S
R
E
T
S
A
S
I
D
bWhat is the wind 4
speed in a Category
hurricane? PAGE 69
K
S
E
A
U
Q
T
H
A
R
E
There are thousands of earthquakes each year. Most are small, but about 1 in 500
causes damage. Some quakes are incredibly powerful and destructive.
WHAT CAUSES
North
America
EARTHQUAKES?
Europe
Asia
Pacific
Ocean
Africa
Pacific
Ocean
South
America
Australia
Antarctica
To understand earthquakes, imagine
Earth as an egg with a cracked shell.
The cracked outer layer (the eggshell)
is called the lithosphere, and it is
divided into huge pieces called plates
(see map). The plates are constantly
moving away from, toward, or past
one another. Earthquakes result when
plates collide or scrape against each
other. The cracks in the lithosphere
are called faults. Many quakes occur
along these fault lines.
CALIFORNIA’S SAN ANDREAS FAULT
Perhaps the most famous fault in the world, the San Andreas fault runs
for about 700 miles north-south through California. Along this fault,
which is about 10 miles deep, the North American and Pacific Ocean
plates are scraping past each other. In some parts of California, a
crack in the ground can be seen where the fault is located. The
San Andreas fault is responsible for some of the worst
earthquakes in U.S. history,
including the 1906 quake in
San Francisco that caused
more than 3,000 deaths
and destroyed large parts
of the city.
66
066-071_Disasters.indd 66
6/14/13 1:28 PM
DISASTERS
MAJOR EARTHQUAKES*
Year Location
1960
1970
1976
1988
1989
1990
1999
2001
2004
2005
2008
2010
2011
Magnitude
near Chile
Northern Peru
Tangshan, China
Soviet Armenia
United States (San Francisco area)
Western Iran
Western Turkey
Western India
Sumatra, Indonesia
Pakistan and India
Sichuan, China
Haiti
Northeastern Japan
Deaths
(estimated)
9.5**
7.9
7.5
6.8
6.9
7.4
7.6
7.6
9.1
7.6
7.9
7.0
9.0
1,655
70,000
242,769
25,000
63
40,000+
17,000+
20,085
227,898
86,000
87,857
316,000
20,896
*Since 1960. **Strongest earthquake ever recorded.
WHAT ARE
TSUNAMIS?
Tsunami (pronounced tsoo-NAH-mee) comes from
two Japanese words: “tsu” (harbor) and “nami”
(wave). Tsunamis are huge waves. They are
sometimes called tidal waves, but they have nothing
to do with the tides. The strongest tsunamis happen
when a big part of the sea floor lifts along a fault,
pushing up a huge volume of water. Many times this
happens after an undersea earthquake.
MAJOR TSUNAMIS
Year Location
What Happened?
1755 Lisbon, Portugal Three earthquakes struck Portugal’s capital,
creating a tsunami with waves 100 feet high.
1782 South China
After a major underwater earthquake, a tsunami
Sea near Taiwan sent waves inland more than 60 miles.
1883 Indonesia
The Krakatau, or Krakatoa, volcano erupted four
times, causing a massive tsunami more than
100 feet tall.
1908 Southern Italy
A major earthquake triggered a devastating
tsunami.
2004 Indian Ocean
After a 9.1-magnitude earthquake hit Indonesia,
a tsunami with waves up to 100 feet high struck
14 countries.
2011 Northeastern
A 9.0-magnitude earthquake touched off a
Japan
huge tsunami.
Deaths
(estimated)
60,000
40,000
36,000
72,000
227,898
20,896
67
066-071_Disasters.indd 67
6/14/13 1:28 PM
Some Famous
Volcanic Eruptions
ash and gas
crater
Year
Volcano (place)
side vent
79
1586
1792
1815
1883
Mount Vesuvius (Italy)
Kelut (Indonesia)
Mount Unzen (Japan)
Tambora (Indonesia)
Krakatau, or Krakatoa
(Indonesia)
Mount Pelée (Martinique)
Mount St. Helens (U.S.)
El Chichón (Mexico)
Nevado del Ruiz (Colombia)
Lake Nyos (Cameroon)
Mount Pinatubo (Philippines)
lava
magma
A volcano is a mountain or hill (cone)
with an opening on top known as
a crater. Hot melted rock (magma),
gases, and other material from inside
Earth mix together and rise up through
cracks and weak spots. When enough
pressure builds up, the magma can
escape. It erupts through the crater
and sometimes through smaller
openings called side vents. Magma
that comes out of a volcano is called
lava. Lava may be hotter than 2,000°F.
The cone of a volcano is often made
of layers of lava and ash that have
erupted, then cooled.
1902
1980
1982
1985
1986
1991
Deaths
(estimated)
16,000
10,000
14,500
10,000
36,000
28,000
57
1,880
23,000
1,700
800
Where is the
RING OF FIRE?
The hundreds of active volcanoes near the edges of the
Pacific Ocean make up what is called the Ring of Fire.
They mark the boundary between the plates under the
Pacific Ocean and the plates under the surrounding
continents. (Earth’s plates are explained on page 66, with
the help of a map.) The Ring of Fire runs from Alaska, along
the west coast of North and South America, to the southern
tip of Chile. The ring also runs down the east coast of Asia.
Starting in the far north, it passes through Russia, Japan,
the Philippines, and New Guinea. It continues down past
Australia. Some of the most destructive volcanic eruptions
ever recorded have occurred along the Ring of Fire.
What happened at POMPEII?
Two thousand years ago, at the time of the Roman
Empire, Pompeii was a vacation resort. Located near
the Bay of Naples in Italy, it was popular with wealthy
Romans. In A.D. 79, nearby Mount Vesuvius, an active
volcano, erupted. The eruption sent huge amounts of
hot rock, gases, and dense ash over the unsuspecting
city. Thousands of people died, and the city was buried
under millions of tons of ash. The incredibly wellpreserved ruins were rediscovered in 1748, and today
millions of people visit Pompeii each year.
68
066-071_Disasters.indd 68
6/14/13 1:29 PM
Categories
1
2
3
4
5
74-95 mph
96-110 mph
111-130 mph
131-155 mph
over 155 mph
DISASTERS
HURRICANES
Hurricanes—called typhoons or cyclones in the Pacific—are
Earth’s biggest storms. When conditions are right, they form over
the ocean from collections of storms and clouds known as tropical
disturbances. Strong winds create a wall of clouds and rain that
swirl in a circle around a calm center called the eye. If wind speeds
reach 39 mph, the storm is named. If wind speeds top 74 mph, the storm
is called a hurricane. Hurricanes are classified into five categories
depending on their wind speeds.
Hurricane Names
The U.S. began using women’s names for
hurricanes in 1953 and added men’s names
in 1979. When all letters (except Q, U, X, Y,
and Z) are used in one season, any additional
storms are named with Greek letters.
2014 Atlantic
Hurricane Names
Arthur, Bertha, Cristobal, Dolly, Edouard,
Fay, Gonzalo, Hanna, Isaias, Josephine,
Kyle, Laura, Marco, Nana, Omar, Paulette,
Rene, Sally, Teddy, Vicky, Wilfred
Hurricanes can be hundreds of miles wide. On land, the storm can snap trees and tear
buildings apart. Strong winds blowing toward shore can create a rise in the ocean
water called a storm surge. It can combine with heavy rains to cause flooding and
massive damage.
For the Atlantic Ocean, Caribbean Sea, and Gulf of Mexico, hurricane season runs from
June 1 to November 30.
NOTABLE U.S. HURRICANES
Date
Location
Deaths
(estimated)
What Happened?
Sept. 8, 1900 Galveston, TX
Category 4 storm flooded the island with 15-foot waves.
8,000+
Sept. 16-17,
1928
Central/
southern FL
Category 5 storm, the fourth-largest to hit the U.S.
mainland, caused 9-foot waves.
1,836
Sept. 21,
1938
NY, CT, RI, MA “The Long Island Express,” with storm surges rising
10-25 feet, caused $306 million in damages.
Aug. 25-29,
2005
LA, MS, AL,
GA, FL
Oct. 29-30,
2012
NY, NJ, other Sandy, a huge storm measuring 1,000 miles wide,
eastern states caused at least $50 billion in damage.
Did You
Hurricane Katrina, with 175 mph winds and a 25-foot
high storm surge, caused about $125 billion in damage.
682
1,833+
72+
?
Sandy was the second-most-destructive
tropical storm ever to hit the United States.
It made landfall (came onshore) in southern
New Jersey on the evening of October 29, 2012. Besides
bringing high winds and heavy rain, it caused a huge storm
surge. Walls of water, some more than 9 feet tall, hit coastal
areas in New Jersey; New York City; Long Island, NY; and
southern New England. Hundreds of thousands of buildings
were destroyed or severely damaged.
KNOW
New Jersey shore
69
066-071_Disasters.indd 69
6/14/13 1:29 PM
Enhanced Fujita
Scale
WEAK
EF0: 65-85 mph
EF1: 86-110 mph
STRONG
EF2: 111-135 mph
EF3: 136-165 mph
VIOLENT
EF4: 166-200 mph
EF5: over 200 mph
Tornadoes,
nad
or twisters,
sters, are ra
rapidly
rapidlyy sp
spinning
spin
ng ccolumns
umns of air. They
usually form when winds change direction, speed up, and spin
around in or near a thunderstorm.
Tornadoes can happen any time that the weather is right, but
they are more common between March and July. They can
happen in any state, but strong tornadoes often touch down
in the U.S. Midwest and Southeast. A group of states including
Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska, Iowa, and South Dakota
is sometimes called Tornado Alley because of the large number
of twisters that occur in the region.
According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
(NOAA), about 1,000 tornadoes occur in the U.S. each year.
Tornadoes are measured by how much damage they cause.
In February 2007, the U.S.
began using the Enhanced Fujita (EF) Scale to measure
tornadoes. The EF-Scale provides an estimate of a
tornado’s wind speed based on the amount of damage. If a
tornado doesn’t hit anything, it may be hard to classify it.
Wind speeds are difficult to measure directly, because
measuring instruments can be destroyed in more violent
winds. The highest speed ever recorded—302 mph—was
taken in May 1999 in an Oklahoma tornado. A huge EF5
tornado hit the same area, in and around Moore, OK, in
May 2013.
U.S. Tornado Records
(since record keeping began in 1950)
YEAR: The 1,817 tornadoes reported in 2004
YEAR
topped the previous record of 1,424 in 1998.
MONTH: In April 2011, there were a total of 758
tornadoes, easily passing the old record of 542 set
in May 2003.
SINGLE EVENT: On April 25-28, 2011, an
estimated 305 tornadoes touched down in
Alabama and a number of other states, mostly
in the Southeast, causing more than 300 deaths.
Did You
?
KNOW
Most tornadoes and the storm clouds that create them are very dark gray.
But some tornadoes look red. These red tornadoes are most common in
parts of Oklahoma and Kansas that have reddish soil. The swirling winds
inside a tornado pick up enough dust to turn the twister red.
70
066-071_Disasters.indd 70
6/25/13 12:06 PM
The Lusitania
SHIP DISASTERS
Date
April 14, 1912
Location
near Newfoundland
May 7, 1915
Atlantic Ocean, near British steamer Lusitania torpedoed and
Ireland
sunk by German submarine.
1,198
Jan. 30, 1945
Baltic Sea
9,000
AIRCRAFT DISASTERS
Date
May 6, 1937
Location
Lakehurst, NJ
March 27, 1977 Tenerife, Canary
Islands
Sept. 11, 2001
New York, NY;
Arlington, VA;
Shanksville, PA
EXPLOSIONS AND FIRES
Date
Location
March 25, 1911 New York, NY
Nov. 28, 1942
Boston, MA
Dec. 3, 1984
Bhopal, India
April 17, 2013
West, TX
FLOODS
Date
1927
Location
Mississippi River
Aug. 1931
China
What Happened?
Luxury liner Titanic collided with iceberg.
Liner Wilhelm Gustloff carrying German
refugees and soldiers sunk by Soviet sub.
Highest death toll for a single ship.
DISASTERS
OTHER MA JOR
Deaths
1,503
What Happened?
German zeppelin (blimp) Hindenburg caught
fire as it prepared to land.
Deaths
36
Two Boeing 747s collide on the runway of
Los Rodeos airport.
Two hijacked planes crashed into the World
Trade Center, one plane hit the Pentagon,
and a fourth went down in a PA field.
583
Nearly
3,000
What Happened?
Triangle Shirtwaist Factory caught fire,
trapping garment workers, mostly women.
Fire swept through the Cocoanut Grove
nightclub; patrons panicked. Deadliest
nightclub fire in U.S. history.
A pesticide factory explosion spread toxic
gas. Worst industrial accident in history.
A fire and explosion at a fertilizer plant
caused hundreds of casualties and
destroyed a large part of the town.
Deaths
146
What Happened?
From Illinois to Louisiana, the Mississippi
River overflowed its banks, flooding 16
million acres of land and leaving 600,000
people homeless. Most destructive river
flood in U.S. history.
Vast flooding on the Huang He River.
Highest known death toll from a flood.
Deaths
246+
492
15,000
15
3,700,000
71
066-071_Disasters.indd 71
6/14/13 1:29 PM