Your task is to research and find out some interesting facts or case studies about a natural disaster of your choice (e.g flooding, earthquakes, volcanoes, hurricanes). What fascinating facts did you find out? Post below.
Happy hunting Lower Juniors.
Tsunamis
Tsunamis are huge waves of water that are usually caused by earthquakes or volcanic eruptions. When tsunamis hit shallow water (often near the coast) they slow down but increase in height.
As a tsunami approaches the shore, water may recede from the coast, if it is shallow enough the water may be pulled back hundred’s of metres. If you are in the area, observing this is a good indication that a tsunami is on the way.
Tsunamis are very destructive. Two very recent tsunamis that show how destructive they can be are the Boxing Day tsunami in 2004 that killed over 200000 people in 14 countries and the Japanese tsunami in March 2011, caused by the Tohoku earthquake, that reached staggering heights of over 40 metres, causing 15000 deaths and a nuclear disaster at Fukushima that Japan is still feeling the affects from.
The word hurricane comes from the Taino Native American word, hurucane, meaning evil spirit of the wind.
All hurricanes begin life in a warm moist atmosphere over tropical ocean waters.
A typical hurricane can dump 6 inches to a foot of rain across a region.
The most violent winds and heaviest rains take place in the eye wall, the ring of clouds and thunderstorms closely surrounding the eye.
Most people who die in hurricanes are killed by the towering walls of sea water that comes inland.
In the Pacific Ocean, Hurricanes are generally known as typhoons. In the Indian Ocean they are called tropical cyclones.
God loves every one, but why did he make a world with natural disasters in it?
Some people believe that the myth of Atlantis (the city under sea) was an ancient Greek city that was hit by a tsunami?
The word Volcano originally comes from the name of the Roman god.
Volcano’s are usaly located were toctonic plates meet .
Did you know hot luiquid rock under the earth is surfaces is known as magma.
The 1970 Ancash earthquake in Peru happened on may 31st. It had a magnitude of 7.9 on the Richter scale.It caused a massive avalanche in the mountains nearby. The avalanche travaled at about 190 mph destroying the village of Yungay killing about 20,000 people.
I have found some interesting facts about volcanoes
• A volcano is erupted from an earthquake and the magma is about 1000 degrees Celsius.
• A volcano has 5 layers of rock on it and the outside layer is called the crust and the inside layer is called the inner crust
• Did you know that lava is so hot that if somone went in it,they would melt to death.
• There are more than 500 active volcanos in the world.
• An erupting volcanoes can trigger tsunamis, flash floods,earthquakes,mudflows and rockfalls.
• The danger area around a volcano covers 20-mile radius.
Thank you for reading my facts about volcanoes, I hope you found them interesting.
Earthquakes
. The Earth has an mantle, crust, outer core & a inner core.
. To make an Earthquake the two plates either crash together, come a part, go over each other or under each other.
. An Earthquake under the sea is called tsunami.
I went to Thailand last year, which was hit by a tsunami in December 2004.
Because I had visited this beautiful place and had been welcomed by lots of lovely people, I wanted to find out some facts about Tsunami’s.
1. tsunamis are huge waves of water that are usually caused by earthquakes or volcanic eruptions.
2. As a tsunami approaches the shore,water may recede from the coast, if it is shallow enough the water may be pulled back hundred’s of metres. If you are in the area,observing this is a good indication that a tsunami is on the way
3.Regions in tsunami danger zones often have warning systems in place to give people as much time to evacuate as possible.
4.When Tsunami’s hit shallow water (often near the coast) they slow down but increase in height.
5. An earthquake in the Indian ocean off Indonesia in December 2004 caused the Tsunami that killed over 200000 people in 14 countries. One of those countries was Thailand and in particular Phuket where I stayed on my holiday.
6. The Tsunami waves created by the Tohoko earthquake in March 2011, reached heights of 40 metres (131 feet). The waves wiped out a number of coastal towns and villages.
7. The Japanese word Tsunami means ‘Harbor wave’.
8. Tsunami’s are sometimes referred to as ‘Tidal waves’ but this term is rarely used now because Tsunami’s are not related to tides.
By Isabelle.M
Floods
A car can be taken away in as little as 2 feet of water
To stay safe in a flood, go to high ground, such as upstairs in a house, or up a hill.
If you accidentally touch flood water make sure you wash with soap as it may contain
harmful bugs which can make you ill.
We have had a lot of floods in our country, making people homeless, and losing their possessions.
Communities at risk are those located in low -lying areas, near rivers, or downstream from a dam.
Tsunami
A Tsunami is a huge wave that forms when two tectonic plates rub together under the sea which creates an earthquake. The vibrations create waves in the ocean above, these waves move out from the earthquake reaching speeds of 500mph and heights of 100 feet. The waves get higher as they reach land. These are some of the countries that have experienced the effects of a Tsunami:-
Thailand 2004
Japan 2011
Hawaii 1946
Papua New Guinea 1998
When they reach land Tsunami’s can cause death and destruction as the wave moves inland.
By lauren H (Ash)
Fascinating facts from NEWSROUND, 9.11.13.
1. Hurricanes, cyclones and typhoons are all the same thing, but they are given different names depending on where they appear.
2. The first storm of a year will have a name beginning with A, such as Hurricane Alice, and the next one gets a name beginning with B.
3. Names of storms which cause a lot of damage are never used again.
Volvanoes
There are aprox 1560 Volcanoes in the world.
Volcanoes act like safety valves and release preasure that build up inside our earth.
Magma is liquid rock inside a volcano and larva is the liquid rock that flows outside the volcano.
Earthquakes
The most powerful earthquake recorded was in Chille in 1960 measuring 9.5.
Sisemometers are used to measure the strength of an earthquake.
Tectonic plates (they are like jigsaw puzzel pieces) move over ore past each other which then causes preasure and creates an earthquake.
The huge rips caused by the earthquake are faults.
This has been fasinating subject to look up I have really enjoyed reasearching.
I found out that a tsunami is a huge wave of water often caused by an undersea earthquake. When an undersea earthquake occurs, one tectonic plate shifts upwards, pushing a band of sea water up to 100km wide and about 50cm high. when this band of water reaches the shallow coast, the water at the shore falls rapidly and the band turns into an enormous wave and floods a huge amount of land, destroying almost everything in its path. on one occasion, in 2004, an undersea earthquake caused a band of water in the middle of the Indian Ocean, causing a huge tsunami which reached places like Thailand and Myanmar within seconds. it later created a huge wave near Sri Lanka and India. the wave eventually died down when it reached Kenya and Somalia in Africa. the tsunami in March 2011 in Japan was also very dangerous. the earthquake measured 9 on the Richter scale.
I am writing about tsunamis. In around 2004 there was a tsunami in Japan that destroyed thousands of homes. Villages were washed away by the powerful,dangerous wave. Many people lost there lives because of this giant natural disaster. It took years to rebuild because there was so much damage.
Volcanoes are openings in the Earth’s surface. When they are active they can let ash, gas and hot magma escape in sometimes violent and spectacular eruptions.
Volcanoes are usually located where tectonic plates meet.
Hot liquid rock under the Earth’s surface is called magma, it is called lava after it comes out of a volcano.
Some famous volcanic eruptions are Mount Krakatoa in 1883, Novarupta in 1912, Mount St Helens in 1980 and Mt Pinatubo in 1991.
Volcanoes can be active, dormant or extinct.
Large volcanic eruptions can reflect radiation from the sun and drop temperatures on Earth by half a degree.
An earthquake is a sudden violent shaking and vibration at the surface of the earth.
Earthquakes are caused mostly by slippage within geological faults, but also by other events such as volcanic activity, landslides, mine blasts, and nuclear tests.
Examples of earthquakes
2004 Indian Ocean earthquake, magnitude 9.1-9.3
2011 Tohoku earthquake, magnitude 9
2010 Chile earthquake magnitude 8.8
All of the above examples of earthquakes resulted in a tsunami .
A tsunami is a series of big waves that crash onto the coasts causing destruction and in some cases loss of life.?
The river Nile in Egypt floods every year. Years ago they made up a story which a goddess called Isis cried so much.
The Bible tells Noah built a enormous it was called an Ark to escape from the
flood. It happened years ago.
Some 150 properties have been flooded in England, mainly in Surrey and Kent on Christmas morning 2013.
Tornado in Oklahoma winds of 200 MPH !
Earthquake in the Phlippines destroyed 73,000 buildings!
Hurricanes Manual and Ingred in Mexico had 5 feet of mud and flooding with landslides.
Typhoon Phailin in India heavy rains whith 150 MPHof winds.
Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines had 13 foot storm surges and 235 MPH winds.
The river Nile in Egypt floods every year. Years ago the Egyptians made up a story that a goddess called Isis cried so much it flooded.
The Bible tells us that Noah built an enormous boat called an Ark to escape from the greatest flood ever flood. It happened years ago.
Some 150 properties have been flooded in England, mainly in Surrey and Kent on Christmas morning 2013.
Volcanoes are named after Vulcan, the Roman god of fire.
Volcanoes are found where tectonic plates meet. When the plates move apart, lava comes out of the gap. This is an eruption.
When volcanoes erupt these gases are released into the air: water vapour, carbon dioxide, sulphur dioxide, hydrogen chloride, hydrogen fluoride and hydrogen sulphide.
There is a temple on top of the extinct volcano Mount Popa in Burma.
Last month in El Salvador a volcano spewed out ash and delayed air traffic.
My facts about Earthquakes:
1. An earthquake is the result of a sudden release of energy in the earth’s crust.
2. Almost 80% of all earthquakes occur along the rim of the Pacific Ocean.
3. Each year Southern California has approximately 10,000 earthquakes, the majority go unnoticed.
4. Earthquakes are caused by two plates under the ground. When the two plates start to rub together it causes heat which causes the ground to shake. This makes an earthquake.
5. Earthquakes kill approximately 8000 people each year.
6. The average earthquake lasts about 1 minute.
when the tectonic plates crash or collide it causes an earthquake
I have studied the Asian tsunami. Tsunami means ‘giant wave’ in Japanese.
The tsunami happened on Boxing Day in 2004, the year before I was born. It was caused by a really powerful earthquake with the epicentre under the Indian Ocean near the west coast of Sumatra in Indonesia. The giant waves travelled at the speed of a jet airliner! The tsunami affected 11 countries killing 250,000 people and making millions of people homeless. Before the tsunami arrived the tide went right out very quickly leaving fish and boats on the sand. One English schoolgirl had learnt about tsunami in her Geography lessons and she warned her family and they were able to save themselves by climbing up into the hills. There were even reports that animals also went up to high ground to save themselves!
Interesting fact
The Volcano Vesuvius erupted in AD 79, burying the town of Pompeii in volcanic ash.
The victims were buried before they could escape.
Earthquakes
In 1906, half of San Francisco’s buildings were destroyed by an Earthquake.
The Dread Power Of An Earthquake
1. An earthquake is caused when two lands or plates smash together.
2. Japanese tradition states, earthquakes are caused by the namazu, a giant catfish that lives in the mud beneath the earth.
3. An earthqarke produces seismic waves.
4. Seismic waves are recorded by a seismographs.
5. Seismographs measure the force of an earthquake known as the Richter scale.
Keith Deeprose
some facts about volcanoes
1. A volcano is a mountain that opens downward to a pool of molten rock below the surface of the earth. When pressure builds up, eruptions occur.
2. .Eruptions can cause lava flows,mudslides, avalanches,falling ash and floods.
3.The danger arae around a volcano covers about a 20-mile radius.
4.An erupting volcano can trigger tsunamis,flash floods,earthquakesm mudflows and rockfall.
5. more than 80% of the earth’s surface is volcaic in orgin.
6.There are more than 500 active volcanoes in the world.More than half of these volcanoes are part of the “Ring of Fire,”a region that encircles the Pacific Ocean.
Tsunami:
1. Tsunami is Japanese for ‘harbour wave’
2. Tsunami’s are a series of large water waves.
3. They are caused by earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, water earthquakes or landslides.
4. The 2004 Tsunami in the Indian Ocean (the year I was born) is among the worst natural disasters in history. It killed 230,000 people in 14 countries.
5. Japan have the most Tsunami’s.
Jessica Judge, Team Ash
Indian Ocean Tsunami in 2004
the earthquake that caused the tsunami struck at 7.58am on the December 26th 2004. The earthquake was caused by the Movement of a plate in the earths crust 240km of the coast of Indonesia.
this mega trust earthquake involved a 20 meter uplift of the sea floor all the way along the coast.
the uplift of the sea floor caused a displacement of billons of tonnes of water setting of a tsunami wave that hit the coast of Indonesia with in half an hour of the earthquake.
by Paige Hooper
Oak class
WHAT FLOODS ARE CAUSED BY: Heavy rain, lack of vegetation, broken dams and overflowing rivers and lakes.
WHAT EFFECTS FLOODING HAS:
Wildlife, damages homes, isolates people in their homes and cutting off communication.
CASE STUDY- BOSCASTLE, UK 2004
There was 60mm of rainfall (1 month worth of rainfall) in 2 hours they also had a lot of rain previously so ground was already wet. Boscastle is situated near where three rivers meet so the heavy rainfall caused the rivers to overflow. Boscastle also had a high tide making impact worse.
WHAT EFFECTS THIS HAD
Homes, businesses and cars were swept away effecting 1,000 people. No tourists visited the area so money was lost. Lots of insurance claims were made from the damage caused but luckily no lives were lost.
Flooding may be a disaster but in some cases people rely on flooding such as farmers as it makes to ground fertile for growing food.
All About Tsunamis…
Tsunami is a Japanese word. It means ‘Harbour Wave’. Tsunamis are giant waves, often caused by an earthquake under the ocean. The waves can travel hundreds of miles until they hit the land. Tsunami waves do not look like normal sea waves, because their wave length is far longer. A tsunami is caused by earthquakes, volcano eruptions and other underwater explosions. The giant waves occur suddenly often without warning and are extremely dangerous to areas of land by the sea. When the wave hits the land, mass destruction is caused (death). In a Tsunami the water runs straight and because it keeps on going forwards, it runs over the land as a huge wall of water. Sometimes the water is higher than the buildings!
On Boxing Day, 2004, a massive earthquake created a tsunami causing devastation around the Indian Ocean resulting in the deaths of more than 300,000 people. Within two hours of the earthquake, both Thailand and Sri Lanka had been hit. The east coast of India was hit shortly afterwards. Three hours after the earthquake, tsunami waves rolled over the Maldives and more than seven hours after, hit the Somali coast.
Flood disaster in Lynmouth.
I have chosen to write some facts about the disaster flood in Lynmouth as I have been to visit this historic town with my family.
After a day of continuous rain on 15th August 1952 the East and West Lyn rivers which meet at Lynmouth carried large rocks and boulders towards the town destroying everything in their path. In total over 100 buildings were destroyed or seriously damaged, 34 people lost their lives and 28 of the 31 bridges were destroyed. also 38 cars had been washed out to sea, and although the lighthouse survived the night of the flood, it collapsed the following day.
by Kayley Roberts
Pompeii, along with Herculaneum and many villas in the surrounding area, was mostly destroyed and buried under 4 to 6 m (13 to 20 ft) of ash
in the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD.
Volcanoes are openings in the Earth’s surface. When they are active they can let ash, gas and hot magma escape in sometimes violent and spectacular eruptions.
The word volcano originally comes from the name of the Roman god of fire, Vulcan.
Volcanoes are usually located where tectonic plates meet. This is especially true for the Pacific Ring of Fire, an area around the Pacific Ocean where over 75% of the volcanoes on Earth are found.
While most volcanoes form near tectonic boundaries, they can also form in areas that contain abnormally hot rock inside the Earth. Known as mantle plumes, these hotspots are found at a number of locations around the globe with the most notable being in Hawaii.
Hot liquid rock under the Earth’s surface is known as magma, it is called lava after it comes out of a volcano.
Some famous volcanic eruptions of modern times include Mount Krakatoa in 1883, Novarupta in 1912, Mount St Helens in 1980 and Mt Pinatubo in 1991.
While we certainly have some big volcanoes here on Earth, the biggest known volcano in our solar system is actually on Mars. Its name is Olympus Mons and it measures a whooping 600km (373 miles) wide and 21km (13 miles) high.
The object with the most volcanic activity in our solar system is Io, one of Jupiter’s moons. Covered in volcanoes, its surface is constantly changing to the large amount of volcanic activity.
Most people think of volcanoes as large cone shaped mountains but that is just one type, others feature wide plateaus, fissure vents (cracks were lava emerges) and bulging dome shapes.
There are also volcanoes found on the ocean floor and even under icecaps, such as those found in Iceland.
Volcanoes can be active (regular activity), dormant (recent historical activity but now quiet) or extinct (no activity in historical times and unlikely to erupt again). While these terms are useful, scientists are more likely to describe volcanoes by characteristics such a how they formed, how they erupt and what their shape is.
Common volcanic gases include water vapor, carbon dioxide, sulfur dioxide, hydrogen chloride, hydrogen fluoride and hydrogen sulfide.
Volcanic eruptions can send ash high into the air, over 30km (17 miles) above the Earth’s surface.
Large volcanic eruptions can reflect radiation from the Sun and drop average temperatures on Earth by around half a degree. There have been several examples of this over the last century.
Pumice is a unique volcanic rock (igneous) that can float in water. It can also be used as an abrasive and is sometimes used in beauty salons for removing dry skin.
Volcano
1.Earthquakes are the shaking, rolling or sudden shock of the earth’s surface. They are the Earth’s natural means of releasing stress.
2. The point of an earthquake starting is called the epicenter
3. If an earthquake starts in the see it causes a tsunami, which is a large wave.
4. Antarctica has the most earthquakes.
5. There are about a million earthquakes a year but some are not felt.
6. Earthquakes are recorded by scale called seismic activity.
Wow! What amazing research Lower Juniors! I hope you enjoy your Active Planet topic!
OHH!!!!looks like you’ve put in loads of hard work and I did this topic and I loved it ,hope you do too!!!!!!WELL DONE!!!
Wow looks as though you have learnt laods of intresting facts and it loos like you have got some more from our fantastic lower and upper juniors too!!!!!!! I do really hope you like your topic because it sounds really exciting !!!!!
WOW! That must be a lot of fun. I hopped you learnt a lot.