GEOG 122 Lecture Notes - Lecture 24: Pacific Plate, Natural Disaster, Richter Magnitude Scale
Document Summary
There is nothing natural about a natural disaster. Nature as natural vs. nature as social. Nature is one of the most difficult words in the english language [it] contains an extraordinary amount of human history. There are no disasters in nature as such. What counts as the phenomena to which a natural disaster applies has changed. Distinction between natural hazard, the physical event and natural disaster (natural hazard plus humans) The history of catastrophe is the history of juxtaposition . Natural hazards are produced by release of various forms of energy. Earthquakes: release of energy usually along a fault line creating movement. Can produce a tsunami if occurs on the seabed. 90% of earthquakes n pacific ring of fire: edges of pacific tectonic plate. Ex: east coast of honshu: march 11th, 2011 9. 0 richter scale. 5th most powerful since records kept (earth"s axis moved) Openings on the earth crust that release gas, molten and solid material.
