Widespread (global) threat due to environmental factors such as climate change
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Geophysical hazard:
A hazard formed by tectonic/geological processes (earthquakes, volcanoes and tsunamis)
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Hazard:
A perceived natural event which has the potential to threaten both life and property
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Hydro-meteorological hazard:
A hazard formed by hydrological (floods) and atmospheric (storms and droughts) processes
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Vulnerability:
A high risk combined with an inability of individuals and communities of cope
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Disaster:
A hazard becoming reality in an event that causes deaths and damage to goods/property and the environment
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Risk:
The probability of a hazard event occurring and creating loss of lives and livelihoods
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Albedo:
How much solar radiation a surface reflects
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Climate change:
Any long term trend or shift in climate (average weather over 30 years) detected by a sustained shift in the average value for any climatic element (e.g. rainfall, drought, storminess)
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Enhanced greenhouse effect:
This occurs when the levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere increase owing to human activity
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Fossil fuels:
Energy sources that are rich in carbon and which release carbon dioxide when burnt (e.g. coal)
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Global warming:
A recently measured rise in the average surface temperature of the planet
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Greenhouse effect:
The warming of the Earth’s atmosphere due to the trapping of heat that would otherwise be radiated back into space – it enabled the survival of life on Earth.
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Tipping point:
The point at which a system switches from one state to another
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Feedback mechanism:
Where the output of a system acts to amplify (positive) or reduce (negative) further output (e.g. the melting of Arctic permafrost leads to the release of trapped methane which leads to further global warming)
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Frequency:
How often an event of a certain size (magnitude) occurs.
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Magnitude:
The size of the event (e.g. size of an earthquake on the Richter scale)
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Asthenosphere:
A semi-molten zone of rock underlying the Earth’s crust
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Conservative boundary:
A boundary between plates where the movement of the plates is parallel to the plate margin and the plates slide past each other.
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Constructive boundary:
A boundary between plates where the plates are diverging or moving apart
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Destructive boundary:
A boundary between plates where the plates are converging (moving together)
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Lithosphere:
The crust of the Earth, around 80-90km thick
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Magma:
Molten material that rises towards the Earth’s surface when hotspots within the asthenosphere generate convection currents Natural hazard: a natural event or process which affects people e.g. causing loss of life or injury, economic damage
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Plates:
Rigid, less dense ‘slabs’ of rock floating on the asthenosphere
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Hotspot:
A localised area of the Earth’s crust with an unusually high temperature
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Plume:
An upwelling of abnormally hot rock within the Earth’s mantle
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Inter-tropical convergence zone:
A zone of low atmospheric pressure near the equator. This migrates seasonally
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Other cards in this set
Card 2
Front
Geophysical hazard:
Back
A hazard formed by tectonic/geological processes (earthquakes, volcanoes and tsunamis)
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