Tornadoes

Tornados are some of mother earth’s most awesome and devastating furies. Tornados are also known as cyclones or twisters. Although they are not usually responsible for a vast amount of destruction, being less than a mile wide, they do demolish everything tha falls in there path. They begin as a horizontal funnel, then turn vertical, unleashing violent winds upon the earths surface in which it makes contact. They rotate at speeds up to three hundred miles per hour and usually occur in the spring and summer months in central parts of the world(Natural Disasters).  In 1925, one tornado killed almost 700 people as it traveled 220 miles through Indiana, Illinois, and Missouri (Natural Disasters).

Earthquakes

Earthquakes are caused by stresses below the earth's outer surface, which in turn cause seismic waves. Seismic waves then spread out in every direction causing the vibrations on the Earth’s surface that causes all of the destruction (Natural Disasters). These waves have tremendous energy with a hundred thousand times the energy of the seismic waves given off by an atomic bomb. The magnitude of an Earthquake is measured by the Richter scale which measures the motion of the Earth’s surface 60 miles from the epicenter. The scale goes from 0-9 with 9 being the greatest magnitude. Each year, there is usually only one that scores a 7.3 – 9 on the Richter scale while there are about 50,000 earthquakes with a magnitude of 3 to 4 (Natural Disasters). Earthquakes damage the land, take lives, and if they happen under the ocean, they can cause tsunamis.

Volcanoes

Volcanoes are simply a hole or vent for the earth to realease molten rock and hot gases to the surface A coneshaped mountain of erupted material that surrounds this vent is what most people recognize as the volcano (Natural Disasters).  A Volcano is made up of a fissure in the earth's crust, right above this fissure a cone of volcanic material begins to rise. Above the cone there is a bowl-shaped vent called a crater. Volcanoes are very dangerous and have caused the death of thousands of people and the demolishing of land (Natural Disasters). They send clouds of smoke and debris all over the world. The most famous volcano in the US is the eruption of Mt. St. Helens which took place in 1980, scoring a 5.1 on the Richter scale. There are many active volcanoes all over the world, here is a list of some of them.

Tsunami

"Tsunami,"  which is Japanese for tidal wave is one of the fastest and deadliest of natural disasters (Natural Disasters). These tidal waves are caused by volcanic explosions or underwater earthquakes. They move across the ocean floor until they reach shore, at which time they rise out of the water to a height of 50+ feet and strike the land (Natural Disasters). They can be up to 120 miles long and reach speeds of 800 km/h, which of course would be devastating (Natural Disasters). Most originate from the Ring of Fire and have been known to wipe out entire populations.

Hurricanes

Hurricanes are very destructive storms that are mostly spotted during August and September. They begin with easterly waves, which later develop into a tropical depression, then when the winds reach 73 miles an hour they become a tropical storm (Natural Disasters). Those eventually develop into hurricanes that produce, tornados, high winds, lightning, and heavy rain. They have been known to do a lot of damage including Hurricane Katrina which demolished New Orleans a couple years ago.