A History Of Natural Disasters

The San Francisco Earthquake 1989

The earthquake hit San Francisco at five o'clock on the day of the 17th of October, 1989. The earthquake hit during rush hour and was measured as a 7 on the Richter Scale. The earthquake struck during rush hour and as a result, many motorists were killed especially when a two storey bridge collapsed crushing hundreds of motorists on their way home from work. The earthquake struck at its strongest 60 miles south of San Francisco city and 10 miles south of the San Andreas Fault. The eartquake only lasted 15 seconds but their were aftershocks for over a day. The earthquake and its aftershocks split roads and destroyed buildings that were meant to be eartquakeproof.

I got this picture from www. mdvah.blogspot.com.

The earthquake that struck in 1989 was the second greatest ever to strike America after the 1906 earthquake which also struck San Francisco. A total of 63 people died and even though it is still unfortunate that people died, it ios still a lot less than the anticipated amount of deaths. Rescue teams were on hand to help those most in need, such as those who were traped when a two storey motorway bridge collapsed on top of them. Rescue teams cut people from their cars but most of them had already been crushed to death. There was a baseball game taking place on the day of the eartquake and the spectators gathwered on the pich as the quake took place.

A History of Natural Disaters

Vesuvius Eruption 79 AD

The eruption of Vesuvius in 79 AD put the volcano into the history books. The eruption was one of the biggest the volcano has ever seen and was caused due to the clogging of the vent in the volcano for a number of years. The volcano attempted to unclog the vent many times and caused great tremors in the earth resulting in earthquakes the greatest of which was in 62 AD and resulted in much destruction of the nearby towns such as Pompeii and Herculaneum. Then, in 79 AD the volcano succeeded in unclogging itself and erupted. The eruption was so great, that it blew the whole top of the volcano, creating a crater over 14km wide. A huge cloud of ash, gathered in a mushroom shape formed and the wind blew it towards Pompeii where it deposited several metres of ash over the town burying alive the people inside. I got these pictures from http://www.answers.com/ and http://www.dailygalaxy.com/.

Pompeii was the only town to be struck by ash however. On the opposite sideof the volcano, a boiling mudflow struck the towns of Herculaneum,Oplontis and Stabiae. Not all the victims were in the towns though. Many people escaped but were intoxicated by the poisonous gases from the eruption or were hit by the pumice falling from the sky. One man who was watching on while all this was happening was Pliny the Elder. He was fascinated by the mushroom cloud of ash that formed from the eruption and decided to get a closer look. He went across the Aegean Sea to the volcano but the cloud of ash covering the sun made everthing dark and it was impossible to see. Shortly after this, he was killed by falling pumice.

Pliny's nephew Pliny the Younger wrote to a man in Rome called Tacitus to inform him and describe to him the eruption of Vesuvius. Over a thousand years later, excavating on Pompeii began after they accidentally discovered artefacts while digging a well. A man called Giuseppe Fiorelli decide to pump plaster into the cavities of the bodies they found. This preserved them and revealed some of their features such as the shoes they were wearing. People can now visit the long lost city of Pompeii and see many of the well-preserved buildings and bodies from 79ad when the eruption occurred.

Thousands of Pompeiians died as they didn"t take warning to the earthquake that happened over 15 years earlier and therefore, they perished. Today Pompeii is a major tourist attraction due to its well preserved acient buildings and bodies thanks to the ash that covered the town.

I got this picture from facts-about-Italy.blogspot.com.

A History Of Natural Disasters

Pakistan Earthquake 2005

I got this picture from http://www.globalsecurity.org/

On the morning of 8th October 2oo5 a severe eartquake struck Pakistan and India. This earthquake had a magnitude of over 7 on the richter scale. The eartquake struck during rush hour resulting in many more deaths. However, the earthquake wasn't the main killer of people.It was the aftershocks, of which there were over 100 that killed most people. All in all many people were killed ( over 80,000 in total). Added to this are the 3.5 million that were injured or left homeless.

I got this picture from http://www.thepakistanquake.com/

As if tere weren't already enough deaths, many more Pakistanis froze or starved to death in the harsh Pakistani winter that quickly followed this devastating natural disaster. Emergency aid struggled to reach those most in need when it mattered most. Aswell as the earthquake striking during rush hour it also struck while children were at school. Thousands of Pakistani children were crushed to death as the school buildings they were in collapsed on top of them.

Now, you may be wondering why this earthquake struck the Pakistan-India border. The reason is because this is where the Eurasian and Indian plates meet. These two plates are constantly pushing past one another or colliding with each other and causing destruction. It was these same two plates that caused the Himalayan mountain range to form and also caused the underground earthquake that formed the tsunami on 26th December 2004. The bordering areas of Afghanistan, Pakistan and India were worst hit by the eartquake.

Rescue teams were immediately on hand to help try and take survivors from the rubble. However, some areas of Pakistan were extremely remote and rubble blocked the path of the rescue teams. As a result, many more starved or died of their injuries due to lack of aid. The weather also made it more difficult for rescue teams to reach victims. As the harsh winter drew in, thousands of people with fevers and injuries sought shelter in hospitals in Pakistan and India. These hospitals became overcrowded and doctors sruggled to treat everybody, resulting in many more deaths.

http://www.youtube.com/v/NWM6Qb1hv9U&hl=en&fs=1">

A History Of Natural Disasters

The Tsunami





A tsunami is a series of waves that contain great volumes of water and energy. These waves are usually tidal waves and can be caused by a number of different factors. These factors include underwater eartquakes and explosions,landslides and the testing of nuclear weapons.Tsunamis are caused by the sudden movement of two plates underwater. This causes a sudden swell in the water and this water is displaced and this results in the tsunami. If a tsunami reaches the shore it can have devastating effects, destroying everything in its path. There have been many tsunamis in the past, such as in Alaska in 1946, Papua New Guinea in 1998 and Thailand 2004.
This is an image I got from http://www.crystalinks.com/. It shows the tsunami approaching a city in Thailand.

I got this picture from http://www.thestormtrack.com/. I t shows the tsunami approaching a beach and innocent swimmers trying to escape its wrath

In the 20th century, over 25 tsunamis occured and out of these, 80 percent occured in the Indian Ocean area. However, the worst tsunami occured in the 21st century on the 26th of December 2004. It is estimated that over 350,000 people died directly from the tsunami and over 1,000,000 people died overall. Most of the bodies were washed away or are unidentified.Nowadays, tsunamis are trying to be prevented. The are currently building a tsunami warning system in the Indian Ocean in case of future tsunamis. In Japan they have built 4.5m high walls to prevent the tsunamis entering the towns and cities. Many other places have built floodgates or channels to re-direct the flow of the water away from urban areas. However, the efficiency of these prevention systems are in question in the event of an emerge

In the event of a tsunami, if you live near the coast you are advised to go to a high place in your house or to the rooftops if you try to outrun the wave you will fail as it is much quicker than anyone can run. Many people in 2004 tryed to outrun the wave or went to the beach when the normally covered land became suddenly exposed, as the wave rolled in. This resulted in many more deaths.

http://ie.youtube.com/watch?v=a0uxDQYYsC0
I got this video from youtube. It shows the tsunami approaching the shore and shows the destuction caused by the tsunami.

A History Of Natural Disasters

Hurricane Katrina
This is a picture showing how bad the floods from hurricane Katrina were.
I got it from vivalahandbag.blogspot.com.





I am doing this blog as part of my environmental studies course. I will be covering various natural disasters through history over the next 5 weeks. To do this I will be using a combination of written facts, pictures and videos from the scenes of the natural disasters. I have taken a great interest in this topic during my geography course and I hope you will enjoy my blog over the next few weeks. My first blog will be about hurricane Katrina one of the greatest hurricanes ever. I will then work back through history and cover other natural disasters.

Hurricane Katrina is ranked as one of the five strongest hurricanes ever to hit the USA. It formed over the Bahamas but strengthened and reached southeast Louisiana as a category three hurricane on 29th august 2005. New Orleans in Louisiana had prepared for the hurricane by building levees but they nearly all failed . It was the most costly hurricane in US history and the strongest since 1928. Almost two thousand people died during the hurricane and over $80 billion worth of damage was done. The urban area worst affected by the hurricane was New Orleans where over eighty percent of the city was flooded. At its strongest, Katrina was a category three hurricane with wind speeds of over 175m/ph.





The effects of the hurricane, particularly in Louisiana were catastrophic. Eighty percent of the land was flooded due to the failure of artificial levees built along the sides of Louisiana's main canals and rivers. Although most of the poulation evacuated well before Katrina hit, many still opted to stay behind. Those who did, sought shelter in attics, on rooftops or in the Louisiana megadome. Many of the states main roads and bridges, particularly in New Orleans, were damaged, destroyed or washed away. This made it harder for rescue teams to assist those stranded in New Orleans. Eventually, the US government decided to send in coast guard helicopters to assist those still stranded in New Orleans.


















This is a picture of New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. It shows just how much damage the hurricane caused. I got it from garymonro.blogsome.com.







http://ie.youtube.com/watch?v=Duz-2v1Omvc
This is a video I got from youtube showing some images of Huricane Katrina and the destruction it caused.