Disaster(ous?) Questions
1. Define the term ‘disaster’
2. Identify three types of disasters and give an Australian example of each.
3. Explain why people insure themselves against a disaster.
4. Describe the movement of air currents between areas of high and low
pressure.
5. Explain why isobars that are close together on a weather map indicate
strong winds.
6. Explain why satellite photographs of cloud patterns have improved the
reading of and forecasting of the weather.
7. Describe two differences between tornadoes and cyclones.
8. Why are there relatively few earthquakes in Australia?
9. Describe the difficulties in predicting earthquakes.
10. Describe how you could locate the epicentre of an earthquake.
11. Compare the Richter and Mercalli scales used to record and monitor
earthquakes.
12. Identify three conditions that can combine to trigger or sustain a major
bushfire.
13. Identify the energy transformations during a bushfire in moist vegetation.
14. Identify five precautions that could be taken to minimise the likelihood of
damage to a house by bushfire.
15. Why is it necessary to practise evacuation procedures in TAFE or a large
workplace.
16. Describe the construction of a working alarm or safety device.
17. Describe one type of fire extinguisher, what it is used for and how it is
used.
18. Why is there a need for coordinated help services in a disaster?
19. Describe one problem with the evacuation plan for this floor (E5).
Answers (these are brief, you might need to elaborate in an exam)
1. A disaster is when there is substantial damage to the environment or
structures and/or loss of life.
2. Natural: Cyclone Tracey/Larry or Newcastle earthquake; Human: Granville
train disaster; Combination: Thredbo landslide.
3. The costs of recovering from a disaster can be too high for an individual
4. The air moves between areas of high pressure and areas of low pressure
causing winds.
5. Close isobars indicate a rapid drop in pressure, so the air is moving quickly.
6. Satellite pictures enable the location and movement of air masses
represented by clouds to be easily tracked, allowing more accurate
estimations of the future location of the cloud mass to be made.
7. Tornadoes are not associated with rain, cyclones are. Tornadoes are short
lived (minutes or a small number of hours), cyclones exist for days, tornadoes
tend to have a lower pressure and faster winds than cyclones.
8. Australia is in the middle of a plate, most earthquakes occur at the junction
of plates, so Australia only has small numbers of earthquakes due to small
local faults.
9. There are no observable signs that an earthquake is about to occur. Long
term monitoring of the frequency and severity of earthquakes can give a
broad indication of the likely frequency and severity of an earthquake, but
cannot identify exactly when and where.
10. If you have the time distance between the arrival of P and s waves for
three stations, it is possible to use this to work out the epicentre.
11. Richter gives a scientific calculation of the energy of an earthquake,
Mercalli gives a description of the effect from observers. The Mercalli scale
can vary from the Richter scale because of the number and construction of
buildings; the underlying geology (sand can cause greater collapse of
buildings than rock).
12. Low humidity, high temperature, strong winds
13. Chemical energy (fuel)is transformed into light, heat and smaller amounts
of sound and kinetic energy. Some of the energy is used to turn the water in
the moist vegetation into gas, then it is burnt.
14. Clean gutters, screen any vents, keep lawn short, remove any flammable
material (leaves etc) from around the property, keep trees away from the
house;
15. So people know what to do so if a real emergency occurs everyone can
get out quickly and safely. Also helps to identify any problems with the
evacuation drill.
16.
17. Carbon dioxide (red with black band) is used for most fires including paper
and electrical. Follow instructions on the bottle.
18. To avoid duplication of services and ensure that all steps necessary are
taken (and not left for someone else to do ie no one). A coordinator has the
power to shut down services and order evacuations.
19.