Natural DisastersMackie Rights Respecting

Natural disasters devastate many countries, states and cities. They take extremely long to tidy up afterwards and many people die from them.

• Hurricanes/tornadoes• Wildfires• Floods• Heat waves/Droughts• Earthquakes/Tsunami’sAnd• Volcanic eruptionsAre all examples of natural disasters and you

will be finding out about each one in detail.

Hurricanes/Tornadoes

Hurricanes and tornadoes are very different. Hurricanes are big whirls of storms, which create tornadoes – smaller wind which rotate very quickly and suck things up in their vacuum-like tube.

However, they are similar in some ways. They both form from warm, humid air when two winds going in different directions, blow into each-other. Hurricanes usually form over Oceans whereas tornadoes are usually over land which therefore causes more destruction.

Hurricanes usually occur 5-8 times a year and almost always are in America and around 140 people are killed by them. They are fierce and destroy whatever is in their path.

Luckily, not many hurricanes form in the UK but in America, they must always be prepared just in case but the MET office is always there looking into the future weather.

WildfiresWildfires are horrid things formed in hot

countries with little moisture. They spread really quickly and are very hard to extinguish.

Firemen and women risk their lives to save animals and humans.

The fire is uncontrollable and destroys natural areas like forests, fields etc.

They change direction extremely quick and have the ability to skip past roads, streams and rivers.

During the long hot summers in Australia, they are very common. The ground there is dry and the scorching sun sets off a blaze fast!

Floods

Floods are truly awful and Stonehaven would know this as they have hit here twice in the last four years.

It devastated our town and from four years ago, some people are still cleaning up their homes. Just as some moved back in to their homes, the 2012 floods hit.

It was a really difficult time but as a community, we pulled through by helping one another out.

Heat Waves/DroughtsHeat waves are large spells of time in a specific

area where it’s extremely hot. They cause illnesses such as sun stroke too.

They normally cause droughts to crop up. A drought is when there is very little water in a town or city for an amount of time. This causes grass to dry out which therefore means some animals cannot eat properly and die.

There’s not a lot us as humans can do but we try our best to keep ourselves and our live stock cool during these dire times.

Earthquakes• Earthquakes are one of the biggest natural

disasters worldwide. They could happen almost anywhere!

• They form when two of the earth’s tectonic plates rub off one another or slide past each-other.

• They destroy large areas in a matter of minutes. • They are measured in magnitude.• The biggest ever recorded earthquake was 9.5

magnitude!• The sometimes cause tsunami’s too.• There have been recorded earthquakes in the UK!

• Many people die each year from earthquakes. • In March 2011, there was a very large earthquake

in Japan which demolished some of the Tohoku area.

• There was a number of 15,881 confirmed deaths.• Over 6142 people were injured.• 2668 people are still missing to this day.

Volcanic Eruptions

Volcanic eruptions don’t just affect the area where it’s actually happened but also countries close to it.

For example, the Iceland volcano erupted and some air travel stopped for a few days.

But people who live near or even on a volcano have to always be prepared just in case it erupts as it could at any moment!

Lesson Plans

Slide 1 – get class to write down in groups of pairs as many natural disasters as they can think of.

Slides 2 – 10 – allow them to put their own input in on each one. Questions, opinions etc.

Can be used for Geography too.