ERTH 2415- Final Exam Guide - Comprehensive Notes for the exam ( 108 pages long!)
29 Mar 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
Document Summary
Etymology disaster: dis - away, without + astro star, planet , greek origin, astrological meaning: literally, ill-starred, event causing great & sudden damage, blamed on an unfavorable position of a celestial body in the sky. Natural disaster (?: a large earthquake occurs: in vancouver: yes, on an arctic island: no, an overcrowded ferry capsizes (human made, misnomer, gives the impression that disasters are only the fault of nature. Natural disasters are triggered when society ignores natural hazards. Natural hazards are inevitable, but natural disasters are not nd has to have an impact on society. If you have heavy rain or flood, that could impact the power lines. Metrics to describe hazard levels: frequency is the number of similar events per unit time, example, on average, 4 former tropical cyclones affect atlantic canada every year. Frequency = 4 occurrences per year: return period is the length of time between similar events, severe hurricanes strike the us on average every 6 years.
