The Valley is particularly vulnerable to air pollution formation because of its topography, climate, and growing population. Surrounding mountains trap just about anything near the Valley floor where people live and breathe. The Valleys increasing population growth has caused the San Joaquin Valley to rank with Los Angeles and Houston in most measures of air pollution. In addition, the Valley’s hot, summer temperatures, transform car exhaust, manure gases and other emissions into a smoggy
Tornadoes are responsible for more than $1 billion annually (adjusted to 2007 U.S. dollars) in property damage and for disrupting thousands of lives and businesses. On the local level, the impact of a tornado can be devastating within the area that it destroys . When a tornado hits a human environment, however, more extensive damage can happen. The impact of the tornado can include releasing chemicals, oil, and other toxins, into the environment, doing more extensive damage over a broader area. While this is not a major concern, especially compared to other potential causes of damage, it is a reason to make certain potentially hazardous materials are secure.
Non-explosive eruptions tend to produce mostly lava flows, which do not represent a particularly serious hazard to people, however they will destroy farmland and buildings. Ash clouds are explosive eruptions that blast solid and molten rock (called tephra or pyroclastics) into the air with tremendous force. Ash clouds pose a considerable threat to aircraft, can cause buildings to collapse and can also cause death by asphyxiation. Pyroclastic flows are a potential product of volcanic activity; clouds of incandescent gas, ash and rocks with temperatures up to 800°C and speeds of over 200kph. They can cause widespread destruction, such as the 1980 eruption of Mt St Helens.
Within the Loop Current there is warm water that extends fairly deeper than the water surrounding it. Hurricanes usually churn up slightly cooler water allowing for some weakening of the storm; however a hurricane moving over the Loop Current churns up warmer water that extends deeper into the ocean. Camille's extraordinary strength could be blamed in part due to the assumption that it tracked directly up the axis of the Loop Current. After landfall, Camille dropped torrential rains on the southern states with anywhere from 2 to 11 inches of rain. Camille eventually strengthened somewhat as it moved more inland bringing major destruction to the state of Virginia with damage to property and life.
These types of lava are very viscous due to its high silica content. This is because the lava rises from the subduction zone through continental lithosphere which has a low density and is filled with air spaces containing gases which become incorporated into the lava. This very viscous lava often blocks off vents of volcanoes and when the pressure building up in the vent is eventually released, the top of the volcano can be blown off leaving a huge crater, such as in the 2002 eruption of Mount Etna in Sicily. When the two plates involved are oceanic, explosions tend to be less violent than this as the melted lithosphere which forms the lava is denser and so contains fewer gases. At constructive boundaries where plates are moving apart from one another, basaltic lava is erupted between the gaps.
I shall use examples of the Kobe Earthquake 1995, Boxing Day Tsunami 2004 and the Haiti Earthquake 2010. The earthquake of 2004 was caused by subduction of the Australian plate and the Eurasian Plate ,a 15-20m slip occurred along the fault line which then caused an earthquake measuring a 9.1 on the Richter scale. This a very high recording on the Richter scale so therefore it would always cause devastating hazards , but human factors could be seen as making the impacts far worse. The earthquake in the ocean had caused a tsunami to occur within the Indian Ocean. The wave reached up to 30 metres high causing devastation to the 13 countries surrounding the ocean.
This extreme pressure change makes the iso bars compact together creating fast moving winds and causing wind speeds to increase to even out the air pressure. 3. Describe the changes in central pressure and sustained wind speed between 29 and 30 August 2005? The air pressure from august 29th to august 30th changed from 904mbars to 985 mbars. While the air pressure increased the winds decrease as iso bars spread apart and wind is no longer moving at an abrupt pace.
This tells us that it’s a powerful earthquake, reaching and being felt by farther away places. This earthquake makes itself more dangerous with little or no warning. Earthquakes are probably the most dangersome natural occurring disaster encountered. South Carolina is located within the interior of the North American plate, far from any plate boundary. An earthquake is what happens when two blocks of earth suddenly slip past one another.
Natural Hazards and Effects on San Diego California Introduction The Geographical region that has the most interest to me is that of Southern California in the United States of America. Southern California, in particular San Diego has always been one of the most desirable areas in California to live creating a very densely populated city. The direct access to both the Pacific Ocean and multiple mountain ranges makes it susceptible to massive wildfires during the long and extremely dry summer months and floods during the winter months. Also contributing to other possible natural disasters, San Diego is located near the San Andres Fault, which runs through California making this city another prime location for earthquakes and its catastrophic
Oil Sand is a naturally occurring mixture of sand, water, clay, bitumen and other minerals. Bitumen is what we need for oil. As shown in the diagram on the right the sand particles are surrounded by a layer of water which is surrounded by a layer of Bitumen. After we get the oil sands we must separate the sand and water from the Bitumen. Since Bitumen is very heavy and viscous it must be treated so it can be refined and used.