Современные природные катастрофы

Доклад на тему: «Современные природные катастрофы»

По дисциплине: «Иностранный язык»

The term - natural disasters - is used for two different concepts, in some sense interlocking. Disaster literally means - turn, restructuring. This value corresponds to the most general idea of catastrophes in natural science, where the evolution of the Earth is seen as a series of different catastrophes causing a change in geological processes and types of living organisms.

Interest in the catastrophic events of the past is fueled by the fact that the inevitable part of any forecast is the analysis of the past. The more ancient the disaster, the more difficult it is to recognize its traces. Lack of information always breeds fantasies. Some researchers explain the same steep frontiers and turns in the history of the Earth by cosmic reasons - falling meteorites, changes in solar activity, seasons of the galactic year, others - to the cyclical nature of the processes taking place in the depths of the planet.

The second concept - natural disasters refers only to extreme natural phenomena and processes, as a result of which people die. In this understanding, natural disasters are contrasted to man-made disasters, i.e. those that are caused directly from human activity.

Floods, volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, tornadoes - every year these and other catastrophic events take people's lives and cause destruction in many parts of the Earth. For centuries, scientists have been trying to catch patterns in the occurrence of such cataclysms, their cyclical nature, to find ways to predict, prevent catastrophic natural phenomena. The success of science is not the same for catastrophes caused by various natural phenomena. Natural disasters are usually classified according to the number of victims and destruction, as well as natural phenomena.

Some natural disasters occur almost instantaneously, such as earthquakes. Others, such as droughts, can be stretched over several years. A terrible drought of the 20s of the last century in Ukraine and Russia remained in people's memory, which claimed millions of lives. Not only for this catastrophe, but for many others, especially the ancient ones, the numbers of victims given by various authors differ significantly.

Every year the number of natural disasters in the world increases, on average, by about 20 percent.

In 2006, according to the document, there were 427 natural disasters in the world, which means an increase of 70 percent over the past 3 years. The organization’s specialists are most worried about the sharp increase in the number of people killed by earthquakes, tsunamis and floods. Over the past 10 years, mortality in accidents has increased from 600 thousand to 1.2 million people a year, and the number of victims increased from 230 to 270 million.

Classification

There are several criteria for classifying catastrophes. These include: damage inflicted, time of leakage, area of coverage, number of victims and others. One of the most common criteria is the nature of origin. According to this characteristic, there are usually:

Anthropogenic disasters - arise due to human activities (shipwreck, accident at nuclear power plants);

Natural disasters - are caused by the forces of nature (tsunamis, earthquakes, floods).

It should be noted that human-induced catastrophes in the broadest sense can have a natural character (soil collapses in populated areas caused by malfunctioning water supply systems, floods arising from dam breaks). Here anthropogenic disasters will be considered as an opposition to the natural. In other classifications, technogenic catastrophes are singled out.

Natural disasters

Classification of natural disasters

Natural catastrophes are divided according to their origin into two types:

1) endogenous - are associated with the internal energy and forces of the Earth (volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, tsunamis);

2)exogenous - are caused by solar energy and activity, atmospheric, hydrodynamic and gravitational processes (hurricanes, cyclones, floods, storms).

Causes of natural disasters

One of the causes of natural disasters is a natural disaster, a phenomenon of nature, leading to the destruction of material values, deaths and other consequences.

Main types of natural disasters:

1. Geological

Earthquake

Earthquake - earthquakes and earthquake fluctuations arising as a result of sudden displacements and ruptures in the earth's crust and upper mantle and transmitted over long distances.

Eruption

Volcanic eruption is a volcanic activity in which volcanic lava and glowing gases break out onto the surface. In addition to the eruption of the volcano, volcanic ash and pyroclastic flows (a mixture of volcanic gases, rocks, ash) cause great damage.

Avalanche

Avalanche is a mass of snow or ice falling or slipping from steep mountain slopes. Especially destructive avalanches can completely destroy settlements.

Collapse

The collapse is the detachment of rock masses from the slope and the rapid