Natural Disasters

"Why Study Natural Disasters? Natural disasters occur every day and affect the lives of millions of people each year. Many students have been affected by earthquakes or tornadoes or hurricanes or floods or landslides or wildfires or other events. They are interested in lectures that explain these processes, and lively discussions commonly ensue. During decades of teaching courses at San Diego State University, I found that students have an innate curiosity about "death and destruction"; they want to know why natural disasters occur. Initiation of a Natural Disasters course led to skyrocketing enrollments that exceeded 5,000 students per year. Some of these experiences are described in a Journal of Geoscience Education article by Pat Abbott and Ernie Zebrowksi [v 46 (1998), pp. 471-75]. Themes and Approach This textbook focuses on explaining how the normal processes of the Earth concentrate their energies and deal heavy blows to humans and their structures. The following themes are interwoven throughout the book: Energy sources underlying disasters, Plate tectonics, Climate change, Earth processes operating in rock, water, and atmosphere, Significance of geologic time, Complexities of multiple variables operating simultaneously, Detailed and interesting case histories New to This Edition. Many of the Tables and Figures have been updated and more than 50 new ones have been added. Chapter 1: Extensive updating of all disaster and demographic data. Chapter 2: New maps of earthquake epicenters and ocean-floor ages. Expanded coverage of plumes versus hot spots"--