Rogue Waves For centuries, mariners have spread stories about giant sudden waves which appeared out of nowhere without warning which were strong enough to capsize even the mightiest and largest ships. Several vessels—such as the S.S. Waratah, the M.S. Munchen, and the S.S. Edmund Fitzgerald—were all rumored to have been sunk by rogue waves (Walsh par. 3). Further, rogue waves have been blamed for ripping the bow off of a Norwegian freighter near the tip of South Africa in 1974, almost capsizing the Queen Elizabeth in 1942 off the coast of Greenland, striking the Queen Elizabeth H in 1995, and for swamping military aircraft carriers and tearing tankers in half (McDonald A21).
The epicentre was a town named Leogane; about 19km (12 miles) west of Port-au-Prince, thousands were left homeless and up to 80-90% of buildings in Leogane were destroyed. The quake was quickly followed by two strong aftershocks of 5.9 and 5.5 magnitudes. It was the worst earthquake to hit the Caribbean island in 2 centuries. The island lies on the Enriquilla-Plantain Garden Fault however it was caused by an interaction between the North American and Caribbean Plates. After which the barely noticed island became the centre of the world’s news channels, it became one of the most noticed natural disasters in history with celebrities and normal people alike doing allsorts to raise money and aid for the victims of the quake.
The tremendous eruption of Mount Tambora in April 1815 was the most powerful volcanic eruption of the 19th century. The eruption and the tsunamis it triggered killed tens of thousands of people. And the magnitude of the explosion is difficult to fathom. It has been estimated that Mount Tambora stood approximately 12,000 feet tall before the 1815 eruption, and the top 4,000 feet of the mountain was completely obliterated. Adding to the disaster's massive scale, the huge amount of dust blasted into the upper atmosphere by the Tambora eruption contributed to a bizarre and highly destructive weather event the following year.
The Mont Blanc had been carrying benzol on its deck which was set on fire by the sparks from the collision. After desperate attempts to put out the fire, the crew jumped over board and tried to swim as far as possible. The benzol had started to leaked through the decks into the ships hold which contained over 2 700 tons of explosives. At 9:04am the fire reached the ships hold and a massive explosion occurred. The Mont Blanc was launched a mile in the air and over 2.5 square kilometres of the surround area were levelled and windows were shattered as far as Truro, Nova Scotia which is over 100 kilometres away.
Hurricanes range from a category one hurricane all the way to a category five reaching winds up to one hundred seventy miles per hour plus. Unlike hurricanes, tsunamis form from earthquakes that form a sudden displacement on the seafloor. Volcanic eruptions, landslides, underwater explosions, and meteorite impacts can also generate tsunamis. The most dramatic contrast between hurricanes and tsunamis is the death toll. Many people lose their lives because of hurricanes and tsunamis, which is a tragedy and disaster.
9, 000 of those being foreigners. The Tsunami’s energy was so great the wave traveled around the world three times. Seven years later in 2011 an earthquake 60km off the east coast of Tohoku with a magnitude of 9.0 on the Richter scale struck Japan. The earthquake triggered a huge Tsunami which reached heights of 133 ft. and killed around 15, 839 people, injured 5950 and left 3642 unaccounted for. Causes When a dense oceanic plate collides with a less dense continental plate the denser oceanic plate subducts under the less dense continental plate.
Iceland is warmed by the Gulf Stream. The Laki eruption wasn’t really a single event, but rather 8 months’ worth of lava flows and explosions that ejected an astounding 14.7 km cubed of ballistic lava that came out of 140 vents. The eruption was caused by small earthquakes that were hardly detected by the seismometers the eruption caused a gigantic amount of smog and poisonous gasses to envelope Iceland in a matter of days which caused at least 10,000-15,000 deaths in Iceland alone. Consequences in Iceland Affects of a volcanic eruption An estimated 20–25% of the population died in the famine and fluoride poisoning after the fissure eruptions ceased. Around 80% of sheep, 50% of cattle and 50% of horses died because of
On the 24th august 1992 hurricane Andrew hit Florida, and is recognized as the most destructive natural hazard in the United States, scoring category 5 on the Saffir Simpsons scale. It formed as bands of clouds close to the equator where the air is moist. A centre of low pressure forms, and the air begins to spiral in towards the low pressure, as the system moves away from the equator. Latent heat is released when water vapor condenses, this encourages further uplift as the warm air rises and the pressure at the centre falls rapidly. The storm gets bigger as the low pressure sucks in more warm moist air this also causes strong winds.
For the following four days , the crew was left to fend for themselves in the water suffering from starvation, dehydration, body wounds, and possibly the worst of all, shark attacks. Finally, on the fourth day the crew was discovered accidentally by Lt. Wilbur Gwinn and rescued by the USS Cecil Doyle. Of the 900 original survivors, only 317 made it out of the water. Fifty five years later, on October 12, 2000, the USS Cole also suffered a fatal attack. While in port at Aden, Yemen, the Cole was refueling when a small craft operated by two al-Qaeda radicals approached its port side and detonated around 1000 pounds of explosives resulting in
Hurricane Katrina was one of the strongest storms to hit the United States. The hurricane became the costliest and one of the five most deadliest ever (Brunner). The hurricane whipped its way through Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana where it caused the most damage. Hurricane Katrina began as a tropical depression on August 23, but quickly became a mega hurricane that hit the gulf coast on August 29th 2005. The mega hurricane displaced millions and killed over 1,800 people.