GEOL 111 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Supercontinent, Krakatoa, Seattle Fault

• School: Iowa State University
• Department: Geology
• Course: GEOL 111
• Professor: Ankerstjerne Suzanne

Document Summary

Natural hazard: natural process which poses threat to human life or property. Natural disaster: natural event that causes significant damage to life or property. Catastrophic: natural event that kills or injures large numbers of people or causes major property damage. Heat + drought, earthquake, landslides, mudflows, ground settling or swelling. In certain area: within certain time period, with approximate percentage probability based on variable such as frequency, magnitude. / strength of past events: small events can provide insight to rare, large events. The difference between predicting and forecasting hazardous events. Prediction specifies time, date, location and strength of an event. Some natural events have predictable cycles but usually too many variables and overlapping cycles. Recurrence interval: probably that natural event of particular size will happen within certain period of time, on average. Forecasting catastrophe: magnitude of event is inversely proportional to frequency, m a 1/f, numerous small events, much fewer large events, rare giant event.