Geographic Hazards
Mt. St. Helens
Washington State USA – May 18, 1980
30th Anniversary – May 18, 2010
During This School Year…
The Haiti earthquake struck
Floods in the Portuguese Island
of Madeira
Earthquake and Tsunami in Chile
Ash Cloud in Europe and North Africa
Stranded Passengers and Empty
Airports
Beautiful Danger in Iceland
Oil Disaster in
the Gulf of Mexico
Earthquake and Tsunami in Samoa
Geographic Hazards in Our
Learning Circle
The schools of our Learning Circle face a
variety of geographic hazards and risks;
many share similar risks in common.
Let’s take a look…
Ontario, Canada
Ontario, Canada, faces a different kind of
risk every season.
In winter, major snowstorms sometimes
close schools and businesses.
Blizzards in Canada
While possibly fun for students (!),
blizzards can make travel unsafe and can
hurt the economy.
Major Storms in Springtime and throughout the Year
Ontario faces the threat of severe storms that do not involve snow.
They can have thunder and lightning all year-round.
This is the CN Tower in Toronto being struck by lightning.
Hailstorms can damage crops and
buildings.
This is damage done to a soybean crop in
Southwestern Ontario in June of 2008.
Not many leaves left for the new crop to grow…
Tornadoes
Two fishermen died when a tornado struck
Ontario in July 2009.
Forest Fires
It can be very hot and dry in Ontario in the summer,
and a constant worry is forest fires.
Towns are often on fire alert and burning restrictions are in
place.
Floods
Floods have been a problem in Ontario for a
very long time!
Chicago, Illinois, USA
Chicago has similar issues to Ontario; this is not surprising as they are not that far
away from each other! In addition to thunderstorms, lightning, and snowstorms,
Chicago faces a challenge of ice-covered roads in the winter, which make driving
very hazardous; sometimes schools are closed.
The Sears Tower in Chicago being struck by
lightning.
Chernobyl
It is interesting that both Belarus and Ukraine cite human-made hazards as the
greatest they face. Both faced extreme hazard after the devastating explosion of the
nuclear reactor at Chernobyl in 1986.
Chernobyl
18% of the territory of Belarus was contaminated with radioactive substances. Great damage was
done to agriculture, forests, and people’s health. The damage is ongoing. Ukraine says, “We
should speak of it as a technological hazard as a result of men’s activity.”
Chernobyl Memorial
Belarus
Belarus also faces the more common challenges of
heavy rains and flooding, and droughts and fires.
Ukraine
Ukraine’s biggest challenge is the aftereffects of Chernobyl. 1000 square
miles was contaminated by radiation. In addition, Ukraine suffers from
earthquakes, floods, droughts, and landslides.
In the Crimean region they suffer from earthquakes.
In the Western Ukraine, from floods.
Crimea and Sea of Azov
Pakistan
The most recent earthquake in Pakistan was on May 6, 2010, and it
registered at 4.3 on the Richter Scale. In 2005, in Kashmir, a terrible
earthquake of 7.6 killed over 75,000 people.
Portugal
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In addition to the flooding earlier this year, Portugal is an active earthquake
region. The Iberian Peninsula earthquake of 2007 was measured at 6.3.
One of the largest earthquakes in recorded history was an 8.7 in Lisbon in
1755. The picture below shows people living in the streets after the earthquake.
Washington State, USA
While Mt. St. Helens has rightly received much attention for the 1980
eruption, there are many volcanic hazards much closer to Seattle. An
interesting threat comes from the beautiful and majestic Mt. Rainier.
Lahars
A lahar is a mudflow. Interestingly, there
does not have to be an eruption for a lahar
to take place. If the inside temperature of a
volcano rises only a few degrees, it can
cause snow to melt, mix with mud, and go
rushing down the slopes of Mt. Rainier at
enormous rates of speed and depth. Mt
Rainier’s steepness can create mudflow
speeds of 60 mph/96kmph.
Historic Lahars at Mt. Rainier
Note that many of the areas in green are now heavily populated.
The town of Orting has a lahar warning system, and the schools
practice lahar emergency evacuation drills the same way most
schools practice fire drills.
Lahar at Mt. St. Helens
Nisqually Earthquake, February 28, 2001
Seattle was struck by a 6.9 earthquake in 2001. We were very lucky that it was 44
miles/71km deep or otherwise there might have been far worse damage. We were
also lucky that a major highway called the Alaskan Way Viaduct did not collapse, and
construction has just begun on a project to replace it with a tunnel. It was a
memorable day at school as all our years of earthquake drills proved worthwhile as
no one was hurt and, after inspection of our buildings, we returned to classes - and
watched the news! The viaduct is the roadway in the photo below; imagine if it had
collapsed with many cars on it. As it was, it sank almost 6”/9.5cm into the soil.
Lightning Strike on the Space Needle!
Our Learning Circle members need to be careful around our tall buildings!
Morocco
We would like to close by saluting our friends at
Essada Junior High School in Meknes, Morocco,
who endured the terrible tragedy of losing
friends and family in the collapse of the mosque
there earlier this year.
We welcome you to future Learning Circles!
Our Thanks
We would like to thank all the students and
teachers in Russia, Pakistan, Canada,
Belarus, Ukraine, USA, Portugal, and
Morocco for your help and inspiration in
making this project possible!
We have greatly enjoyed being in our
Learning Circle with you.
Photo Credits
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www. glaciercaves.com
http://folbot.files.wordpress.com/2010/02/haiti-earthquake.jpg
http://www.ofm.org/ofm/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/madeirafloods415.jpg
http://i.telegraph.co.uk/telegraph/multimedia/archive/01582/madeira6_1582628c.jpg
http://www.watchpinoytv.info/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/earthquake-in-chile.jpg
http://assets.nydailynews.com/img/2010/03/03/alg_chile-earthquake.jpg
http://image3.examiner.com/images/blog/EXID2858/images/Santiago_Chile_8_8_Earthquake15(1
).jpg
http://stbjp.msn.com/i/EB/CB50A593B2D085391FC92C34C746E4.jpg
http://www.leaderpost.com/life/2592153.bin?size=620x400
http://www.arabianbusiness.com/images/magazines/arabianbusiness.com/web/ash-cloudpanel_thumb.jpg
http://morrisonworldnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/Iceland-volcano-014.jpg
http://www.flyingfear.net/Images/ash_cloud.jpg
http://z.about.com/d/worldnews/1/0/x/D/-/-/98467865.jpg
http://media.kidk.com/images/320*240/100416_volcano_airlines.jpg
http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=stranded+passengers+volcano+heathrow&form=QBIR&qs
=n&sk=#focal=e9e8ffedbf3664d50cdd408e9cd396af&furl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.statesman.com
%2Fmultimedia%2Fdynamic%2F00378%2FICELAND_VOLCANO_BRI_378960k.jpg
http://www.pacificariptide.com/pacifica_riptide/images/2007/11/15/ba_oil_spill_0299_kr.jpg
http://www.google.com/images?hl=en&source=imghp&q=snow+piled+high&btnG=Search+Images
&gbv=2&aq=f&aqi=&aql=&oq=&gs_rfai=
http://www.911info.net/snow%20stormpklt_20091219.jpg
Photo Credits II
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http://2pat.files.wordpress.com/2009/05/cn_tower_-_lightning.jpg
http://www.omafra.gov.on.ca/english/crops/field/news/croppest/2008/08cpo08a2f1.jpg
http://www.omafra.gov.on.ca/english/crops/field/news/croppest/2008/08cpo08a2f1.jpg
www.ec.gc.ca/.../ch8-forestfire%5B1%5D.jpg
http://www.blogcdn.com/www.greendaily.com/media/2008/03/chicago-snow.jpg
http://weblogs.wgntv.com/chicago-weather/tom-skilling-blog/archives/LGlghtng051305.jpg
http://www.thomasnet.com/articles/image/chernobyl-disaster.jpg
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http://www.pictureninja.com/pages/ukraine/chernobyl-memorial.jpg
http://gdb.rferl.org/F9E41FF6-7450-4FB6-B9C2-A710D394CA97_mw800_mh600_s.jpg
http://www.eosnap.com/public/media/2009/04/crimea/20090405-crimea-full.jpg
http://www.thepakistanquake.com/pakistan-earthquake-pictures-1.jpg
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/80/Lisbon1755hanging.jpg
http://www.geology.um.maine.edu/geodynamics/analogwebsite/UndergradProjects2007/morgan%20ers%20416%
202007/pictures/Seattle_Rainier.jpg
http://www.explorevolcanoes.com/volcanoimages/mt%20st%20helens%20lahar%20usgs.jpg
http://faculty.gg.uwyo.edu/neil/teaching/4880_files/rainier_mudflows.gif
http://benaxelrad.files.wordpress.com/2009/05/needlelightning.jpg
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