Hazardous Earth

The Earth can be a dangerous place. These flashcards will help you learn the major types of natural disasters that geographers classify. These include tectonic hazards, atmospheric, hazards amd geo-morphological hazards, to name a few.

Atmospheric hazards include storms, hurricanes, twisters...etc. The atmosphere's behaviour is greatly influenced by the amount of sunshine it receives. At the equator, the sun is at its strongest. At the poles, sunlight is dispersed.

The Quaternary is the most recent geological period, beginning 2.6 million years ago and stretching to today. The age is divided into the Pleistocene and the Holocene epochs. Ice cores tell us what happened in between.

In a broad sense, there are two factors which effect climate change - natural causes and man-made causes. Milankovitch cycles are a natural climate altering example. CFC production is a man-made phenomenon.

Geologically speaking, 1000 years is a short period, but even during this time, the UK climate has changed greatly. One thousand years ago, the UK was warmer as shown by evidence of crop growth. Minor ice ages have hit since then.

There are many unknowns in predicting climate change, but most scientists agree that a rise in carbon dioxide emissions past 550ppm would be disastrous. This would cause many species of animals and plants to die off.

Tropical storms take may different names - hurricanes, typhoons, cyclones and so on. Air is heated above warm tropical water. Moving away from the equator, the Coriolis effect begins to quickly spin these masses of air.

These flashcards will help you remember some of the useful terms in a discussion of weather. The terms are explained. We look at the different geological periods as well as words used by both geographers and meteorologists.

Take this quiz to revise what we have covered, so far, on this course. The questions are about climate, weather, natural influencers of climate change and other topics that we have seen.

In 1915, Alfred Wegener proposed his theory of plate tectonics. The Earth's crust, he posited, floated in a number of sheets upon the hot mantle. His theory explained the formation of mountains, as well as earthquakes.

Destructive, constructive and conservative are the three varieties of plate margins. Fold mountains are formed when continental plates press against each other, forcing one plate to rise above the other.

Volcanoes are conduits for the magma within the Earth to rise to the surface. They can be active or dormant. Volcanoes have the power to be both creative or destructive. Consider Vesuvius and Hawaii.

What are the effects of natural hazards and what can we do to mitigate their destructive capabilities. Each hazard can bring with it both primary and secondary effects. An earthquake may be brief, but its effects can be felt long afterward.

Answer these questions to test your command of natural hazards. This is a great way to revise what you have learned so far. Do volcanoes affect climate change? How do we detect earthquakes? Answer questions like these.