Catastrophic Events

1. Catastrophic Events

2. Wildfires • How it forms: • Lightning – 1 out of 5 wildfires start this way • Campfires • Cigarettes • Arsonists • Main features: • Spread slowly – burning material on the forest floor • Spread rapidly – by the wind, which causes it to jump along the tree tops • Help the fire spread • Drought conditions • Wind – gives it oxygen (fuel) and helps it move faster • High temps • Low humidity

3. Wildfires • Most Likely to Occur: • Every continent except Antarctica • Common in areas that experiences long hot, dry periods • Impact on the ecosystem: • Habitats • Watershed can have the vegetation burned off leaving it prone to erosion • Animals become endangered due to lose of habitat • Economic losses of inhabited areas • Landforms • Can destroy millions of acres • Other impacts • Beneficial for maintaining balance; plants growth comes back quickly to burned area • Affects air and water quality, soil composition, vegetation, & wildlife

4. Wildfires • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CSB9pTurhi4

5. Hurricanes • How it forms: • Moist, Warm air above the ocean rises and cools forming clouds. The warm and cool air begins to spiral upward causing wind • Considered a Hurricane when winds reach 74 mph or more • Main features: • High winds • Tornadoes • Storm Surges as it approaches land • Flooding from torrential rains • Mudslides or landslides

6. Hurricanes • Most Likely to Occur: • East Coast • Hurricane Season: June 1 to November 30 • Impact on the ecosystem: • Habitats • Structural and functions damage of ecosystems • Destroying animal life and habitats • Economic losses of inhabited areas • Landforms • Uprooting trees and defoliating vegetation • Other impacts • Damage could take years to rebuild

7. Hurricanes • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zP4rgvu4xDE or  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QDFK40UMotc

8. Drought • How it forms: • Interruption in the water cycle • Main features: • Long periods of dry weather that last long enough to cause a water shortage

9. Drought • Most Likely to Occur: • Anywhere • Drier months • Impact on the ecosystem: • Habitats • Adds stress to ecosystems • Landforms • Cracked surfaces • Other impacts • Crop failure, livestock death, increased forest fires, energy production, and water shortages • Heat Waves

10. Drought • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tK-YATetLPI

11. Volcanos • How it forms: • It is a vent in the Earth which allows molten rocks to escape to the surface • Main features: • Pressure builds up from gases within the magma, then an eruption occurs • Once an eruption, the eruption happened the earth goes back to equilibrium • Eruption can be slow and fairly quiet and violently explosive

12. Volcanos • Most Likely to Occur: • Along the plates, near vents • Impact on the ecosystem: • Habitats • Structural and functions damage of ecosystems • Destroying animal life and habitats • Economic losses of inhabited areas • Could cause more greenhouse gases • Landforms • New land can be created • After the eruption, soil becomes very rich, so plant life returning is highly likely • Other impacts • Hazards include hot, poison gases, lava flow, land and mudslides, earthquakes, fires, explosions, rockslides, flash flooding, and tsunamis • The Ash can affect breathing, contaminating water supplies, collapse roofs, disrupt machinery, jet engine failure while flying

13. Volcanos • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s2i4XS0Esks&playnext=1&list=PL49FAA74692D7AFD4&feature=results_video

14. Tornados • How it forms: • Violently rotating column of air extending from a thunderstorm • From thunderstorms, which is where warm, moist air ahead of eastward-moving cold front. They mix creating hail, wind and tornados • Main features: • Wind speeds of 250 mph or more • Damage paths can be in excess of one mile wide and 50 miles long • Form to the right or in front of the path a hurricane takes as it comes on land.

15. Tornados • Most Likely to Occur: • Between the hours of 3pm to 9pm; but can occur anytime • Winter and Early Spring – which has more strong, frontal systems that form in the Central States and moves east • Impact on the ecosystem: • Habitats • Destroy buildings and vegetation. Lose of vegetation can result in soil erosion • Any thing in its path • Economic losses of inhabited areas • Landforms • Uproots trees • Scour the soil off the ground down to the rock • Other impacts • Kills humans and animals • Vegetation that withstood the tornado may grow in abundance in that area which, in turn could hinder animal and plant interaction.

16. Tornados • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x2ESfdhnsQo

17. Earthquakes • How it forms: • Vibration of the Earth’s Surface that occurs after a release of energy in the crust • Caused by volcanic eruption or movement of segments of the crust or the collision of the tectonic plates. • The crust may bend and as the stress builds and exceeds the strength of the rock, it breaks and snaps into a new position • Main features: • Shaking of the earth; waves travel outward from the source and the speed of the wave depends on the source and the materials it has to travel through

18. Earthquakes • Most Likely to Occur: • Over tectonic plates and fault lines • Near volcanos • Impact on the ecosystem: • Habitats • Destruction of the habitats • Large cracks in the ground, causing standing bodies of water to disappear • Property damage and loss of life • Landforms • Land of either side of the fault can raise, lower, move away or toward each other • Other impacts • Liquefaction of the ground • Landslides • Avalanches • Fires • tsunamis

19. Earthquakes • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=opsiKirDfdE

20. Tsunamis • How it forms: • Large ocean waves caused by the following: • Earthquakes • Volcanic eruptions • Meteorite impact • Underwater landslides • Main features: • A series of waves that can travel 450-600 mph in open ocean • In open ocean, Boats do not feel the waves because the wavelength are several hundred miles apart and the amplitude is only a few feet. • As they approach land, the speed deceases and the amplitude increases (basically it gets slower and taller) • From the starting point, the waves travel outward in all directions • As the waves approach land, the time in between waves ranges from 5-90 minutes • The first wave is usually not the largest or most destructive • The water pulls back before the waves arrive • The waves come to shore as a rapidly rising, turbulent surge of debris filled water

21. Tsunamis • Most Likely to Occur: • During any season • Areas of risk are less than 25ft. Above sea level and within one mile of shore • Impact on the ecosystem: • Habitats • Loss of habitat or human homes • Flooding • Extreme Damage • Landforms • Flooding of estuaries and rivers • Other impacts • Contamination of drinking water • Fires from broken gas lines • Flooding • Drowning

22. Tsunamis • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5-zfCBCq-8I

23. Floods • How it forms: • Overflowing of water onto normally dry land • Intense or long term precipitation from storms, hurricanes, melting snow or ice • Main features: • Over abundance of water in a lake, river, flood plain • They can last a few minutes or months • The amount of flooding is controlled by the amount of water that builds up, how porous the soil is, and the amount of water already in the soil.

24. Floods • Most Likely to Occur: • Anywhere • Coast • Floodplains • Impact on the ecosystem: • Habitats • Paving the ground for houses • Property loss or damage • Total destruction of a habitat • Landforms • Roads and parking lots • Asphalt and concrete is not porous • Other impacts • Contamination of drinking water • Destruction of crop and livestock

25. Floods • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4cvgM56nMAE