A Report On Various Natural, Man-made Disasters

1. Name : - Pranav Ghildiyal
Class : - ‘X’ ‘D’
Sub : - Social Science Project work On Disaster
Management

2. What Is Disaster?
A disaster is a natural or man-made hazard that has come to fruition, resulting in an
event of substantial extent causing significant physical damage or destruction, loss of life, or
drastic change to the environment. A disaster can be defined as any tragic event with great
loss stemming from events such as earthquakes, floods, catastrophic accidents, fires, or
explosions.
In contemporary academia, disasters are seen as the consequence of
inappropriately managed risk. These risks are the product of hazards and vulnerability.
Hazards that strike in areas with low vulnerability are not considered a disaster, as is the
case in uninhabited regions.
Developing countries suffer the greatest costs when a disaster hits – more than 95
percent of all deaths caused by disasters occur in developing countries, and losses due to
natural disasters are 20 times greater (as a percentage of GDP) in developing countries than
in industrialized countries.
Origin Of Word Disaster?
The word disaster is derived from Middle French désastre and that from
Old Italian disastro. The root of the word disaster ("bad star" in Greek) comes from
an astrological theme in which the ancients used to refer to the destruction or
deconstruction of a star as a disaster.
Classification
Researchers have been studying disasters for more than a century. The studies
reflect a common opinion when they argue that all disasters can be seen as being human-
made, their reasoning being that human actions before the strike of the hazard can prevent
it developing into a disaster. All disasters are hence the result of human failure to introduce
appropriate disaster management measures.[6] Hazards are routinely divided into natural
or human-made, although complex disasters, where there is no single root cause, are more
common in developing countries. A specific disaster may spawn a secondary disaster that
increases the impact. A classic example is an earthquake that causes a tsunami, resulting in
coastal flooding.

3. Natural disaster
A natural disaster is a consequence when a natural calamity affects humans and/or
the built environment. Human vulnerability, and often a lack of appropriate emergency
management, leads to financial, environmental, or human impact. The resulting loss
depends on the capacity of the population to support or resist the disaster: their resilience.
This understanding is concentrated in the formulation: "disasters occur when hazards meet
vulnerability". A natural hazard will hence never result in a natural disaster in areas without
vulnerability.
Various disasters like earthquake, landslides, volcanic eruptions, flood and cyclones
are natural hazards kill thousands of people and destroy billions of dollars of habitat and
property each year. The rapid growth of the world's population and its increased
concentration often in hazardous environment has escalated both the frequency and
severity of natural disasters. With the tropical climate and unstable land forms, coupled
with deforestation, unplanned growth proliferation non-engineered constructions which
make the disaster-prone areas more vulnerable, tardy communication, poor or no
budgetary allocation for disaster prevention, developing countries suffer more or less
chronically by natural disasters. Asia tops the list of casualties due to natural disasters.
Among various natural hazards, earthquakes, landslides, floods and cyclones are the major
disasters adversely affecting very large
However, it is possible to reduce the impact of disasters by adopting suitable disaster
mitigation strategies. Disaster mitigation mainly addresses the following:
1. Minimize the potential risks by developing disaster early warning strategies
2. Prepare and implement developmental plans to provide resilience to such disasters,
3. Mobilize resources including communication and tele-medicinal services
4. To help in rehabilitation and post-disaster reduction.
Man-made disaster
The local communities at the time of disaster or before the disaster make groups for
helping the people from suffering during the disaster. These groups include First Aid group,
Health group, Food and Welfare group etc. They all are well trained by some local
community members. All the groups are sent for helping any other local community that is

4. suffering from a disaster. They also ask people to move from the area affected from disaster
to some other safe regions. They are given shelter and every possible facilities by those local
management communities. Today, Government is also making effort to provide good
facilities during the disaster. In India, in the rural areas, the community (group of families)
are choosing a leader and developing their Disaster management skills to protect
themselves and other local communities as well.
Geological hazards
• Avalanche
An avalanche is a geophysical hazard a slide of a large snow mass down a
mountainside, caused when a build up of snow is released down a slope, it is one of the
major dangers faced in the mountains in winter. An avalanche is an example of a gravity
current consisting of granular material. In an avalanche, lots of material or mixtures of
different types of material fall or slide rapidly under the force of gravity. Avalanches are
often classified by what they are made of.
Rank Death toll
(estimate)
Event Location Date
1. 50,000 1970 Huascarán avalanche Peru 1970
2. 4,000 1962 Huascarán avalanche Peru 1962
3. 265 Winter of Terror Austria-Switzerland 1951
4. 172 2010 Salang avalanches Afghanistan 2010
5. 125 Kolka-Karmadon rock ice slide Russia 2002
• Earthquake
An earthquake is a sudden shake of the Earth's crust caused by the tectonic plates
colliding. The vibrations may vary in magnitude. The underground point of origin of the
earthquake is called the "focus". The point directly above the focus on the surface is called
the "epicentre". Earthquakes by themselves rarely kill people or wildlife. It is usually the
secondary events that they trigger, such as building collapse, fires, tsunamis (seismic sea
waves) and volcanoes, that are actually the human disaster. Many of these could possibly be
avoided by better construction, safety systems, early warning and evacuation planning.
Earthquakes are caused by the discharge of energy accumulated along geologic fault.
Rank Death toll Event Location Date
1. 830,000 Shaanxi earthquake China Jan 23, 1556
2. 242,419–779,000 Tangshan
earthquake
China July 28, 1976
3. 316,000(Haitian Haiti earthquake Port au Prince, Haiti Jan 12, 2010

5. sources)
5. 235,502 Haiyuan
earthquake
China Dec 16, 1920
• Volcanic eruption
Volcanoes can cause widespread destruction and consequent disaster through
several ways. The effects include the volcanic eruption itself that may cause harm following
the explosion of the volcano or the fall of rock. Second, lava may be produced during the
eruption of a volcano. As it leaves the volcano, the lava destroys many buildings and plants
it encounters. Third, volcanic ash generally meaning the cooled ash - may form a cloud, and
settle thickly in nearby locations. When mixed with water this forms a concrete-like
material. In sufficient quantity ash may cause roofs to collapse under its weight but even
small quantities will harm humans if inhaled. Since the ash has the consistency of ground
glass it causes abrasion damage to moving parts such as engines. The main killer of humans
in the immediate surroundings of a volcanic eruption is the pyroclastic flows, which consist
of a cloud of hot volcanic ash which builds up in the air above the volcano and rushes down
the slopes when the eruption no longer supports the lifting of the gases. It is believed
that Pompeii was destroyed by a pyroclastic flow. A lahar is a volcanic mudflow or landslide.
The 1953 Tangiwai disaster was caused by a lahar, as was the 1985 Armero tragedy in which
the town of Armero was buried and an estimated 23,000 people were killed.
Rank Death
toll
Event Location Date
1. 92,000 Mount Tambora Indonesia April 10, 1815
2. 36,000 Krakatoa Indonesia Aug 26–27, 1883
3. 33,000 Mount Vesuvius Pompeii and Herculaneum, Italy August 24, 79
4. 29,000 Mount Pelée Martinique May 7/8, 1902
5. 23,000 Nevado del Ruiz Colombia Nov 13, 1985
Climatic and atmospheric hazards
Drought
Drought is defined as an acute shortage of water and crop failure that results when
the average rainfall is very less than the normal. A drought is an abnormally dry period when
there is not enough water to support agricultural, urban or environmental water needs.
Extended droughts can result in deaths by starvation or disease, and can result in wildfires.
Scientists warn that global warming may result in more extensive droughts in coming years.

6. Hailstorm
A hailstorm is a natural hazard where a thunderstorm produces
numerous hailstones which damage the location in which they fall. Hailstorms can be
especially devastating to farm fields, ruining crops and damaging equipment.
Heat wave
A summer heat wave in Victoria, Australia, created conditions which fuelled the
massive bushfiresin 2009. Melbourne experienced three days in a row of temperatures
exceeding 40°C with some regional areas sweltering through much higher temperatures.
The bushfires, collectively known as "Black Saturday", were partly the act of arsonists.
The 2010 Northern Hemisphere summer resulted in severe heat waves, which killed over
2,000 people. It resulted in hundreds of wildfires which causing widespread air pollution,
and burned thousands of square miles of forest.
Rank Death toll Event Location Date
1. 56,000 Russian heat wave Russia 2010
2. 40,000 European heat wave Europe 2003
3. 5,000–10,000 United States heat wave United States 1988
4. 1,700 United States heat wave United States 1980
5. 1,500 Southern India heat wave India 2003
Tornadoes
A tornado (often referred to as a twister or, erroneously, a cyclone) is a violent,
dangerous, rotating column of air that is in contact with both the surface of the earth and a
cumulonimbus cloud or, in rare cases, the base of a cumulus cloud. Tornadoes come in
many shapes and sizes, but are typically in the form of a visible condensation funnel, whose
narrow end touches the earth and is often encircled by a cloud of debris and dust. Most
tornadoes have wind speeds less than 110 miles per hour (177 km/h), are approximately
250 feet (80 m) across, and travel a few miles (several kilometers) before dissipating. The
most extreme can attain wind speeds of more than 300 mph (480 km/h), stretch more than
two miles (3 km) across, and stay on the ground for dozens of miles (more than 100 km).

7. Rank Death
toll
Event Location Date
1. 1,300 The Daulatpur-Salturia Manikganj, Bangladesh April 26, 1989
2. 923 1969 East Pakistan Tornado nowBangladesh 1969
3. 695 The Tri-State Tornado United States (Missouri–Illinois–
Indiana)
March 18,
1925
4. 681 1973 Dhaka Tornado Bangladesh 1973
5. 600 The Valletta, Malta Tornado Malta 1551
Cyclonic storms
Hurricane, tropical cyclone, and typhoon are different names for the same
phenomenon: a cyclonic storm system that forms over the oceans. It is caused by
evaporated water that comes off of the ocean and becomes a storm. The Coriolis
Effect causes the storms to spin, and a hurricane is declared when this spinning mass of
storms attains a wind speed greater than 74 mph (119 km/h). Hurricane is used for these
phenomena in the Atlantic and eastern Pacific Oceans,tropical cyclone in
the Indian, typhoon in the western Pacific.
Rank Death
toll
Event Location Date
1. 500,000 1970 Bhola cyclone Bangladesh November 13,
1970
2. 300,000 1839 Indian cyclone India November 25,
1839
3. 300,000 1737 Calcutta cyclone India October 7, 1737
4. 210,000 Super Typhoon Nina (Banqiao dam failure) China August 7, 1975
5. 200,000 Great Backerganj Cyclone of 1876 Bangladesh October 30, 1876
Floods
A flood is an overflow of an expanse of water that submerges land.[1] The EU Floods
directive defines a flood as a temporary covering by water of land not normally covered by
water.[2] In the sense of "flowing water", the word may also be applied to the inflow of the
tide. Flooding may result from the volume of water within a body of water, such as a river or
lake, which overflows or breaks levees, with the result that some of the water escapes its
usual boundaries.[3] While the size of a lake or other body of water will vary with seasonal

8. changes in precipitation and snow melt, it is not a significant flood unless such escapes of
water endanger land areas used by man like a village, city or other inhabited area.
Rank Death toll Event Place Date
1. 2,500,000+ China floods China 1931
2. 900,000+ Yellow River (Huang He) flood China 1887
3. 500,000+ Yellow River (Huang He) flood China 1938
4. 231,000 Banqiao Dam failure (Typhoon Nina.) China 1975
5. 145,000 Yangtze river flood China 1935
Tsunamis
A tsunami is referred to as a tidal wave, is a series of water waves caused by the
displacement of a large volume of a body of water, usually an ocean, though it can occur in
large lakes. Owing to the immense volumes of water and the high energy involved, tsunamis
can devastate coastal regions.
Earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and other underwater explosions glacier calvings
and other mass movements, meteorite ocean impacts or similar impact events, and other
disturbances above or below water all have the potential to generate a tsunami.
The Greek historian Thucydides was the first to relate tsunami to submarine
earthquakes, but the understanding of a tsunami's nature remained slim until the 20th
century and is the subject of ongoing research. Many early geological, geographical, and
oceanographic texts refer to tsunamis as "seismic sea waves."
Ran
k
Death
toll
Event Location Date
1. 230,210
+
Indian Ocean
Tsunami
Indonesia, SriLanka, India, Maldives, Malaysia,So
malia, Bangladesh
2004
2. 123,000 Messina
earthquake/tsunami
Messina, Italy 1908
3. 100,000 Lisbon earthquake
/tsunami/fire
Portugal, Spain, Morocco, Ireland, and the United
Kingdom (Cornwall)
1755
5. 36,000 Caused by 1883
eruption of Krakatoa
Indonesia 1883

9. List of man-made disasters
Man-made disasters are disasters resulting from man-made hazards (threats
having an element of human intent, negligence, or error; or involving a failure of a
man-made system), as opposed to natural disasters resulting from natural hazards.
Man-made hazards or disasters are sometimes referred to as anthropogenic.
Sociological hazards
• Crime
Crime is to breach to rules or laws for which some governing authority (via
mechanisms such as legal systems) can ultimately prescribe aconviction. Individual human
societies may each define crime and crimes differently. While every crime violates the law,
not every violation of the law counts as a crime; for example: breaches of contract and of
other private law may rank as "offenses" or as "infractions". Modern societies generally
regard crimes as offenses against the public or the state, distinguished from torts (offenses
against private parties that can give rise to a civil cause of action).In context, not all crimes
provide man-made hazards.
• Civil disorder
Civil disorder is a broad term that is typically used by law enforcement to describe
forms of disturbance. Although civil disorder does not necessarily escalate to a disaster in all
cases, the event may escalate into general chaos. Rioting has many causes, from antipathy
over lowminimum wages to racial segregation. Examples of well-known civil disorders and
riots are the Poll Tax Riots in the United Kingdom in 1990; the 1992 Los Angeles riots in
which 53 people died; the 2008 Greek riots after a 15-year-old boy was fatally shot by
police; and the 2010 Thai political protests in Bangkok during which 91 people died.
• Terrorism
Terrorism is a controversial term with varied definitions. One definition means a
violent action targeting civilians exclusively. Another definition is the use or threatened use
of violence for the purpose of creating fear in order to achieve a political, religious, or

10. ideological goal. Under the second definition, the targets of terrorist acts can be anyone,
including civilians, government officials, military personnel, or people serving the interests
of governments.Definitions of terrorism may also vary geographically.In Australia, the
Security Legislation Amendment (Terrorism) Act 2002, defines terrorism as "an action to
advance a political, religious or ideological cause and with the intention of coercing the
government or intimidating the public", while the United States Department of
State operationally describes it as "premeditated, politically-motivated violence perpetrated
against non-combatant targets by subnational groups or clandestine agents, usually
intended to influence an audience".
• War
War is conflict between relatively large groups of people, which involves physical force inflicted
by the use of weapons. Warfare has destroyed entire cultures, countries, economies and inflicted
great suffering on humanity. Other terms for war can include armed conflict, hostilities, and police
action. Acts of war are normally excluded from insurance contracts and disaster planning.
Transportation
• Aviation
An aviation incident is an occurrence other than an accident, associated with the
operation of an aircraft, which affects or could affect the safety of operations, passengers,
or pilots. The category of the vehicle can range from a helicopter, an airliner, or a space
shuttle. The world's worst airliner disaster is the Tenerife crash of 1977, when
miscommunications between and amongst air traffic control and an aircrew caused two
fully laden jets to collide on the runway, killing 583 people.
• Rail
A railroad disaster is an occurrence associated with the operation of a passenger train
which results in substantial loss of life. Usually accidents with freight (goods) trains are not
considered disasters, unless they cause substantial loss of life or property. One of the most
devastating rail disasters occurred in 2004 in Sri Lanka when 1,700 people died in the Queen
of the Sea train disaster. Other notable rail disasters are the 1989 Ufa accident in Russia
which killed 574, and the 1917 Modane train accident in France which killed 540.

11. • Road
Traffic collisions are the leading cause of death, and road-based pollution creates a
substantial health hazard, especially in major conurbations. The greenhouse effect of road
transport is a significant fraction of the anthropogenic warming effect, and the rapid
consumption of fossil fuel accelerates the Hubbard peak.
• Space
Space travel presents significant hazards, mostly to the direct participants
(astronauts orcosmonauts and ground support personnel), but also carry the potential of
disaster to the public at large. Accidents related to space travel have killed 22 astronauts
and cosmonauts, and a larger number of people on the ground.Accidents can occur on the
ground during launch, preparation, or in flight, due to equipment malfunction or the
naturally hostile environment of space itself. An additional risk is posed by (unmanned) low-
orbiting satellites whose orbits eventually decay due to friction with the extremely thin
atmosphere. If they are large enough, massive pieces travelling at great speed can fall to the
Earth before burning up, with the potential to do damage.The worst space disaster to date
occurred on February 15, 1996 in Sichuan, China, when a Long March 3B rocket, carrying
the Intelsat 708 telecommunications satellite, suffered a guidance system failure two
seconds after liftoff and crashed into a nearby village. The Chinese governmentofficially
reported six deaths and 57 injuries, but some U.S. estimates run as high as 200 deaths.

12. Worst ten man made disasters
1- The Aral Sea is a prime example of a man made environmental
disaster. Officials in the Soviet Union diverted rivers that fed the sea
to irrigation canals designed to water crops. The Aral Sea was once
one of the four largest lakes in the world. Today, the remaining body
of water is a tenth of what it was 50 years ago.
2- The Gulf of Mexico oil spill may earn the title of the worst oil spill
on record. The exact ramifications of the April 2010 spill are not
known, but it is expected to be as bad or worse than the Exxon Valdez
spill. The ecosystem along the Louisiana coastline has been
dramatically affected.
3- Saddam Hussein is blamed for one of the biggest man made
environmental disasters in the world. During the Gulf War,
Hussein ordered oil be pumped directly into the sea. Estimates
indicate anywhere from 240 to 460 million gallons of oil were dumped
into the Persian Gulf.
4- The dead zone in the Pacific Ocean is a direct result of toxic
chemicals leeching into the water. The chemicals are very popular
among farmers in Mississippi. The accumulation of the chemicals has
made it impossible for any plant and animal life to live along the
Mississippi Delta.
5- The Love Canal is a housing development in Niagra Falls, New
York. The homes were built over a 22,000 ton chemical waste dump
that was disturbed during the excavation process. Homeowners
noticed funny smells and blue ooze was seen coming out of the ground
and into the basements of the homes. The EPA was founded to prevent
further incidents of this nature from happening.

13. 6- Chemical warfare is nothing new. During the Vietnam War, 20
million gallons of Agent Orange was sprayed on the forested
areas of Vietnam. Documents reveal 4.8 million Vietnamese people
were affected by the use of this powerful herbicide. Crops and forested
areas sprayed with the Agent Orange are still struggling to recover
and may never return to their original splendor.
7- The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is one of the dirtiest man
made environmental disasters. The patch size is often disputed. Some
estimate the garbage field to be as big as the United States while
others estimate it to be twice the size of Texas. The oceanic landmine
is filled with chemical sludge, waste products, and various debris that
have been caught between the North Pacific Gyre currents.
8- Oil spills have caused extensive damage to ecosystems all around
the world. The Exxon Valdez oil spill is one of the most memorable
because it was human negligence that ended up spilling nearly
750,000 barrels of crude oil into the ocean. The ship’s captain has been
blamed for falling asleep and running into the Bligh Reef. The oil
covered more than 1,400 miles of the coastline and approximately
11,000 miles of ocean waters.
9- The Bhopal disaster caused more than 20,000 human deaths..
The 1984 disaster is often referred to as the worst industrial accident
on record. More than 42 tons of a toxic chemical known as MIC was
exposed to water by a leak in a storage tank. The combination caused
a lethal reaction of gas that was released into the atmosphere directly
over the city of Bhopal. The incident is still causing deaths 25 years
after it happened.
10- The Chernobyl disaster that happened back in 1986 in the
Ukraine was one of the most deadly man made environmental
disasters in the 20th century. The disaster was the result of men’s
blatant disregard for safety and the preservation of life. The nuclear
explosion resulted in massive amounts of radioactive materials being

14. released into the atmosphere. The area surrounding the nuclear plant
is considered a dead zone.