Almost all ancient peoples believed that terrible cataclysms hit our planet, which destroyed all life on the planet. In our time, with the advent of the twenty-first century, every day natural disasters claim millions of lives. Maybe these are the harbingers of a global catastrophe that is coming upon us with all the power and strength?

Be that as it may, our nature has four elements that rage more and more every year.

Throughout the earth, there are more than five hundred volcanoes. The largest fiery belt covers the coasts of the Pacific Ocean. It is worth noting that 328 of them have already erupted with terrible force in those days that our ancestors can remember.

Everyone knows from an early age that it is fires that can cause the economy of our country and the earth as a whole, the greatest destruction and sad consequences. At the same time, it does not matter at all in which area a fire breaks out, because it can take the lives of people. According to the World Health Organization, every year thousands of people die, if not in the fires themselves, then from the acrid smoke that is released from fires in peat bogs. The acrid smoke that spreads along the roads can also cause fatal car accidents.

Earth

Every year across the planet, tectonic plates shift. These vibrations and shocks can in turn turn out to be very strong earthquakes that can completely destroy any city in a matter of seconds. Every two weeks on the planet, there is one very strong earthquake. And it's good if it does not affect people's lives.

Despite the mind of man, he simply cannot compete with the power and tremendous force of nature. Every year, all over the Earth, various landslides and avalanches occur. This terrible phenomenon can completely demolish everything in its path that it meets. Even a concrete structure will not become an obstacle to him. But the worst thing is that all this power with the debris will be eliminated on people.

This is the worst nightmare of all people who live on the coast of the oceans. Earthquakes can provoke the formation of huge waves that will rapidly demolish everything in its path. Their speed can reach fifteen thousand kilometers, and the destructive force is capable of destroying any structure.

Flood

The stream of rising water is swift, it can leave even the largest city under its thickness. This most often happens after heavy rains.

Everyone loves the warm rays of the sun that awaken the world from hibernation. But its excessive interaction with nature can completely destroy the crop, or cause severe drought, which will subsequently provoke fires.

Typhoon or hurricane

The air currents of the earth constantly meet each other. And in those frequent moments when a warm and cold cyclone meets, a strong wind flow can form. Its speed can reach several thousand kilometers. He is able to uproot trees and carry away houses. The air moves along a certain trajectory, which starts at the corners of the spiral, and rapidly moves towards its center. It is at this point that the most terrible destruction and irreparable consequences occur.

Tornado or tornado

This is a kind of air funnel, which literally draws into itself everything that can be torn off the ground. His strength is so great that he is able to circle the largest objects in himself. Cars and houses can fall into it, and literally shatter to pieces.

Due to constant changes in climate, the whole cycle can change. Thus, in countries where winter has never come, it can snow.

What are disasters and how to deal with them

Many of the most complex natural processes, accompanied by the transformation of energy, serve as the driving force for the constant change in the appearance of our planet - its geodynamics. The same processes also cause destructive phenomena on the surface and in the atmosphere of the Earth: earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, tsunamis, floods, hurricanes, etc.

Over the past half century, the number of natural disasters has increased fivefold, and the material damage from them has increased tenfold. The reasons for this phenomenon are the rapid growth of the population and the economy and the pronounced degradation of the natural environment. The technogenic impact of man on the lithosphere not only activates the development of natural catastrophic processes, but also leads to the emergence of new ones - already techno-natural ones.

Disaster management is an important element of the government's sustainable development strategy. When developing the concept of “fighting disasters”, it is important to understand that a person is not able to stop or change the course of the evolutionary transformations of the planet - he can only predict their development with some degree of probability and sometimes influence their dynamics. Therefore, at present, the tasks of timely forecasting of natural disasters and mitigating their negative consequences are coming to the fore.

Natural disasters are sources of the deepest social upheavals, leading to mass suffering, death of people and huge material losses. The increase in the number of natural disasters is based on global processes, such as the growth of the population and economy of the earth's civilization, degradation of the natural environment and climate change. Disaster management is an important element of the government's sustainable development strategy. It should be based on the principles of reasonable economic use of territories, forecasting of imminent dangers and taking preventive measures.

Since ancient times, man has been afraid of the formidable manifestations of the power of nature. As the history of our civilization shows, many natural disasters were accompanied by major social upheavals. The death of Pompeii in Italy as a result of the eruption of Mount Vesuvius (79 AD) is not the only example of prosperous cities falling into disrepair as a result of natural disasters, and then completely disappearing. Cases are known when economic losses from natural disasters exceeded the value of the gross national product of individual countries, as a result of which their economies were in critical condition. For example, only the direct damage from the earthquake in Managua (1972) was equal to twice the size of the annual gross product of Nicaragua.

An analysis of historical data shows that the number of natural disasters on Earth is steadily growing: in the last half century alone, the frequency of large-scale disasters has increased fivefold. The material losses associated with them increased almost tenfold, reaching $190 billion in some years. USA. It is expected that by 2050 the socio-economic damage from hazardous natural processes (with the current level of protection) will amount to almost half of the increase in the global gross product. In Russia, the average damage from natural and technical disasters is currently about 3% of the gross domestic product.

In the general problem of security, catastrophic phenomena are considered as one of the most important destabilizing factors hindering the sustainable development of mankind.

But what, in fact, does this concept mean - natural disasters? What is the mechanism of their origin and development? Is it possible to avoid their devastating consequences? And why, despite the continuous scientific and technological progress, humanity continues to feel insecure?

destructive energy

In the opinion of V. I. Vernadsky, an outstanding Soviet natural scientist, the earth's surface shell cannot be regarded as a region of matter only, it is also a region of energy.

Indeed, on the surface of the Earth and in the layers of the atmosphere adjacent to it, there are many complex processes accompanied by the transformation of energy. Among them endogenous processes of reorganization of matter inside the Earth and exogenous interactions between the matter of the earth's outer shell and physical fields, as well as the impact of solar radiation.

All these processes are the driving force behind the constant transformation of the face of our planet - its geodynamics. And they also cause destructive phenomena on its surface and in the atmosphere: earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, tsunamis, floods, hurricanes, etc.

Natural disasters are usually divided into types depending on the medium through which the energy impact occurs - through the earth's firmament, air or water elements.

The most terrible of them are, perhaps, earthquakes. Powerful shock waves caused by deep processes lead to ground ruptures, which have a terrifying destructive effect on the human habitat. The amount of energy released in this case sometimes exceeds 1018 J, which corresponds to the explosion of hundreds of atomic bombs, similar to the one that was dropped on Hiroshima in 1945.

The most severely affected by earthquakes is China, where they occur almost every year. For example, back in 1556, as a result of a series of powerful seismic shocks, 0.8 million people died (about 1% of the country's population). In the last decade alone, about 80,000 Chinese people have died, and the total economic damage has exceeded 1.4 trillion yuan.

In Russia in recent years, the most destructive earthquake in the north of about. Sakhalin in May 1995, which completely destroyed the village. Neftegorsk and killed more than 2 thousand people.

But still, the most powerful source of energy on our planet is volcanoes. The release of energy during a volcanic eruption can be a hundred times greater than the "contribution" of the strongest earthquake. Every year, as a result of volcanic activity, approximately 1.5 billion tons of deep-seated matter are ejected into the atmosphere and onto the Earth's surface.

Currently, there are about 550 historically active volcanoes on Earth (every eighth of them is located on Russian soil). During historical time, at least 1 million people died directly due to volcanic activity in the world.

At the end of the XIX century. one of the largest eruptions of the Krakatau volcano in Southeast Asia occurred. Millions of cubic meters of volcanic ash thrown into the atmosphere rose to a height of about 80 km. As a result, the "polar night" came - for several months the whole Earth plunged into twilight. Direct sunlight did not reach the surface of the planet, so it got colder. This situation was later compared to the phenomenon of "nuclear winter" - a potential consequence of the explosion of a super-powerful thermonuclear bomb on the Earth's surface.

Last spring, the world experienced another natural disaster - a volcanic eruption in Iceland, which affected the economies of many (especially European) countries.

Earthquakes and volcanic eruptions that occur in water areas often lead to tsunami. A wave formed in the open ocean during a volcanic explosion or a seismic shock can acquire tremendous destructive power near the coast. The biblical flood and the death of Atlantis are attributed to volcanic eruptions in the Mediterranean Sea, accompanied by a tsunami.

In the XX century. more than two hundred tsunamis were recorded in the Pacific Ocean alone. In December 2004, a series of large waves that hit the northeast coast of the Indian Ocean claimed more than 200 thousand human lives, and economic losses amounted to $ 10 billion.

The biblical legend of the global flood often has to be remembered by the inhabitants of countries that are in the grip of grandiose floods- flooding of the area as a result of a sharp rise in the water level in rivers, lakes, reservoirs. Floods are dangerous in themselves and, moreover, provoke many other natural disasters - landslides, landslides, mudflows.

One of the worst floods occurred in 1887 in China, when the water in the river. Huang He rose to the height of an eight-story building in a matter of hours. As a result, about 1 million inhabitants of this river valley died.

In the last century, according to UNESCO, 4 million people died as a result of floods. One of the last severe floods occurred in the Czech Republic in the summer of 2002. Water flooded the streets of hundreds of settlements and cities, including Prague, where 17 metro stations were flooded.

Similar major catastrophic events also occur in Russia. So, during the spring flood of 1994 on the river. Tobol there was an overflow of water through the protective dam of the city of Kurgan. For two weeks, thousands of residential buildings remained flooded to the roof. Seven years later, an even more devastating flood occurred on the river. Lena in Yakutia.

Finally, it is impossible not to mention the raging air element: cyclones, storms, hurricanes, tornadoes ... Every year on the globe there are on average about 80 catastrophic situations associated with these phenomena. Ocean coasts often suffer from tropical cyclones, which bring down on the continents hurricane air currents at a speed of more than 350 km/h, heavy rainfall (up to 1000 mm in a few days) and storm waves up to 8 m high.

For example, three major devastating hurricanes in the fall of 2005 caused $156 billion in damage to the American continent. Against this background, the hurricanes that roamed Western and Northern Europe at the turn of the millennium look more modest - there were an order of magnitude less losses from them.

Omnipresent Humanity

One of the main reasons for the increase in the number of victims and material losses as a result of natural disasters is the unstoppable growth of the human population.

In ancient times, the population of mankind changed slightly, periods of growth alternated with periods of decline as a result of death from epidemics and famine. Until the beginning of the 19th century. The world's population did not exceed 1 billion people. However, with the onset of the industrial period of social development, the situation changed dramatically: already 100 years later, the population doubled, and by 1975 it exceeded 4 billion people.

The growth of the human population is accompanied by the process of urbanization. So, if in 1830 the urban part of the world's population was a little more than 3%, then at present at least half of humanity lives compactly in cities. The total population of the Earth annually increases by an average of 1.7%, but in cities this growth is much faster (by 4.0%).

The growth of the world's population leads to the development of areas unsuitable for human habitation: hillsides, floodplains, wetlands. The situation is often aggravated by the lack of advance engineering preparation of the developed territories and the use of structurally imperfect buildings for development. As a result, cities are increasingly at the center of devastating natural disasters, where suffering and loss of life are widespread.

The industrial and technological revolution has led to global human intervention in the most conservative part of the environment - the lithosphere. Back in 1925, V. I. Vernadsky noted that a person creates “a new geological force” with his scientific thought. Modern geological human activity has become comparable in scale with natural geological processes. For example, construction and mining operations move more than 100 billion tons of rock per year, which is about four times the mass of mineral material carried by all the world's rivers as a result of land erosion.

The man-made impact on the lithosphere leads to significant changes in the environment, activating the development of natural and initiating the emergence of new ones - already techno-natural– processes. The latter include the subsidence of territories as a result of deep mining, induced seismicity, flooding, karst-suffosion processes, the appearance of various kinds of physical fields, etc.

Thus, two opposite trends are developing in the modern economy: the global gross income is growing, and the life-supporting resources (water, soil, biomass, ozone layer) that make up “natural capital” are degrading. This happens because industrial development, designed to serve primarily economic progress, has come into conflict with the natural environment, since it has ceased to take into account the real limits of the stability of the biosphere.

For example, some of the reasons for the increase in the frequency and magnitude of floods are deforestation, the draining of wetlands, and soil compaction. Indeed, such a “reclamation” impact leads to an acceleration of surface runoff from the watershed into the river channel, therefore, during extreme precipitation or snowmelt, the water level in the rivers rises sharply.

In hellish hell?

Many people are concerned about the question - what can we expect in the future? According to biblical revelations, human civilization will be destroyed by fire. Judging by the global climate change over the past 150 years, the movement towards such an “end of the world” can already be considered begun.

According to the World Meteorological Organization, the global temperature increase was about 0.8 °C. At the regional level, more contrasting changes are observed. For example, in the northern regions of Russia over the past 30 years, the average annual air temperature has increased by 1.0 °C, which is about 2.5 times faster than the global temperature trend. It should be noted that this difference is mainly due to an increase in average winter temperatures, while in summer seasons the temperature may even drop slightly.

Abnormal heat has sometimes been observed in a number of regions of the world in the last decade in the summer. Thus, in August 2003, the temperature in some countries of Western Europe rose to +40 °C, which caused the death of more than 70 thousand people from heat stroke.

Despite the existence of different points of view on the causes of global climate change, the very fact of warming on Earth is undeniable. A further increase in air temperature can have both a positive and a negative impact on the natural environment, leading to desertification, flooding and destruction of sea coasts, glaciers leaving the mountains, retreat of permafrost, etc.

The most acute humanitarian problem is the lack of drinking water. The worst droughts have been reported in recent years in Latin America, North Africa, India and Pakistan. It is expected that in the near future the area of ​​territories experiencing an acute moisture deficit will expand significantly. The number of "environmental refugees" continues to grow rapidly.

One of the most serious threats associated with global warming is the melting of the Greenland ice sheet and high mountain glaciers. According to satellite observations, since 1978, the area of ​​sea ice in Antarctica has been decreasing by an average of 0.27% annually. At the same time, the thickness of the ice fields is also decreasing.

The melting of glaciers and thermal expansion of water has led to a rise in global sea levels of 17 cm over the past 100 years. Ocean levels are expected to rise 5 to 10 times faster in the coming years, resulting in large financial costs for securing low-lying coastal areas. Thus, if the level of the World Ocean rises by half a meter, the Netherlands will need about 3 trillion euros to combat flooding, and in the Maldives, the protection of just one linear meter of the coast will cost 13 thousand dollars.

The warming will be accompanied by the degradation of permafrost rocks in the permafrost zone, which makes up a significant part of the territory of our country. It has been noted that over the past century, the area of ​​distribution of permafrost in the Northern Hemisphere has decreased by 7%, and the maximum freezing depth has decreased by an average of 35 cm. If the current climatic trend continues, the border of continuous permafrost will move north by 50-80 km over the decade (Osipov , 2001).

The degradation of the permafrost zone will cause the development of such dangerous processes as thermokarst - the lowering of the territory as a result of melting ice and the formation of ice floes. This will undoubtedly exacerbate the problem of the safety of gas and oil industry facilities during the development of the mineral resources of the North.

Disaster Prevention

Until recently, the efforts of many countries to "reduce the risk" of natural disasters were aimed only at eliminating their consequences, providing assistance to victims, organizing technical and medical services, supplying food, etc. However, a steady trend towards an increase in the frequency of catastrophic events and the size of the associated with them the damage makes these activities less and less effective.

When developing the concept of “fighting disasters”, it is important to understand that a person is not able to stop or change the course of evolutionary transformations of the planet - he can only predict their development with some degree of probability and sometimes influence their dynamics. Therefore, at present, experts consider new tasks to be a priority: the prevention of natural disasters and the mitigation of their negative consequences.

Central to the strategy of dealing with the elements is the problem of assessing risk, i.e., the probability of a catastrophic event and the magnitude of the expected loss of life and property.

The degree of impact of a natural hazard on people and infrastructure facilities is assessed by the indicator of their vulnerabilities. For people, this is a decrease in the ability to perform their functions due to death, loss of health or injury; for technosphere objects - destruction, destruction or partial damage to objects.

Regulating the development of most natural hazards is a very difficult task. Many natural phenomena, such as, for example, earthquakes and volcanic eruptions, do not lend themselves to direct control at all. But there is a long-term positive experience of human impact, in particular, on some hydrometeorological phenomena.

Thus, the scientific organizations of Roshydromet developed technologies for introducing active reagents into cloud fields using rocket, aviation and ground equipment in order to artificially increase and redistribute precipitation, disperse fog in the vicinity of airports, and prevent hail damage to crops. It became possible to regulate atmospheric precipitation during man-made disasters. Thus, after the explosion at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in 1986, rain was prevented from washing the products of radiation pollution into the river network.

Much more often, preventive measures are implemented indirectly, by increasing the resilience and protection against natural hazards of both the people themselves and the infrastructure. Among the most important measures to reduce their vulnerability is the rational use of land, careful engineering preparation of infrastructure facilities and the protection of the territories where they are located, the organization of warning and emergency response facilities.

Sections of an outwardly homogeneous territory with a variety of geomorphological, hydrogeological, landscape and other conditions react differently to natural impacts. For example, in low-lying areas composed of weak water-saturated soils, the intensity of seismic vibrations can be several times higher than in a neighboring area composed of rocks.

Obviously, in order to reduce vulnerability and improve security, it is necessary to take a strictly justified and responsible approach to the selection of land plots for the construction of settlements, industrial and civil facilities, elements of life-support systems, etc. To solve this problem, geotechnical zoning territory, which consists in identifying sites with the same or similar geological characteristics and ranking them according to the degree of suitability for economic development and resistance to natural and man-made hazards.

For seismic areas, a map is also drawn up seismic microzoning. Its main purpose is to identify zones of different seismic hazard (intensity), taking into account all factors affecting the propagation of elastic waves in the geological environment. For example, with the participation of the Institute of Geoecology. E. M. Sergeev of the Russian Academy of Sciences carried out a similar zoning of the Imeretinskaya lowland in the Adler region, where a complex of facilities for the 2014 Olympic Games is being built.

Often there is a need to use land that is obviously unsuitable for construction, for example, areas of sea coasts and river valleys, mountain slopes, territories with karst and subsiding soils. In this case, preventive engineering measures are carried out aimed at increasing the stability of territories and protecting the structures themselves: solid walls and dams are erected, drainage systems and spillways are built, the territory is raised by dumping soil, and soils are strengthened by compacting, cementing and reinforcing.

A recent example of large-scale protective hydrotechnical construction is the construction of a protective dam that blocked part of the Gulf of Finland and the mouth of the Neva. The need for such a structure was great, since almost every year, due to the wind surge from the Baltic Sea, the waters of the Neva rose above 1.5 m - the level at which St. Petersburg was designed. This led to the flooding of certain areas of the city. Completed in 2009, the dam can withstand water rises of more than 4 m, which completely relieves residents of the threat of flooding.

However, the protection of the territory and even the rational choice of a site for construction are not sufficient conditions for security. The main cause of death in natural disasters is associated with the collapse of residential and industrial buildings. Therefore, it is necessary to improve design solutions, use more durable materials, as well as diagnose the state of already constructed buildings and structures and periodically strengthen their structures.

Successful management of natural safety cannot exist without a warning and emergency response system, which includes means for monitoring the development of hazardous processes (means monitoring), prompt transmission and processing of received information, warning the population of imminent danger.

Monitoring is the most important link in the forecasting and warning system. Predictive monitoring is designed to organize regular observations of anomalous natural phenomena or geoindicators reflecting their development. Conducting such monitoring for a long time allows you to create data banks and time series of observations, the analysis of which makes it possible to find out the patterns of the dynamics of a dangerous process, model the cause-and-effect relationships of its development and predict the occurrence of extreme situations.

To mitigate the consequences of “instantly” developing catastrophic processes (for example, earthquakes), in the absence of reliable methods for their prediction, it is advisable to use the so-called security monitoring. It adjusts to the extreme phase of a catastrophic event and allows, without human intervention, to automatically take urgent measures to minimize the consequences of a dangerous process a few seconds before the critical moment.

Most often, at the signal of the security monitoring system, the facility is disconnected from the energy supply systems (gas, electricity), personnel are alerted, etc. Such systems are installed at especially critical and dangerous facilities, primarily at nuclear power plants, oil refineries, offshore oil production platforms, chemical product pipelines, etc.

An example of security monitoring is a seismic security system based on the use of accelerometers(acceleration meters) strong movements. It was developed at the Institute of Geoecology. E. M. Sergeev RAS and installed on oil platforms located on the shelf of about. Sakhalin. Analysis of instrument readings using a special algorithm makes it possible to distinguish object vibrations caused by seismic and other causes. Therefore, the system gives an alarm only when the level of the set threshold intensity is exceeded, and does not react to other shocks. This eliminates the possibility of "false alarms".

In recent decades, there have been dangerous trends in the development of natural processes, largely due to the growth of the population and economy of the earth's civilization. The irreversible growth in the number of catastrophic events, including those of techno-natural origin, puts forward the assessment of natural risks and the development of methods to combat them as an important state priority.

Effective risk management is based on the modern level of knowledge about natural phenomena, systematic organization of observations of dangerous processes, an adequate culture of economic activity and the adoption of responsible management decisions at different levels of government. The risk management strategy should be implemented in all projects and investment programs related to construction, education, social security, health care.

After a rapid breakthrough into space, humanity again turns its eyes to a common home - the planet Earth. General planetary problems in the coming century should take an important place among the fundamental and practical tasks, because the future of our civilization largely depends on their solution.

Literature

Global Environmental Outlook (Geo-3): past, present and future prospects / Ed. G. N. Golubev. M.: UNEPCOM, 2002. 504 p.

Osipov V.I. Natural disasters at the turn of the XXI century // Bulletin of the Russian Academy of Sciences. 2001. V. 71, No. 4. S. 291-302.

Natural hazards in Russia: in 6 volumes / Ed. ed. V. I. Osipova, S. Shoigu. M.: Publishing company KROK, 2000-2003: Natural hazards and society / Ed. V. A. Vladimirova, Yu. L. Vorobieva, V. I. Osipova. 2002. 248 p.; Seismic Hazards / Ed. G. A. Soboleva. 2001. 295 p.; Exogenous geological hazards / Ed. V. M. Kutepova, A. I. Sheko. 2002. 348 p. ; Geocryological hazards / Ed. L. S. Garagulya, E. D. Ershova. 2000. 316 p.; Hydrometeorological hazards / Ed. G. S. Golitsyna, A. A. Vasil'eva. 2001. 295 p.; Assessment and management of natural risks / Ed. A. L. Ragozina. 2003. 320 p.

This article uses photographs of volcanoes from www.ngdc.noaa.gov/hazard/volcano.shtml from the US Department of Commerce, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and the US National Environmental Satellite Data Information Service.

The problem of global warming is increasingly reminiscent of itself. This is already affecting the lives of earthlings now, because in recent years, in the middle latitudes with a temperate climate, the air temperature in the summer months has regularly begun to exceed 40 degrees Celsius, while hurricanes and heavy rainfall are replacing the African heat. Such natural disasters cause a lot of inconvenience and losses, however, climate scientists predict that in the coming years climate shocks will become commonplace.

In particular, according to the Svopi.ru portal, climatologists from all over the world are calling for attention to global changes in the Earth's climate that are already taking place today, because, according to scientists, climate turbulence will fully make itself felt by 2020 with a series of natural cataclysms that could turn into a global catastrophe.

Experts predict that in four years the population of the Earth will feel the serious consequences of these changes. It is assumed that hurricanes and minor earthquakes will be the least of the troubles that await the Earth, however, researchers draw attention to the fact that climate change, which has been predicted for a long time, does not pass as evenly and gradually as experts predicted earlier. According to climatologists, these processes will manifest themselves unexpectedly, and where they are least expected. At the moment, there is a strong opinion in the scientific community that for the first time, climatic turbulence will most acutely manifest itself in the UK, since the British Isles are located in the zone of cyclones from the subtropics and northern air currents at the same time.

Recall that one of the consequences of the currently observed global warming is also the catastrophic melting of Arctic ice and continental ice caps. They play a big role in climate balance by reflecting large amounts of sunlight, which keeps the Earth from overheating. At the same time, the dynamics of the growth of average monthly and average annual temperatures, which continue to break new records with each fixation period, also contributes to the stability of glaciers that have been untouched for tens of thousands of years in various parts of the world. Mankind has already forgotten about the snows of Kilimanjaro, scientists predict the complete melting of the Arctic ice in the coming years. At the same time, a serious threat looms over the Greenland ice sheet, the melting of which could raise the level of the world's seas by many meters.

According to climatologists from the UK, Holland and Germany, in the period from 2011 to 2014, as a result of observations, a record loss of ice cover was recorded in Greenland. The study devoted to this is published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters. The researchers found that during this period, the largest island of the planet lost a total of about a trillion tons of ice, which is equivalent to contributing to global sea level rise by 0.75 millimeters per year. At the same time, it was found that the most intensive ice melting occurred in 2012, when summer temperatures reached record high values.

This was established using observations by the CryoSat satellite, on which a radio altimeter is installed. The spacecraft's estimate of Greenland's loss of ice sheet was, according to the ESA, with the highest accuracy available and is close to data from NASA's Gravity Recovery And Climate Experiment (GRACE) satellites.

According to the United Nations Information Center, by 2030, 250,000 people will die annually from the effects of global climate change, and these data are in addition to previously announced forecasts. Infectious diseases such as malaria, diarrhoea, malnutrition and heat stroke will be the main causes of the increase in mortality. Expected further warming and the associated increase in humidity will lead to the spread of various disease-carrying insects, and crops will suffer due to droughts, rainstorms and extreme heat - more people will go hungry.

As air pollution increases, the flowering period of plants will be prolonged, resulting in an increase in the number of people suffering from asthma and pollen allergies. As a result of pollution of water sources, floods and warming, diseases caused by dirty water will spread.

In just 60 years, more than 3,000 New Yorkers will die each year from climate change-related heatwaves, US scientists warn. According to official figures alone, more Americans die from heat waves than from all other natural disasters combined. According to American climatologists, over the next 60 years the situation will only get worse. This is stated in a new study published in the specialized journal Environmental Health Perspectives. The New York City Panel on Climate Change predicts that by 2080, the average annual temperature in the metropolitan area will increase by 5.3 to 8.8 degrees Fahrenheit (2.9 to 4 .9 degrees Celsius). According to the 2014 National Climate Assessment report, the number of hot days will triple by then.

Natural hazards are extreme climatic or meteorological phenomena that occur naturally at one point or another on the planet. In some regions, such hazards may occur with greater frequency and destructive force than in others. Hazardous natural phenomena develop into natural disasters when the infrastructure created by civilization is destroyed and people die.

1. Earthquakes

Among all natural hazards, the first place should be given to earthquakes. In places of breaks in the earth's crust, tremors occur, which cause vibrations of the earth's surface with the release of gigantic energy. The resulting seismic waves are transmitted over very long distances, although these waves have the greatest destructive power in the epicenter of the earthquake. Due to strong vibrations of the earth's surface, mass destruction of buildings occurs.
Since there are quite a lot of earthquakes, and the surface of the earth is quite densely built up, the total number of people in history who died precisely as a result of earthquakes exceeds the number of all victims of other natural disasters and amounts to many millions. For example, over the past decade around the world, about 700 thousand people have died from earthquakes. From the most devastating shocks, entire settlements instantly collapsed. Japan is the most earthquake-affected country, and one of the most catastrophic earthquakes occurred there in 2011. The epicenter of this earthquake was in the ocean near the island of Honshu, according to the Richter scale, the magnitude of the shocks reached 9.1 points. Powerful aftershocks and the subsequent devastating tsunami disabled the nuclear power plant in Fukushima, destroying three of the four power units. Radiation covered a large area around the station, rendering densely populated areas so valuable in Japanese conditions uninhabitable. A colossal tsunami wave turned into a mess what the earthquake could not destroy. More than 16 thousand people officially died, among which another 2.5 thousand who are considered missing can be safely added. In this century alone, devastating earthquakes have occurred in the Indian Ocean, Iran, Chile, Haiti, Italy, and Nepal.

It is difficult to scare a Russian person with anything, especially bad roads. Even safe tracks take thousands of lives a year, let alone those a...

2. Tsunami waves

A specific water disaster in the form of tsunami waves often results in numerous casualties and catastrophic destruction. As a result of underwater earthquakes or shifts of tectonic plates, very fast, but hardly noticeable waves arise in the ocean, which grow into huge ones as they approach the coast and enter shallow water. Most often, tsunamis occur in areas with increased seismic activity. A huge mass of water, rapidly moving ashore, blows everything in its path, picks it up and carries it deep into the coast, and then carries it into the ocean with a reverse current. Humans, unable to feel danger like animals, often do not notice the approach of a deadly wave, and when they do, it is too late.
A tsunami usually kills more people than the earthquake that caused it (the latter in Japan). In 1971, the most powerful tsunami ever observed occurred there, the wave of which rose 85 meters at a speed of about 700 km / h. But the most catastrophic was the tsunami observed in the Indian Ocean in 2004, the source of which was an earthquake off the coast of Indonesia, which claimed the lives of about 300 thousand people along a large part of the coast of the Indian Ocean.

3. Volcanic eruption

Throughout its history, mankind has remembered many catastrophic volcanic eruptions. When the pressure of magma exceeds the strength of the earth's crust in the weakest places, which are volcanoes, this ends with an explosion and outpourings of lava. But the lava itself, from which you can simply get away, is not so much dangerous as hot pyroclastic gases rushing from the mountain, pierced here and there by lightning, as well as a noticeable effect on the climate of the strongest eruptions.
Volcanologists count about half a thousand dangerous active volcanoes, several dormant supervolcanoes, not counting thousands of extinct ones. So, during the eruption of the Tambora volcano in Indonesia, the surrounding lands were plunged into darkness for two days, 92 thousand inhabitants died, and a cold snap was felt even in Europe and America.
List of some strong volcanic eruptions:

• Volcano Laki (Iceland, 1783). As a result of that eruption, a third of the population of the island died - 20 thousand inhabitants. The eruption lasted for 8 months, during which flows of lava and liquid mud erupted from volcanic cracks. The geysers have never been more active. Living on the island at that time was almost impossible. The crops were destroyed, and even the fish disappeared, so the survivors experienced hunger and suffered from unbearable living conditions. This may be the longest eruption in human history.
• Volcano Tambora (Indonesia, Sumbawa Island, 1815). When the volcano exploded, the sound of this explosion spread over 2,000 kilometers. Ash covered even the remote islands of the archipelago, 70 thousand people died from the eruption. But even today, Tambora is one of the highest mountains in Indonesia that retains volcanic activity.
• Volcano Krakatoa (Indonesia, 1883). 100 years after Tambora, another catastrophic eruption occurred in Indonesia, this time "blowing the roof off" (literally) the Krakatoa volcano. After the catastrophic explosion that destroyed the volcano itself, frightening peals were heard for another two months. A huge amount of rocks, ash and hot gases were thrown into the atmosphere. The eruption was followed by a powerful tsunami with a wave height of up to 40 meters. These two natural disasters together destroyed 34,000 islanders along with the island itself.
• Volcano Santa Maria (Guatemala, 1902). After a 500-year hibernation in 1902, this volcano woke up again, starting the 20th century with the most catastrophic eruption, which resulted in the formation of a one and a half kilometer crater. In 1922, Santa Maria again reminded of itself - this time the eruption itself was not too strong, but a cloud of hot gases and ash brought death to 5 thousand people.

4. Tornadoes

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A tornado is a very impressive natural phenomenon, especially in the USA, where it is called a tornado. This is an air stream twisted in a spiral into a funnel. Small tornadoes resemble slender narrow pillars, and giant tornadoes can resemble a mighty carousel directed to the sky. The closer to the funnel, the stronger the wind speed, it begins to drag along ever larger objects, up to cars, wagons and light buildings. In the "tornado alley" of the United States, entire city blocks are often destroyed, people die. The most powerful vortices of category F5 reach a speed of about 500 km/h in the center. The state of Alabama suffers the most every year from tornadoes.

There is a kind of fire tornado, which sometimes occurs in the area of ​​massive fires. There, from the heat of the flame, powerful ascending currents are formed, which begin to twist into a spiral, like an ordinary tornado, only this one is filled with flame. As a result, a powerful draft is formed near the surface of the earth, from which the flame grows even stronger and incinerates everything around. When the catastrophic earthquake hit Tokyo in 1923, it caused massive fires that led to the formation of a fiery tornado that rose 60 meters. The column of fire moved towards the square with frightened people and burned 38 thousand people in a few minutes.

5. Sandstorms

This phenomenon occurs in sandy deserts when a strong wind rises. Sand, dust and soil particles rise to a sufficiently high height, forming a cloud that dramatically reduces visibility. If an unprepared traveler gets into such a storm, he can die from grains of sand falling into the lungs. Herodotus described history as in 525 BC. e. in the Sahara, a 50,000-strong army was buried alive by a sandstorm. In Mongolia, 46 people died as a result of this natural phenomenon in 2008, and two hundred people suffered the same fate the year before.

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6. Avalanches

From the snow-covered mountain peaks, snow avalanches periodically descend. Climbers especially often suffer from them. During World War I, up to 80,000 people died from avalanches in the Tyrolean Alps. In 1679, five thousand people died in Norway from snowmelt. In 1886, there was a major disaster, as a result of which the "white death" claimed 161 lives. The records of the Bulgarian monasteries also mention the human victims of snow avalanches.

7 Hurricanes

They are called hurricanes in the Atlantic and typhoons in the Pacific. These are huge atmospheric vortices, in the center of which the strongest winds and sharply reduced pressure are observed. In 2005, the devastating hurricane Katrina swept over the United States, which especially affected the state of Louisiana and the densely populated New Orleans located at the mouth of the Mississippi. 80% of the city was flooded, killing 1836 people. Notable destructive hurricanes have also become:

• Hurricane Ike (2008). The diameter of the eddy was over 900 km, and in its center the wind was blowing at a speed of 135 km/h. In the 14 hours that the cyclone moved across the United States, it managed to cause $30 billion worth of damage.
• Hurricane Wilma (2005). This is the largest Atlantic cyclone in the history of meteorological observations. A cyclone that originated in the Atlantic made landfall several times. The amount of damage inflicted by him amounted to $ 20 billion, 62 people died.
• Typhoon Nina (1975). This typhoon was able to breach China's Bankiao Dam, causing the dams below to collapse and causing catastrophic flooding. The typhoon killed up to 230,000 Chinese.

8. Tropical cyclones

These are the same hurricanes, but in tropical and subtropical waters, which are huge low-pressure atmospheric systems with winds and thunderstorms, often exceeding a thousand kilometers in diameter. Near the surface of the earth, winds in the center of the cyclone can reach speeds of over 200 km/h. Low pressure and wind cause the formation of a coastal storm surge - when huge masses of water are thrown ashore at high speed, washing away everything in their path.

Throughout the history of mankind, the strongest earthquakes have repeatedly caused enormous damage to people and caused a huge number of casualties among the population ...

9. Landslide

Prolonged rains can cause landslides. The soil swells, loses its stability and slides down, taking with it everything that is on the surface of the earth. Most often, landslides occur in the mountains. In 1920, the most devastating landslide occurred in China, under which 180 thousand people were buried. Other examples:

• Bududa (Uganda, 2010). Due to mudflows, 400 people died, and 200 thousand had to be evacuated.
• Sichuan (China, 2008). Avalanches, landslides and mudflows caused by an 8-magnitude earthquake claimed 20,000 lives.
• Leyte (Philippines, 2006). The downpour caused a mudflow and a landslide that killed 1,100 people.
• Vargas (Venezuela, 1999). Mudflows and landslides after heavy rains (almost 1000 mm of precipitation fell in 3 days) on the northern coast led to the death of almost 30 thousand people.

10. Fireballs

We are accustomed to ordinary linear lightning accompanied by thunder, but ball lightning is much rarer and more mysterious. The nature of this phenomenon is electrical, but scientists cannot yet give a more accurate description of ball lightning. It is known that it can have different sizes and shapes, most often these are yellowish or reddish luminous spheres. For unknown reasons, ball lightning often ignores the laws of mechanics. Most often they occur before a thunderstorm, although they can appear in absolutely clear weather, as well as indoors or in the cockpit. The luminous ball hangs in the air with a slight hiss, then it can start moving in an arbitrary direction. Over time, it seems to shrink until it disappears altogether or explodes with a roar.

An avalanche is a huge mass of snow that periodically falls in the form of landslides and avalanches from steep ridges and slopes of high snowy mountains. Avalanches usually move along the weathering ruts existing on the slopes of the mountains, and in the place where their movement stops, in river valleys and at the foot of the mountains, they deposit snow piles, known as avalanche cones.

In addition to occasional glaciers and hail avalanches, periodic winter and spring avalanches are distinguished. Winter avalanches occur due to the fact that freshly fallen loose snow, leaning on the icy surface of old snow, slides over it and rolls down in masses on steep slopes from insignificant causes, often from a shot, a scream, a gust of wind, etc.

The gusts of wind caused by the rapid movement of the snow mass are so strong that they break trees, rip off roofs and even destroy buildings. Spring avalanches are caused by melting water breaking the bond between soil and snow cover. The snow mass on steeper slopes breaks off and rolls down, capturing in its movement stones, trees and buildings encountered on the way, which is accompanied by a strong rumble and crackling.

The place from which such an avalanche rolled down is in the form of a bare black clearing, and where the avalanche stops moving, an avalanche cone is formed, which has a loose surface at first. In Switzerland, avalanches are a common occurrence and have been the subject of repeated observations. The mass of snow delivered by individual avalanches sometimes reaches 1 million or even more m³.

Avalanches, except for the Alps, were observed in the Himalayan mountains, Tien Shan, in the Caucasus, in Scandinavia, where avalanches breaking down from mountain peaks sometimes reach fiords, in the Cordillera and other mountains.

Sel (from the Arabic "sail" - "stormy stream") is a water, stone or mud stream that occurs in the mountains when rivers overflow, snow melts or after a large amount of precipitation. Similar conditions are typical for most mountainous regions.

According to the composition of the mudflow mass, mudflows are divided into mud-stone, mud, water-stone and water-dressing, and according to physical types - disconnected and connected. In non-cohesive mudflows, the transport medium for solid inclusions is water, and in coherent mudflows, a water-ground mixture. Mudflows move along the slopes at a speed of up to 10 m/s or more, and the mass volume reaches hundreds of thousands, and sometimes millions of cubic meters, and the mass is 100-200 tons.

Mudflows sweep away everything in their path: they destroy roads, buildings, etc. To combat mudflows on the most dangerous slopes, special structures are installed and a vegetation cover is created that holds the soil layer on the mountain slopes.

In ancient times, the inhabitants of the Earth could not find the true cause of this event, therefore, they associated the volcanic eruption with the disfavor of the gods. Eruptions often caused the death of entire cities. So, at the very beginning of our era, during the eruption of Mount Vesuvius, one of the greatest cities of the Roman Empire, Pompeii, was wiped off the face of the earth. The ancient Romans called the god of fire a volcano.

Volcanic eruption is often preceded by an earthquake. In time, in addition to lava, hot stones, gases, water vapor, and ash fly out of the crater, the height of which can reach 5 km. But the greatest danger to people is precisely the eruption of lava, which melts even stones and destroys all life in its path. During one eruption, up to several km³ of lava is ejected from the volcano. But a volcanic eruption is not always accompanied by a lava flow. Volcanoes can be dormant for many years, and the eruption lasts from several days to several months.

Volcanoes are divided into active and extinct. Active volcanoes are those whose last eruption is known. Some volcanoes last erupted so long ago that no one remembers it. Such volcanoes are called extinct. Volcanoes that erupt every few thousand years are called potentially active. If in total there are about 4 thousand volcanoes on Earth, of which 1340 are potentially active.

In the earth's crust, which is under the cover of the sea or ocean, the same processes take place as on the mainland. Lithospheric plates collide, causing tremors in the earth's crust. There are active volcanoes at the bottom of the seas and oceans. It is as a result of underwater earthquakes and volcanic eruptions that huge waves are formed, which are called tsunamis. This word, translated from Japanese, means "giant wave in the harbor."

As a result of the shaking of the ocean floor, a huge column of water sets in motion. The farther from the epicenter of the earthquake the wave moves, the higher it becomes. As the wave approaches land, the lower layers of water hit the bottom, further increasing the power of the tsunami.

The height of a tsunami is usually 10-30 meters. When such a huge mass of water, moving at speeds up to 800 km/h, hits the shore, nothing living is able to survive. The wave sweeps away everything in its path, after which it picks up fragments of destroyed objects and throws them deep into the island or mainland. Usually, the first won is followed by several more (from 3 to 10). Waves 3 and 4 are usually the strongest.

One of the most destructive tsunamis hit the Commander Islands in 1737. According to experts, the wave height was more than 50 meters. Only a tsunami of such power could throw so far on the island the inhabitants of the ocean, whose remains were found by scientists.

Another major tsunami occurred in 1883 after the eruption of the Krakatau volcano. Because of this, a small uninhabited island, on which Krakatoa was located, fell into the water to a depth of 200 meters. The wave that reached the islands of Java and Sumatra reached 40 meters in height. As a result of this tsunami, about 35 thousand people died.

Tsunamis do not always have such dire consequences. Sometimes giant waves do not reach the shores of continents or islands inhabited by people and remain practically unnoticed. In the open ocean, before the collision with the coast, the height of the tsunami does not exceed one meter, so for ships far from the coast it does not

An earthquake is a strong vibration of the earth's surface caused by processes occurring in the lithosphere. Most earthquakes occur in the vicinity of high mountains, since these areas are still forming and the earth's crust is especially mobile here.

Earthquakes are of several types: tectonic, volcanic and landslide. Tectonic earthquakes occur when mountain plates are displaced or as a result of collisions between oceanic and continental platforms. During such collisions, mountains or depressions are formed and the surface oscillates.

Volcanic earthquakes occur when flows of hot lava and gases press down on the surface of the Earth. Volcanic earthquakes are usually not too strong, but can last up to several weeks. In addition, volcanic earthquakes are usually the forerunners of a volcanic eruption, which threatens with more serious consequences.

Landslide earthquakes are associated with the formation of voids underground, arising under the influence of groundwater or underground rivers. At the same time, the top layer of the earth's surface collapses down, causing small shaking.

The place where an earthquake occurs (collision of plates) is called its source or hypocenter. The area of ​​the earth's surface where an earthquake occurs is called the epicenter. It is here that the most severe destruction occurs.

The strength of earthquakes is determined on a ten-point Richter scale, depending on the amplitude of the wave that occurs during the vibration of the surface. The larger the amplitude, the stronger the earthquake. The weakest earthquakes (1-4 points on the Richter scale) are recorded only by special sensitive instruments and do not cause damage. Sometimes they manifest themselves in the form of glass trembling or moving objects, and sometimes they are completely invisible. Earthquakes of 5-7 on the Richter scale cause minor damage, and stronger ones can cause complete destruction of buildings.

Seismologists study earthquakes. According to them, about 500,000 earthquakes of various strengths occur on our planet every year. About 100 thousand of them are felt by people, and 1000 cause damage.

Floods are one of the most common natural disasters. They make up 19% of the total number of natural disasters. Flooding is the flooding of land that occurs as a result of a strong rise in the water level in a river, lake or sea (spill), due to the melting of snow or ice, as well as heavy and prolonged rains.

Depending on the cause of the flood, they are divided into 5 types:

High water - a flood that occurs as a result of melting snow and the release of a reservoir from its natural banks

Flood - a flood associated with heavy rains

Flooding caused by large accumulations of ice that clog the riverbed and prevent water from flowing downstream

Floods caused by strong winds that push water in one direction, most often against the current

Floods resulting from a dam or reservoir failure.

Floods and floods occur every year wherever there are full-flowing rivers and lakes. They are usually expected, flood a relatively small area and do not lead to the death of a large number of people, although they cause destruction. If these types of floods are accompanied by heavy rains, then a much larger area is already flooded. Usually, as a result of such floods, only small buildings are destroyed without a reinforced foundation, communication and power supply are disrupted. The main inconvenience is the flooding of the lower floors of buildings and roads, as a result of which the inhabitants of the flooded areas remain cut off from land.

In some areas where floods are most frequent, houses are even raised on special piles. Floods resulting from the destruction of dams have a great destructive power, especially since they occur unexpectedly.

One of the most severe floods occurred in 2000 in Australia. Heavy rain did not stop there for two weeks, as a result of which 12 rivers immediately overflowed their banks and flooded an area of ​​200 thousand km².

To prevent floods and their consequences during the floods, the ice on the rivers is blown up, breaking it into small ice floes that do not prevent the flow of water. If a large amount of snow falls during the winter, which threatens with a strong flood of the river, residents from dangerous areas are evacuated in advance.

Hurricane and tornado are atmospheric vortices. However, these two natural phenomena are formed and manifest themselves in different ways. A hurricane is accompanied by a strong wind, and a tornado occurs in thunderclouds and is an air funnel that sweeps away everything in its path.

The speed of a hurricane wind on Earth is 200 km/h near the earth. This is one of the most destructive phenomena of nature: passing over the surface of the earth, it uproots trees, rips off the roofs of houses, and brings down the supports of power lines and communications. A hurricane can exist for several days, weakening and then gaining strength again. The danger of a hurricane is assessed on a special five-point scale, which was adopted in the last century. The degree of danger depends on the speed of the wind and on the destruction that the hurricane produces. But terrestrial hurricanes are far from the strongest. On the giant planets (Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune), hurricane wind speeds reach 2000 km/h.

A tornado is formed when moving unevenly heated layers of air. It spreads in the form of a dark sleeve towards the land (funnel). The height of the funnel can reach 1500 meters. The funnel of the tornado twists from the bottom up counterclockwise, sucking in everything that is next to it. It is because of the dust and water captured from the ground that the tornado acquires a dark color and becomes visible from afar.

The speed of the tornado can reach 20 m/s, and the diameter can be up to several hundred meters. Its strength allows uprooted trees, cars and even small buildings to be lifted into the air. A tornado can occur not only over land, but also over the water surface.

The height of a spinning air column can reach a kilometer and even one and a half kilometers, it moves at a speed of 10-20 m / s. Its diameter can be from 10 meters (if the tornado passes over the ocean) to several hundred meters (if it passes over the ground). Often a tornado is accompanied by a thunderstorm, rain or even hail. It exists much less than a hurricane (only 1.5-2 hours) and is able to travel only 40-60 km.
The most frequent and strong tornadoes occur on the west coast of America. Americans even assign human names to the largest natural disasters (Katrina, Denis). A tornado in America is called a tornado.