A MOBILE TOOL ABOUT CAUSES AND DISTRIBUTION OF
DRAMATIC NATURAL PHENOMENA
_______________
A Thesis
Presented to the
Faculty of
San Diego State University
_______________
In Partial Fulfillment
of the Requirements for the Degree
Master of Science
in
Computer Science
_______________
by
Ravikanth Reddy Boppidi
Fall 2014
iii
Copyright © 2014
by
Ravikanth Reddy Boppidi
All Rights Reserved
iv
DEDICATION
I dedicate this thesis to my mom and brother for their love, encouragement and
constant support.
v
ABSTRACT OF THE THESIS
A Mobile Tool About Causes and Distribution of Dramatic Natural
Phenomena
by
Ravikanth Reddy Boppidi
Master of Science in Computer Science
San Diego State University, 2014
Most Research suggests that tablet computers could aid the study of many scientific
concepts that are difficult to grasp, such as places, time and statistics. These occur especially
in the study of geology, chemistry, biology and so on. Tapping the technology will soon
become critical career training for future generations. Teaching through mobile is more
interactive and helps students to grasp quickly.
In this thesis an interactive mobile tool is developed which explains about the causes
and distribution of natural disasters like Earthquakes, Tsunami, Tropical Cyclones, Volcanic
Eruptions and Tornadoes. The application shows the places of disasters on an interactive map
and it also contains YouTube embedded videos, which explain the disasters visually. The
advantage of this tool is, it can be deployed onto major mobile operating systems like
Android and IOS.
The application’s user interface (UI) is made very responsive using D3 JavaScript,
JQuery, Java Script, HTML, CSS so that it can adapt to mobiles, tablets, and desktop screens.
vi
TABLE OF CONTENTS
PAGE
ABSTRACT ...............................................................................................................................v
LIST OF TABLES ................................................................................................................. viii
LIST OF FIGURES ................................................................................................................. ix
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS .......................................................................................................x
CHAPTER
1
INTRODUCTION .........................................................................................................1 2
TECHNOLOGY ............................................................................................................2 2.1 HTML5 ..............................................................................................................2 2.2 CSS ....................................................................................................................2 2.3 JavaScript ...........................................................................................................2 2.4 JQuery ................................................................................................................3 2.5 D3 JavaScript .....................................................................................................3 2.6 PhoneGap ...........................................................................................................3 2.7 PhoneGap Over Native ......................................................................................3 3
DISASTERS ..................................................................................................................5 3.1 General Causes of Natural Disasters..................................................................5 3.1.1 Seismic Activity ........................................................................................6 3.1.2 Ocean Currents..........................................................................................6 3.1.3 Air Pressure ...............................................................................................6 3.1.4 Other Influences ........................................................................................6 3.2 Earthquakes ........................................................................................................6 3.2.1 Earthquake Causes ....................................................................................7 3.2.2 Distribution of Earthquakes ......................................................................7 3.2.2.1 The Circum-Pacific Belt ..................................................................7 3.2.2.2 The Mediterranean-Himalayan Belt ................................................8 3.2.3 List of Earthquakes ...................................................................................9 3.3 Tropical Cyclones (Cyclones, Hurricanes and Typhoons) ................................9 vii
3.3.1 Tropical Cyclones Causes .........................................................................9 3.3.2 Distribution of Tropical Cyclones ..........................................................12 3.3.3 List of Cyclones ......................................................................................12 3.3.4 List of Hurricanes ...................................................................................12 3.3.5 List of Typhoons .....................................................................................12 3.4 Volcanic Eruptions...........................................................................................13 3.4.1 Causes of Volcanic Eruptions .................................................................13 3.4.2 Distribution of Volcanic Eruptions .........................................................14 3.4.3 List of Volcanic Eruptions ......................................................................16 3.5 Tsunami............................................................................................................16 3.5.1 Causes of Tsunami ..................................................................................17 3.5.2 Distribution of Tsunami ..........................................................................17 3.5.3 List of Tsunami .......................................................................................18 3.6 Tornadoes.........................................................................................................19 3.6.1 Causes of Tornadoes ...............................................................................19 3.6.2 Distribution of Tornadoes .......................................................................20 3.6.3 List of Tornadoes ....................................................................................20 4
IMPLEMENTATION ..................................................................................................23 4.1 Implementation of Map....................................................................................24 4.2 Statistics ...........................................................................................................26 4.3 Responsive Menu .............................................................................................28 4.4 Videos ..............................................................................................................29 4.5 Building Mobile App Using PhoneGap ...........................................................31 5
SCREENSHOTS..........................................................................................................32 6
CONCLUSION ............................................................................................................35 REFERENCES ........................................................................................................................36 viii
LIST OF TABLES
PAGE
Table 3.1. Earthquakes .............................................................................................................11 Table 3.2. Cyclones..................................................................................................................14 Table 3.3. Hurricanes ...............................................................................................................15 Table 3.4. Typhoons ................................................................................................................15 Table 3.5. Volcanic Eruptions .................................................................................................16 Table 3.6. Tsunami List ...........................................................................................................18 Table 3.7. Tornadoes List ........................................................................................................22 ix
LIST OF FIGURES
PAGE
Figure 2.1. Hybrid application workflow. .................................................................................4 Figure 3.1. Diagram of an earthquake. ......................................................................................8 Figure 3.2. The Circum-Pacific Belt. .........................................................................................9 Figure 3.3. The Mediterranean-Himalayan Belt. .....................................................................10 Figure 3.4. Tropical cyclones distribution. ..............................................................................13 Figure 3.5. Volcanic distributions............................................................................................15 Figure 3.6. Tsunami distributions. ...........................................................................................17 Figure 3.7. Tornado distributions.............................................................................................21 Figure 4.1. Architecture. ..........................................................................................................23 Figure 4.2. Map. .......................................................................................................................26 Figure 4.3. Statistics.................................................................................................................28 Figure 4.4. Menu. .....................................................................................................................29 Figure 4.5. Video. ....................................................................................................................31 Figure 5.1. Homepage landscape mode. ..................................................................................32 Figure 5.2. Homepage portrait mode. ......................................................................................33 Figure 5.3. Map screenshot. .....................................................................................................33 Figure 5.4. Statistics screenshot. ..............................................................................................33 Figure 5.5. Videos. ...................................................................................................................34 Figure 5.6. Movies. ..................................................................................................................34 x
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I would like to express my sincere gratitude to Dr. Carl Eckberg for being my thesis
advisor. I am thankful to him for his suggestions and feedback throughout the thesis.
I would like to thank Professor Gary Girty for helping me in collecting and reviewing
the data.
My sincere thanks to Professor Marko Vuskovic for being a part of the thesis
committee and reviewing the documentation.
1
CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION
Mobile technology allows educators to move away from traditional lectures and focus
more on individualized and project-based learning through the use of mobile applications.
The motive of this thesis is to build an interactive natural disasters application, which can
work on major mobile operating system [1, 2].
A mobile operating system contains features of an operating system with other
features like touchscreen, Bluetooth, GPS, speech recognition, etc. Developing application in
all major mobile operating system is a costly and time-consuming process. The solution to
this problem is to develop a hybrid application. Hybrid apps are written with web
technologies like HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. Hybrid applications run inside a native
container and use the browser engine to render the HTML and process the JavaScript locally.
A web-to-native abstraction layer enables access to device abilities that are not accessible in
mobile web applications. PhoneGap is open source software that enables the implementation
of an abstract layer that exposes the device abilities to the hybrid app as a Java Script
application programming interface (API). This is impractical with the mobile
implementations in view of the security boundary between the browser and the device APIs
[3].
Past thesis [4] works concentrated mostly on map based stand-alone java applications
and web applications. In this thesis we focus on building a mobile application, which
explains about natural disasters graphically and can work on different mobile operating
systems.
2
CHAPTER 2
TECHNOLOGY
The work presented in chapter 2 is focused on several standard technologies. Here is
a brief description of those technologies.
2.1 HTML5
HTML stands for Hyper Text Markup Language. A browser can read only HTML
files and converts them into visible and audible web pages. HTML elements are the building
blocks of any website. HTML5 has few new features like <audio>, <svg>, <video>,
<canvas>, etc. HTML can embed JavaScript, which affect the behavior of HTML webpages
[5].
2.2 CSS
Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) is a language used for making the HTML pages look
beautiful. CSS is a foundation specification of the web, and almost all web pages use CSS
style sheets to describe their presentation [6].
I have used media queries concept to adjust the width of a div tag so that the div is
still displayed on the screen when the screen is resized.
2.3 JAVASCRIPT
JavaScript is a programming language used to design interactive websites. JavaScript
is scripting language with dynamic typing and has first-class functions. JavaScript allows
users to interact with browsers and communicate asynchronously.
I have used JavaScript to develop the homepage of the application to enhance the
look and feel of the application, and I have used JavaScript libraries JQuery and D3 to
develop interactive maps and bar charts.
3
2.4 JQUERY
JQuery is an open source cross-platform JavaScript library designed to simplify the
client-side scripting. JQuery's makes it easier to navigate along Document Object Model
(DOM) elements, handle events and also develop Ajax applications.
I have used JQuery to develop the menu of the application, which is displayed on
every page of the application and it helped to reuse the header and menu on each page
without rewriting them.
2.5 D3 JAVASCRIPT
Data-Driven Documents (D3) is a JavaScript library that uses digital data to create
and control interactive graphical forms, which run in web browsers. D3 is a visualization
tool, which widely implements Scalable Vector Graphics, JavaScript, HTML5 and CSS
standards [7].
I have used D3 to develop interactive maps with clickable points on them and also
built bar charts displaying the number of deaths at each disaster.
2.6 PHONEGAP
PhoneGap is a mobile development framework, which enables developers to build
applications for mobile devices using web technologies like JavaScript, HTML5, and CSS3,
instead of depending on platform-specific APIs like those in IOS or Android. The resulting
applications are called as hybrid applications as they are neither native nor purely web-based
applications [8].
Figure 2.1 shows the development cycle followed in developing the mobile
application with PhoneGap.
2.7 PHONEGAP OVER NATIVE
Using PhoneGap has the following advantages.
1. Managing a single code base: We just have to maintain just one code base for
different types of mobile application. If we want to fix a bug or add a new feature, we
just have to write it once and can be build it into different platforms easily using
PhoneGap.
2. JavaScript is easier: JavaScript is easier and quick to build while compare to Java and
Objective C. An application, which takes a month to build on Java, can be built in a
week using JavaScript.
4
Figure 2.1. Hybrid application workflow.
3. Making it pretty: Using style sheets, applications UI can be made very attractive.
All the above advantages make a huge difference while developing and maintaining a
mobile application. Hence PhoneGap is an ideal technology to build a web application and
deploy on to different platforms easily [9].
5
CHAPTER 3
DISASTERS
The central theme of this thesis is natural disasters. A detail description of its causes
and distribution is discussed below.
Natural disasters can sometimes be dramatic; they affect our present and will affect
our future. These disasters have the capacity of setting countries back centuries. The issue
with natural disasters is that they can be unpredictable, as in the Tsunami and Earthquakes or
they can be forecast to some extent but can still cause lots of destruction, as in tropical
cyclones and tornadoes.
Natural disasters can be divided into three groups:
1. Those caused by the movement of the earth. These disasters occur with the minimum
amount of warning like Earthquakes, Volcanic eruptions and Tsunami.
2. Disasters related to weather like hurricanes, cyclones, typhoons, etc.
3. The third group is sometimes the consequence of the first two natural disasters like
floods, mudslides and landslides, and forest or brush fires. Some very destructive
floods are caused by rapid ice melt, but this is still a response to natural phenomena.
I have focused on major meteorological disasters, i.e. the first two groups in this
thesis.
1. Earthquakes
2. Tropical cyclones
a. Cyclones
b. Hurricanes
c. Typhoons
3. Tsunami
4. Volcanic eruptions
5. Tornadoes
3.1 GENERAL CAUSES OF NATURAL DISASTERS
General causes of Natural disasters are discussed in detail below.
6
3.1.1 Seismic Activity
Seismic action brought about by earthquakes has been the underlying cause of
volcano eruption and hurricanes. The continents sit on gigantic plates that periodically move.
At the point when these plates shift, they cause an increment in pressure underneath the
earth's surface. In places where volcanoes have formed by solidified magma, pressure from
gasses and magma can blast or eject to send huge amounts of slag into the environment.
Volcanoes are regularly formed along lines of dynamic edges. Underneath the ocean, magma
emerges from inside the world's mantle and adds to the edges of plates that are in a crash.
This causes earthquakes, which in turn brings tsunami [10].
3.1.2 Ocean Currents
Changing ocean currents can affect the intensity and frequency of storms. Tornadoes
are formed by the interaction of high and low-pressure air.
3.1.3 Air Pressure
High and low air pressure determine whether or not we have thunderstorms, rain and
hurricanes.
3.1.4 Other Influences
Climate change, in which man might play a role, or asteroids or sunspots, could affect
ocean currents, annual rainfall, mean temperatures, etc. Earthquakes might be triggered by
human activities like drilling, bombing, mining, etc. Overpopulation or building has vastly
reduced rain forests, and man changes the ecology in many ways, and some can influence
certain disasters in nature.
3.2 EARTHQUAKES
An earthquake is the after effect of a sudden arrival of energy in the Earth's crust that
makes seismic waves. The seismicity of a region alludes to the frequency, sort and size of
earthquake experience over a period.
Earthquakes are measured using observations from seismometers. The moment
magnitude is the most well known scale on which earthquakes larger than more or less 5 are
accounted for on the whole globe. Earthquakes with magnitude 5 or less are measured on a
7
scale called the Richter scale. These two scales are numerically comparable over their scope
of legitimacy. Magnitude 3 or lower earthquakes are for the most part very nearly impalpable
or weak and Magnitude 7 and over possibly cause genuine harm over bigger ranges,
contingent upon their depth [11].
3.2.1 Earthquake Causes
An earthquake is the shaking and vibration of the Earth's crust because of the
development of the Earth's plates (plate tectonics). Earthquakes can happen along any plate
boundary. Earthquakes happen when pressure is discharged from inside the crust. Plates don't
move smoothly nearby one another and get stuck. At the point when this happens, pressure
develops. When this pressure is eventually discharged, an earthquake tends to occur.
In Figure 3.1, the point inside the crust where the pressure is discharged is known as
the focus. The point on the Earth's surface above the focus is known as the epicenter.
Earthquake energy is discharged in seismic waves. These waves spread out from the focus.
The waves are experienced most strongly at the epicenter, becoming less solid as they travel
further away. The most extreme harm brought on by the earthquake will happen near the
epicenter [12].
3.2.2 Distribution of Earthquakes
Earthquakes are disseminated unevenly on the globe. In specific spots, they are more
frequent and extreme, though in different spots they are to a considerable degree uncommon
and weak or their impact is scarcely noticeable. Examinations of the occurrence of
Earthquakes on the globe have shown that there are certain zones inside the continents along
which seismic shocks are felt rather frequently. It has been proved that the majority of the
damaging quakes begins inside two characterized zones or belts specifically (1) The CircumPacific Belt (2) The Mediterranean-Himalayan Seismic Belt.
3.2.2.1 THE CIRCUM-PACIFIC BELT
The Circum-Pacific Belt, which encloses the edge of the Pacific Ocean, has the most
extreme concentration of earthquakes. Around 80 percent of all the earthquakes are
concentrated in this belt. This ring coincides with the Circum-Pacific Ring of Fire. This belt
follows the western highlands of South and North America from Cape Horn to Alaska,
8
Figure 3.1. Diagram of an earthquake.
crosses to Asia and extends southward along the eastern coast and related island curves, and
circles far to the southeast and south past New Zealand. Figure 3.2 shows distribution of
Circum-Pacific belt.
3.2.2.2 THE MEDITERRANEAN-HIMALAYAN
BELT
The Mediterranean-Himalayan Seismic belt runs from Gibraltar to the East by means
of the Atlas mountains, the Pyrenees, the Apennines, the Balkan mountains, the mountain
chains of Asia Minor, the Caucasus, Hindu- Kush, the Himalayas, the mountain chains of
Burma and the islands of Indonesia, where it meets the Circum-Pacific cinch in the north of
Australia.
Apart from the above two belts, various shallow-focus earthquakes also happen in the
zones of mid-oceanic edges and the body of the volcano or its peripheral parts during
eruption. It is recognized that the present earthquake regions are connected with the younger
fold-mountain areas, and the present earthquake action is a period of the end of the AlpineOrogeny. Figure 3.3 shows the distribution of Mediterranean-Himalayan Belt [13].
9
Figure 3.2. The Circum-Pacific Belt.
3.2.3 List of Earthquakes
Table 3.1 contains earthquakes whose magnitude is greater than 8 and fatalities more
than 100 [14].
3.3 TROPICAL CYCLONES (CYCLONES, HURRICANES
AND TYPHOONS)
A tropical cyclone is the generic term for a low-pressure system over tropical or subtropical waters with thunderstorms and definite cyclonic surface wind circulation.
Cyclones, Typhoons and Hurricanes, are all same climatic happening; we just use
different names for these storms in various places. In the Atlantic and Northeast Pacific, the
expression "Hurricane" is used. The same kind of aggravation in the Northwest Pacific is
called as a "Typhoon" and "Cyclones" happen in the South Pacific and Indian Ocean [15].
3.3.1 Tropical Cyclones Causes
In the tropics there is a wide zone of low pressure, which extends either side of the
equator. The winds on the north side of this zone blow from the north - east trades and on the
southern side blow from the south - east trades.
10
Figure 3.3. The Mediterranean-Himalayan Belt.
Inside this zone of low weight, the air is heated over the warm tropical sea. This air
rises in discrete bundles, bringing about thundery showers. These showers normally go back
and forth, however now and again; they group together into large clusters of thunderstorms.
This makes the flow of warm, moist, rapidly rising air, leading to the evolution of the center
of low pressure or depression, at the surface.
There are different trigger mechanisms needed to change these cloud clusters into a
tropical cyclone. These trigger mechanisms rely upon a few conditions being "right" in the
same time.
The most persuasive factors are:
1. A source of warm, moist air derived from tropical oceans with sea surface
temperatures normally in the region of, or in excess, of 27 °C
2. Winds near the ocean surface blowing from different directions converging and
causing air to rise and storm clouds to form
11
Table 3.1. Earthquakes
City
Country
Latitude
Longitude
Magnitude
Fatalities
Honshu
Japan
38.322
142.369
9
28050
Bihar
India
27.55
87.09
8.1
10700
Michoacan
Mexico
18.19
-102.533
8
9500
Mindanao
Phillippines
6.292
124.09
8
8000
Karachi
Pakistan
24.5
63
8
4000
Valparalso
Chile
-33
-72
8.2
3882
Sanriku
Japan
39.22
144.62
8.4
2990
Valdivia
Chile
-38.29
-73.05
9.5
1655
Assam
Tibet
28.5
96.5
8.6
1526
Nankaido
Japan
32.5
134.5
8.1
1330
Sumatra
Indonesia
2.074
97.013
8.6
1313
Tonankai
Japan
33.75
136
8.1
1223
Columbia
Columbia
1
-81.5
8.8
1000
Pisco
Peru
-13.386
-76.603
8
650
Riobamba
Ecuador
1.598
-79.358
8.1
600
Maule
Chile
-35.846
-72.719
8.8
577
Samoa
Samoa
-15.489
-172.095
8.1
192
Valparalso
Chile
-33.135
-71.871
8
177
Irian Jaya
Indonesia
-0.891
136.952
8.2
166
Unimak
Alaska
52.75
-163.5
8.1
165
William Sound
Alaska
61.02
-147.65
9.2
125
Callao
Peru
-10.807
-78.684
8.1
125
Samana
Dominican Republic
19.25
-69
8
100
Sumbawa
Indonesia
-11.085
118.464
8.3
100
3. Winds, which do not vary greatly with height - known as low wind shear. This allows
the storm clouds to rise vertically to high levels
4. Sufficient distances from the equator to provide spin or twist
The Coriolis force caused by the rotation of the Earth helps the spin of this column of
rising air. The development of the surface depression causes an increase in the strength of the
trade winds. The spiraling winds quicken inwards and upwards, discharging heat and
moisture as they do so.
As the depression reinforces, it turns into a tropical storm and after that a hurricane or
typhoon. A mature typhoon or hurricane takes the form of a cylinder of deep thunderclouds
around a center that is moderately free from clouds. There is a relatively little zone of intense
12
horizontal winds at the surface, often well over of 100 M.P.H., while air rises strongly above,
maintaining the deep cumulonimbus clouds.
Further aloft at around six miles, the cloud tops are conveyed outwards to give thick
layer clouds because of the outward-spiraling winds leaving the tropical cyclone core. At the
center of a tropical cyclone, air is subsiding, which makes it dry and frequently cloud free,
and there is almost no wind at the surface. This is known as the eye of the storm [16].
3.3.2 Distribution of Tropical Cyclones
Tropical cyclones form between nearly 5° and 30° latitude and initially move towards
the west and slightly towards the poles. Most of the tropical cyclones eventually move far
away from the equator to move into areas dominated by westerly winds. These winds have a
tendency to switch the course of the tropical cyclones to an eastward way. As a tropical
cyclone moves polewards it picks up forward speed and may achieve 30 m.p.h. or more. A
normal tropical cyclone can travel around 300 to 400 miles a day or around 3,000 miles
before it dies out [17].
In the northern side of the equator, most tropical violent winds happen in the middle
of June and November with a top in September. In any case, in the northwest Pacific it is not
unexpected to have the incidental tropical cyclones outside of this period. In the southern
hemisphere, the season keeps going from November to April. Tropical cyclones are
occasionally seen in the South Atlantic. However, this is an exceptionally uncommon event.
Figure 3.4 shows distribution of tropical cyclones [18]
3.3.3 List of Cyclones
Table 3.2 contains some of cyclones whose deaths are greater than 10000 [19].
3.3.4 List of Hurricanes
Table 3.3 is the list of some of the dramatic hurricanes [20].
3.3.5 List of Typhoons
Table 3.4 is the list of some dramatic typhoons [21].
13
Figure 3.4. Tropical cyclones distribution.
3.4 VOLCANIC ERUPTIONS
Volcanic eruptions happen when lava and gas are discharged from a volcanic vent
[22].
3.4.1 Causes of Volcanic Eruptions
Most predominate causes of volcanic eruptions are:
1. The buoyancy of the magma
2. The pressure from the exsolved gases in the magma
3. The injection of a new batch of magma into an already filled magma chamber
What follows is a brief description of these processes.
When the rock inside the earth melts, its volume increases producing a melt that is
less dense than the surrounding rock. Then the lighter magma rises towards the surface due to
buoyancy and erupts.
Magmas of purported andesitic and rhyolite compositions contain dissolved volatiles,
for example, water, sulfur dioxide and carbon dioxide. Studies demonstrated that the measure
of dissolved gas in the magma at atmospheric pressure is zero, yet rises with increasing
pressure.
14
Table 3.2. Cyclones
Name
Ocean Area
Fatalities
Latitude
Longitude
Great Bhola
Bay of Bengal
500000
22.146708
90.878906
Hooghly River
Bay of Bengal
300000
20.632784
88.417969
Coringa
Bay of Bengal
300000
16.783506
82.408447
Backerganj
Bay of Bengal
200000
21.7595
90.483398
Great Backerganj
Bay of Bengal
200000
21.800308
90.197754
Chittagong
Bay of Bengal
175000
22.355156
91.750946
Cyclone 02B
Bay of Bengal
138866
22.327212
91.757813
Cyclone Nargis
Bay of Bengal
138366
18.812718
94.570313
Swatlow
West Pacific
100000
23.339722
116.703056
Great Bombay
Arabian Sea
100000
19.041349
72.778931
Sundarbans
Bay of Bengal
61000
21.564029
88.891076
Calcutta
Bay of Bengal
60000
21.601258
88.187256
Barisal
Bay of Bengal
50000
22.024546
90.834961
Sunderbans coast
Bay of Bengal
50000
21.575719
89.066162
Wenchou
West Pacific
50000
27.926474
121.173706
Bengal Cyclone
Bay of Bengal
40000
21.820708
88.066406
Canton
West Pacific
37000
22.441495
113.730469
Backerganj
Bay of Bengal
30000
22.248429
91.010742
Barisal
Bay of Bengal
22000
22.380556
91.186523
Chittagong
Bay of Bengal
22000
22.360236
91.741333
Great Coringa
Bay of Bengal
20000
16.751948
82.353516
Urir
Bay of Bengal
15000
22.685742
91.346925
Tacloban
Western Pacific
15000
11.25
125
Devi Taluk
Bay of Bengal
14204
13.539201
80.288086
The third process that causes volcanic ejections is an infusion of new magma into a
chamber that is already filled with magma with comparable or distinctive compositions. This
infusion forces the magma in the chamber to climb in the course and emit at the surface [23].
3.4.2 Distribution of Volcanic Eruptions
Volcanoes are distributed mostly at the limits of the world's tectonic plates.
Subducted outside ascents as magma at constructive or destructive plate boundaries and
escapes through vents in the crust regularly forming volcanoes on the surface. Figure 3.5
shows the distribution of volcanic eruptions [24].
15
Table 3.3. Hurricanes
Name
Areas affected
San Marcos
Cuba, Florida, Bahamas
2000
28.459033
-83.32
Sea Islands
Chenier
Caminanda
Georgia, South Carolina
Yucatán Peninsula, Louisiana,
Mississippi
1000
31.501614
-81.12605
1800
29.19134
-90.06819
Galveston
Antilles, Eastern United States
8000
29.301348
-94.79796
Flora
The Caribbean, Florida
7193
27.304888
-80.29689
Fifi-Orlene
Jamaica, Central America.
8000
18.109581
-77.29758
David
2068
17.172623
-62.57189
1152
18
-70
Mitch
The Caribbean, US East coast
Central America, Greater Antilles,
Florida
Central America, Yucatán Peninsula,
South Florida
11000
26.273714
-80.50783
Jeanne
The Caribbean, Eastern United States
3035
26.355503
-77.14856
Katrina
Bahamas, United States Gulf Coast
1836
29.938866
-90.05774
Stan
Mexico, Central America
1668
12.726084
-89.12104
Gordon
Fatalities
Latitude
Longitude
Table 3.4. Typhoons
Name
Area
Fatalities
Latitude
Typhoon Tip
Micronesia
86
6.79008
158.214111
Super Typhoon Nora
Philippines
18
12.879721
121.774017
Super Typhoon Ida
Western Pacific Ocean
888
34.016242
140.273438
Emong Typhoon
Pacific Ocean
64
12.983148
109.6875
Super Typhoon Rita
Philippines
150
13.239945
120.146484
Super Typhoon Vanessa
Western Pacific
100
13.444304
144.793731
Figure 3.5. Volcanic distributions.
Longitude
16
3.4.3 List of Volcanic Eruptions
Table 3.5 is the list of some of the most dramatic volcanic eruptions whose volcanic
explosivity index (VEI) is more than 6 [25].
Table 3.5. Volcanic Eruptions
Name
Volcanic arc/ belt
Mount St. Helens
Cascade Volcanic Arc
Mount Vesuvius/Pompeii eruption
Italy
Mount Pinatubo
Latitude
Longitude
46.1912
-122.1944
40.822
14.4289
Luzon Volcanic Arc
15.142973
120.349302
Novarupta
Aleutian Range
58.228861
-155.12392
Santa María
Central America Volcanic Arc
14.756
-91.552
Krakatoa
Sunda Arc
-6.132362
105.398712
Grímsvötn and Laki
Iceland
64.42
-17.33
Long Island
Bismarck Volcanic Arc
-6.314993
143.95555
Santorini
South Aegean Volcanic Arc
36.393156
25.461509
Huaynaputina
Andes, Central Volcanic Zone
-16.608
-70.85
Billy Mitchell
Bougainville & Solomon Is.
-5.924777
154.986877
Bárðarbunga
Iceland
64.641
-17.528
Kuwae
New Hebrides Arc
-16.90826
168.554728
Quilotoa
Andes, Northern Volcanic Zone
-0.861193
-78.897285
Katla/Eldgjá eruption
Iceland
63.633333
-19.05
Ceboruco
Trans-Mexican Volcanic Belt
21.107429
-104.49524
Dakataua
Bismarck Volcanic Arc
-5.056
150.108
Pago
Bismarck Volcanic Arc
-5.551165
150.13873
Mount Churchill
Eastern Alaska, USA
61.419444
-141.71422
Rabaul Caldera
Bismarck Volcanic Arc
-4.271111
152.203056
Ilopango
Central America Volcanic Arc
13.7
-89.116667
Ksudach
Kamchatka Peninsula
51.8
157.53
Ambrym
New Hebrides Arc
-16.24774
168.15643
Apoyeque
Central America Volcanic Arc
12.242
-86.342
Mount Tambora
Lesser Sunda Islands
-8.246667
117.958333
Samalas (Mount Rinjani)
Lombok, Lesser Sunda Islands
-8.41
116.458333
/Tianchi eruption
China/ North Korea border
42.001342
128.060853
Taupo Caldera/Hatepe eruption
Taupo Volcano
-38.82
176
3.5 TSUNAMI
Tsunamis are a series of giant waves caused by earthquakes or volcanic eruptions
under the sea. As these waves travel inland, they strengthen up as the depth of the ocean
decreases [26].
17
3.5.1 Causes of Tsunami
1. Undersea Earthquakes
Undersea earthquakes cause over 80% of tsunamis. Most earthquakes and volcanic
eruptions occur where tectonic plates meet
2. Underwater Landslides and Land sliding into the sea
Undersea landslides happen when a lot of silt is displaced from the ocean bottom,
dislodging a water segment and causing a tsunami. Land sliding into the ocean,
generally brought about by an earthquake, might likewise cause destructive local
tsunamis.
3. Volcanic Eruption
A destructive volcano in or near ocean results in landslides and volcanic collapsing
after eruption causes overlying water to drop suddenly [19, 27].
3.5.2 Distribution of Tsunami
"Pacific Ring of Fire " is where the majority of Tsunamis happen. This zone is
located at the northern edge of the Pacific Plate. From recorded sources, we know that
Tsunamis can happen in all bigger oceans of the world. Consequently, lethal tsunamis
happen in geographically less dynamic oceans like the Indian Ocean, the Atlantic, or the
Mediterranean too. In reality Tsunamis happen more rarely in, for instance, the
Mediterranean than in the Pacific Ocean, however that is precisely why one must not belittle
or minimize the risk. Figure 3.6 shows the distribution of Tsunamis [25, 28].
Figure 3.6. Tsunami distributions.
18
3.5.3 List of Tsunami
Table 3.6 is the list of some of the most dramatic Tsunamis whose deaths are more
than 100 [29].
Table 3.6. Tsunami List
Sea Region
Affected Region
Pacific
Indonesia, Java
Indian Ocean Indonesia, Off w. Coast of Sumatra
Magnitude Fatalities Latitude Longitude
7.7
700 -7.614529 110.712246
9.0
283.100 -1.142502 100.722656
Pacific
Papua New Guinea
7.0
2.182 -7.406048 144.052734
Indian Ocean
Indonesia, Irian Jaya
8.2
127 -1.336115 133.174716
Indian Ocean
Indonesia, Java
7.8
222 -7.614529 110.712246
Pacific
Japan, Noshiro
7.7
103 38.848848 135.000000
Pacific
Colombia
7.7
500 5.441022 -78.662109
Indian Ocean
Indonesia, Sunda Islands
8.0
190 -2.899153 109.335938
Pacific
Celebes Sea
8.1
5.000 -1.977147 122.475586
Pacific
Usa, Prince William Sound, Alaska
9.2
123 59.933000 -146.77734
Pacific
Chile, Central Chile
9.5
1.260 -35.96022 -74.091797
Pacific
Unimak Island, Alaska
7.3
165 53.852527 -163.21281
Pacific
Japan, Sanriku
8.4
3.000 37.961523 141.547852
Pacific
South Pacific, Ecuador, Colombia
8.8
1.000 -0.219726 -84.067383
Banda Sea
Indonesia
7.8
3.620 -5.703938 126.609393
Pacific
Japan, Sanriku
7.6
26.360 37.996163 141.196289
Indian Ocean
Indonesia, India
k. A.
36.500 -7.188101 99.667969
Pacific
Peru
8.3
500 -13.58192 -87.539063
Pacific
Chile, North Chile
8.5
25.000 -15.28418 -80.859375
Pacific
Japan, Nankaido
8.4
3000 33.760882 136.186523
Caribbean Sea
Haiti, Cap-Haitian
7.7
300 19.849394 -72.092285
Pacific
Japan, Ryukyu Islands
7.4
13.500 26.500000 128.000000
Atlantic
Portugal, Lisbon
9.0
60.000 38.556757
-9.283447
19
3.6 TORNADOES
A tornado, often referred to as twisters is a vigorously twisting column of air between
the surface of the earth and a cloud. Tornadoes are in the form of a visible condensation
funnel, whose narrow end touches the earth and is often encircled by a cloud of debris and
dust. All most all tornadoes have wind speeds less than 110 miles per hour, are about 250
feet across, and travel a few miles before dying [30].
3.6.1 Causes of Tornadoes
Tornadoes form in unusually violent thunderstorms when there is sufficient (1)
instability and (2) wind shear present in the lower atmosphere.
Instability refers to unusually warm and humid conditions in the lower atmosphere,
and potentially cooler than normal conditions in the upper atmosphere. Wind shear for this
situation alludes to the wind direction changing, and the wind velocity expanding, with
tallness.
This sort of wind shear and unsteadiness, more often than not, exists just in front of a
cold front and a low-pressure system. The extreme turning of a tornado is somewhat the
consequence of the updrafts and downdrafts in the storm associating with the wind shear,
bringing about a tilting of the wind shear to structure an upright tornado vortex. Assisting the
methodology, cyclonically streaming air around the cyclone, as of now gradually turning in a
counter-clockwise bearing, unites internal at the storm, making it turn speedier.
Different processes can improve the chances for tornado development. For example,
dry air in the center air can be quickly cooled by rain in the rainstorm, reinforcing the
downdrafts that support in a tornado creation.
Structuring, now and again frail tornadoes can happen when the wind shear
conditions are solid, however the climate is not extremely precarious. For example, this in
some cases happens in California in the winter when a solid low-weight framework comes
shore wards. Likewise, feeble tornadoes can happen when the air mass is exceptionally
flimsy, yet has little wind shear. Case in point, Florida - which reports a bigger number of
tornadoes than whatever another state in the U.S. - has numerous weaker tornadoes of this
mixed bag. Obviously, the most vicious tornadoes happen when both solid precariousness
20
and solid wind shear is available, which in the U.S. happens in the centerpiece of the nation
amid the spring, and to a lesser degree amid fall [31].
3.6.2 Distribution of Tornadoes
The United States has the most tornadoes of any nation. Large portions of these
structures in a zone of the focal United States known as Tornado Alley. This region stretches
out into Canada, especially Ontario and the Prairie Provinces; then again, movement in
Canada is short of what that of the U.S.
An extensive piece of South America is described by the storms that are structured
there amid the spring, summer and early fall. These storms regularly achieve the level of
supercells (dangerous storms) and produce extreme hailstorms, surges and tornadoes.
Tornado Corridor (South America) is the second biggest area where climate occasions
happen. It covers the greater part of focal Argentina, southern Paraguay, south-focal Brazil
and Uruguay.
Bangladesh and encompassing regions of eastern India experience the ill effects of
tornadoes of lesser seriousness to those in the U.S. Nonetheless, these happen with more
prominent repeat interim and have a tendency to be under-reported because of a shortage of
media scope in an underdeveloped nation. The yearly human loss of life from tornadoes in
Bangladesh is around 179 passing for every year, which is much more prominent than in the
U.S. This is likely because of the thickness of populace, low quality of development, absence
of tornado security information, and various components. Different territories of the world
that have incessant solid tornadoes incorporate Germany, Italy, Spain, China and the
Philippines. Australia, France, Russia, territories of the Middle East, India, Bangladesh and
Japan has a history of numerous harming tornado occasions. Figure 3.7 shows the
distribution of Tornadoes [32]
3.6.3 List of Tornadoes
Table 3.7 is the list of tornadoes whose deaths are greater than 100 [22].
21
Figure 3.7. Tornado distributions.
22
Table 3.7. Tornadoes List
Name
Country
Daultipur
Bangladesh
Tri-State
Fatalities
Latitude
Longitude
1300
23.972972
90.036153
US
695
38.822591
-90.21977
Nawabganj
Bangladesh
681
24.579719
88.27045
Bangladesh
Bangladesh
660
23.810332
90.412518
Valletta
Malta
600
35.889189
14.515171
Magura
Bangladesh
500
23.165698
89.499022
Sicily
Italy
500
37.599994
14.015356
Shibchar
Bangladesh
500
23.164883
90.193993
Balino
Russia
400
57.005067
40.976645
Natchez
US
317
31.560444
-91.40311
Cooch Behar
India,
300
26.32419
89.45103
Bhakua
Bangladesh
300
25.834215
88.124258
Comilla
Bangladesh
263
23.45
91.2
St.Louis
US
255
38.627003
-90.19944
Orissa
India
250
22.024546
86.791992
Tupelo
US
216
34.257607
-88.70336
Calcutta
India
215
22.572646
Dhaka
Bangladesh
210
23.6
89.85
Gainesville
US
203
29.651634
-82.32426
88.363895
Mymensingh
Bangladesh
200
24.753889
90.403056
Faridpur
Bangladesh
200
23.443089
89.637451
Baliakandi
Bangladesh
200
23.634687
89.547405
Sonagazi
Bangladesh
200
23.213491
91.444677
Higgins
US
181
36.119764
-100.0249
Jaipur
India
173
26.912434
75.787271
Joplin
US
162
37.084227
-94.51321
Kandi
India
145
23.9468
88.049714
Amite
US
143
30.726575
-90.50892
Bhederganj
Bangladesh
141
26.262018
87.822429
Karimpur
India
128
23.966667
88.616667
Rengalbeda
Bangladesh
120
21.432899
84.684522
Borni
Bangladesh
120
23.798953
91.078371
New Richmond
US
117
48.162118
-65.85679
Flint
US
116
43.012527
-83.68746
Waco
US
114
31.549333
-97.14667
Goliad
US
114
28.668325
-97.38837
Omaha
US
103
41.252363
-95.99798
23
CHAPTER 4
IMPLEMENTATION
This Chapter explains about the implementation of major features built using HTML,
CSS, and JavaScript to work for mobile.
Here is the list of important modules in the application: Map, Statistics, Menu, and
Videos.
Figure 4.1 shows the high-level architecture of the application.
Figure 4.1. Architecture.
24
All these modules are explained below in detail.
4.1 IMPLEMENTATION OF MAP
D3.js, a JavaScript library is used to generate a map and plot points on the map. The
code below generated a world map using a JSON file, read latitudes and longitudes from a
CSV file to draw little red circles on the world map. Each red point is clickable and when
clicked it opens a new window and shows Google search information of that particular
disaster.
var projection = d3.geo.mercator();
//var svg = d3.select("#map").append("svg")
// .attr("width", width)
// .attr("height", height);
var svg = d3.select("#map").append("svg")
.attr("preserveAspectRatio", "xMidYMid")
.attr("viewBox", "0 0 " + width + " " + height)
.attr("width", m_width)
.attr("height", m_width * height / width);
var path = d3.geo.path()
.projection(projection);
var g = svg.append("g");
d3.json("world-110m2.json", function(error, topology) {
//load data
d3.csv("tornado.csv", function(error, data) {
g.selectAll("circle")
.data(data)
.enter()
.append("a")
.on("click", function(d) {
//.attr("xlink:href", function(d) {
25
window.open(
"https://www.google.com/search?q=Tornado "+d.Name,"_blank");
}
)
.append("circle")
.attr("cx", function(d) {
return projection([d.Longitude,
d.Latitude])[0];
})
.attr("cy", function(d) {
return projection([d.Longitude,
d.Latitude])[1];
})
.attr("r", 2)
.style("fill", "red");
});
// load and display the World
g.selectAll("path")
.data(topojson.object(topology,
topology.objects.countries)
.geometries)
.enter()
.append("path")
.attr("d", path)
});
The above code generated Figure 4.2.
26
Figure 4.2. Map.
4.2 STATISTICS
D3.js is used to display statistics of the disaster. The code reads number of deaths for
a disaster and generates a bar chart with disaster name on X-axis and number of deaths on yaxis.
var x = d3.scale.ordinal()
.rangeRoundBands([0, width], .1);
var y = d3.scale.linear()
.range([height, 0]);
var xAxis = d3.svg.axis()
.scale(x)
.orient("bottom");
var yAxis = d3.svg.axis()
.scale(y)
.orient("left");
var svg = d3.select("body").append("svg")
.attr("width", width + margin.left +
margin.right)
27
.attr("height", height + margin.top +
margin.bottom)
.append("g")
.attr("transform", "translate(" + margin.left +
"," + margin.top + ")");
d3.csv("tornado.csv", type, function(error, data) {
x.domain(data.map(function(d) { return d.Name;
}));
y.domain([0, d3.max(data, function(d) { return
d.Fatalities; })]);
svg.append("g")
.attr("class", "x axis")
.attr("transform", "translate(0," + height +
")")
.call(xAxis);
svg.append("g")
.attr("class", "y axis")
.call(yAxis)
.append("text")
.attr("transform", "rotate(-90)")
.attr("y", 6)
.attr("dy", ".71em")
.style("text-anchor", "end")
.text("Fatalities");
svg.selectAll(".bar")
.data(data)
.enter().append("rect")
.attr("class", "bar")
.attr("x", function(d) { return x(d.Name); })
.attr("width", x.rangeBand())
.attr("y", function(d) { return
y(d.Fatalities); })
.attr("height", function(d) { return height y(d.Fatalities); });
28
}
The code above generated a bar chart, which is shown in Figure 4.2.
Figure 4.3. Statistics.
4.3 RESPONSIVE MENU
A responsive menu is designed to make it look good in portrait and landscape mode.
A CSS media query is used to make menu adjust to the mode based on the screen size.
The styling below make the menu to adjust to the screen width.
@media all and (max-width : 980px) {
#nav > li {
float: none;
border-bottom: 0;
margin-bottom: 0;
}
#nav ul.subs {
position: relative;
top: 0;
}
#nav li:hover ul.subs {
display: none;
}
29
#nav
#nav
#nav
#nav
#nav
li #s1:target +
li #s2:target +
li #s3:target +
li #s4:target +
li #s5:target +
display: block;
ul.subs,
ul.subs,
ul.subs,
ul.subs,
ul.subs{
}
#nav ul.subs > li {
display: block;
width: auto;
}
}
Screen looks like Figure 4.4 when the tablet is in portrait mode.
4.4 VIDEOS
Interesting YouTube videos, which explain about disasters, are embedded in the
application to learn about disasters visually. Movies module is also included in the menu to
make the application entertaining.
The snippet below is the code of the movies.html file
Figure 4.4. Menu.
30
<center><h1>Hollywood Movies on
Disasters</h1></center>
</br>
<h2>1.The Big One: The Great Los Angeles Earthquake
</h2>
<div>
<div id="left">
<img src="la.png" width="600" height="500">
</div>
<div id="right">
<h3> Plot of the movie</h3>
<p>
After a series of small tremors in Los Angeles,
Dr. Clare Winslow, a local seismologist, pinpoints
the exact location and time of when the
long awaited earthquake--"The Big One"--will
strike southern California. With this information,
she must battle city officials to release this
information to the general public. Also, she
hopes that her family is out of harms way when the
quake strikes. Subplots show how other
families and people cope with the the tremors
that strike before the impending "Big One."
</p>
</div>
<br>
<div>
<h3> Movie Trailer</h3>
<iframe width="500" height="345"
src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/I18DMyTFJo0">
</iframe>
31
Figure 4.5. Video.
4.5 BUILDING MOBILE APP USING PHONEGAP
Environment setup:
1. Install Cordova’s command-line interface (CLI).
2. To develop Cordova application, software development kits (SDK) for each mobile
platform targeting must be installed.
3. For Cordova command-line to work, include the SDK’s tools and platform-tools
directories in your path
Opening a new project:
1. Create a project using below command
a. $ cordova create hello com.example.hello Helloworld
2. Add a platform to the project
a. Cordova add platform add android
Building Project:
1. www directory contains all the source files. Run below commands to build or rebuild
the application
a. $ cordova build
b. $ cordova build android (for only android build)
Deploy to Device:
To push an app directly to the device, make sure USB debugging is enabled on your
device and use a mini USB cable to plug into your system. Use the command to deploy on to
your device.
1. $ cordova run android
32
CHAPTER 5
SCREENSHOTS
The application has a big header, which displays the title of the thesis with SDSU
logo.
To make the application look similar to other SDSU websites, red and black theme
has been chosen for home page with some beautiful HD pictures. Figure 5.1 shows the home
page of the application.
Figure 5.1. Homepage landscape mode.
The UI is made responsive so that when the width of the screen is less 980 pixels the
menu is displayed vertically (Figure 5.2) to match the screen resolution.
The disasters are displayed on a world map to show how they are distributed and the
map looks like Figure 5.3.
Bar charts are used to display number of deaths at a particular disasters like Figure
5.4.
33
Figure 5.2. Homepage portrait mode.
Figure 5.3. Map screenshot.
Figure 5.4. Statistics screenshot.
34
YouTube videos are embedded into the application to make it interesting. Figure 5.5
shows how a video page is displayed in the application.
Figure 5.5. Videos.
Movies page displays plot, trailer and images of some famous Hollywood movies on
disasters [33]. Figure 5.6 shows how movies page is displayed in the application.
Figure 5.6. Movies.
35
CHAPTER 6
CONCLUSION
The primary motive of this thesis is to provide an interactive mobile educational tool
about causes and distribution of natural disasters. The biggest challenge here is mobiles have
different operating systems like Android, IOS, windows, etc. To solve this problem I have
developed a web application using HTML, CSS, JavaScript, JQuery, D3 JS and used an open
source software called PhoneGap to make it a hybrid application so that it can run on
different operating systems like a native mobile application.
This thesis can be extended to include few other natural disasters like floods,
wildfires, etc. and the interface can be made user friendly so that users can add and edit the
data inside the application. The application can be hosted on Android Play Store, Apple App
Store and other App stores so that the application can be downloaded and installed on to
mobiles very easily.
36
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