Landslide near Rambi
Darjeeling District. West
Bengal
 SUBSIDENCE

Sinking of the Earth's surface in response to geologic or man-induced

causes effects can be produced by mining or by the extraction of water or
petroleum by means of wells. Subsidence also has been produced by the
irrigation of virgin areas of alluvial deposits; initial water penetration
causes reorientation of constituent particles and a consequent compaction
of sediment in the wetted areas.
Eruption of Mount Saint Helens
The volcano known as Mount Saint
Victims of Mount Vesuvius
Helens, in the southwestern portion of
Washington state in the United States,
began to erupt on March 27, 1980,
after a long period of dormancy. It
continued to burble until its first large-
scale eruption on May 18, 1980. This
violent blast sent clouds of ash and
other volcanic debris into the
atmosphere and killed 57 people. With
the eruption, the mountain’s elevation
dropped from 2950 m (9677 ft) to
2550 m (8365 ft).