What are natural disasters associated with? Abstract natural and man-made disasters

Every year, various human activities and natural phenomena cause environmental disasters and economic losses around the world. But beyond the dark side, there is something admirable about the destructive power of nature.

This article will present you the most interesting natural phenomena and cataclysms that happened in 2011 and 2012, and at the same time remained not very well known to the public.

10. Sea smoke on the Black Sea, Romania.

Sea smoke is called evaporation sea ​​water, which is formed when the air is cold enough and the water warmed by the sun. Because of the temperature difference, the water begins to evaporate.

This beautiful photo was taken a few months ago in Romania by Dan Mihailescu.

9. Strange sounds coming from the frozen Black Sea, Ukraine.

If you've ever wondered what a frozen sea sounds like, here's the answer! Reminds me of scratching wood with nails.

The video was filmed on the coast of Odessa in Ukraine.

8. Trees in the web, Pakistan.

An unexpected side effect of the massive flood that inundated one-fifth of Pakistan's landmass is that millions of spiders escaped the water and climbed trees to form cocoons and huge webs.

7. Fire tornado - Brazil.

A rare phenomenon called " fire tornado"was filmed on camera in Aracatuba (Brazil). A deadly cocktail from high temperature, strong winds and fires formed a whirlwind of fire.

6. Cappuccino Coast, UK.

In December 2011, seaside resort Cleveleys, Lancashire covered in cappuccino-colored sea foam (first photo). The second and third photos were taken in Cape Town, South Africa.

According to experts, sea ​​foam formed from fat molecules and proteins created by the decomposition of tiny sea ​​creatures(Phaeocystis).

5. Snow in the desert, Namibia.

As you know, the Namibian Desert is the oldest desert on earth, and it would seem that, apart from sand and eternal heat, there can be nothing unusual here. However, judging by the statistics, it snows here almost every ten years.

The last time this happened was in June 2011, when snow fell between 11 am and 12 noon. On this day, the most low temperature in Namibia -7 degrees Celsius.

4. Huge whirlpool, Japan.

An incredibly large whirlpool formed off the east coast of Japan after the sensational tsunami last year. Whirlpools are common in tsunamis, but such large ones are rare.

3. Waterspouts, Australia.

In May 2011, four tornado-like tornadoes formed off the coast of Australia, one of which reached a height of 600 meters.

Waterspouts usually start as tornadoes - above the ground, and then move to a body of water. Their size in height starts from a few meters, and the width varies up to a hundred meters.

It is noteworthy that locals this region has not seen such phenomena for more than 45 years.

2. Massive sandstorms, USA.

This incredible video shows a huge sandstorm, which absorbed Phoenix in 2011. The cloud of dust grew up to 50 km wide and reached 3 km in height.

Sandstorms are common meteorological phenomenon in Arizona, but researchers and local residents unanimously declared that this storm was the largest in the history of the state.

1. Volcanic ash from Lake Nahuel Huapi - Argentina.

The massive eruption of the Puyehue volcano - near the city of Osorno, in southern Chile, has created an incredible spectacle in Argentina.

Northeast winds blew some of the ash onto Lake Nahuel Huapi. And its surface was covered with a thick layer of volcanic debris, which is very abrasive and does not dissolve in water.

By the way, Nahuel Huapi is the deepest and cleanest lake in Argentina. The lake stretches for 100 km along the Chilean border.

The depth reaches 400 meters, and its area is 529 square meters. km.

Today, the attention of the whole world is drawn to Chile, where a large-scale eruption of the Calbuco volcano began. The time has come to remember 7 biggest natural disasters recent years to know what the future may hold. Nature attacks people earlier people attacked nature.

Calbuco volcano eruption. Chile

Mount Calbuco in Chile is a fairly active volcano. However, its last eruption took place more than forty years ago - in 1972, and even then it lasted only one hour. But on April 22, 2015, everything changed for the worse. Calbuco literally exploded, starting the ejection of volcanic ash to a height of several kilometers.

On the Internet you can find a huge number of videos about this amazingly beautiful sight. However, it is pleasant to enjoy the view only through a computer, being thousands of kilometers from the scene. In reality, being near Calbuco is scary and deadly.

The Chilean government decided to resettle all people within a radius of 20 kilometers from the volcano. And this is only the first step. It is not yet known how long the eruption will last and what real damage it will bring. But it will definitely be a sum of several billion dollars.

Earthquake in Haiti

On January 12, 2010, Haiti suffered a catastrophe of unprecedented proportions. There were several tremors, the main of which had a magnitude of 7. As a result, almost the entire country was in ruins. Even the presidential palace, one of the most majestic and capital buildings in Haiti, was destroyed.

According to official figures, more than 222,000 people died during and after the earthquake, and 311,000 were injured to varying degrees. At the same time, millions of Haitians were left homeless.

This is not to say that magnitude 7 is something unprecedented in the history of seismic observations. The scale of destruction turned out to be so huge due to the high deterioration of infrastructure in Haiti, and also because of the extremely low quality of absolutely all buildings. In addition to this, just local population was in no hurry to provide first aid to the victims, as well as to participate in the removal of rubble and the restoration of the country.

As a result, an international military contingent was sent to Haiti, which took over the government in the first period after the earthquake, when the traditional authorities were paralyzed and extremely corrupt.

Tsunami in the Pacific Ocean

Until December 26, 2004, the vast majority of the inhabitants of the Earth knew about the tsunami exclusively from textbooks and disaster films. However, that day will forever remain in the memory of Mankind because of the huge wave that covered the coast of dozens of states in the Indian Ocean.

It all started with a major earthquake with a magnitude of 9.1-9.3 that occurred just north of the island of Sumatra. It caused a giant wave up to 15 meters high, which spread in all directions of the ocean and hundreds of settlements from the face of the Earth, as well as world-famous seaside resorts.

The tsunami covered coastal areas in Indonesia, India, Sri Lanka, Australia, Myanmar, South Africa, Madagascar, Kenya, Maldives, Seychelles, Oman and other states on the coast indian ocean. Statisticians counted more than 300 thousand dead in this disaster. At the same time, the bodies of many could not be found - the wave carried them into the open ocean.

The consequences of this disaster are enormous. In many places infrastructure was never fully restored after the 2004 tsunami.

Eyjafjallajökull volcano eruption

The hard-to-pronounce Icelandic name Eyjafjallajokull became one of the most popular words in 2010. And all thanks to the volcanic eruption in the mountain range with this name.

Paradoxically, not a single person died during this eruption. But this natural disaster seriously disrupted business life throughout the world, primarily in Europe. After all, a huge amount of volcanic ash thrown into the sky from the Eyjafjallajökull vent completely paralyzed air traffic in the Old World. The natural disaster destabilized the lives of millions of people in Europe itself, as well as in North America.

Thousands of flights, both passenger and cargo, were cancelled. The daily losses of airlines during that period amounted to more than $200 million.

Earthquake in China's Sichuan province

As in the case of the earthquake in Haiti, a huge number of victims after a similar disaster in the Chinese province of Sichuan, which occurred there on May 12, 2008, is due to the low level of capital buildings.

As a result of the main earthquake of magnitude 8, as well as smaller concussions that followed it, more than 69,000 people died in Sichuan, 18,000 were missing, and 288,000 were injured.

At the same time, the Chinese government People's Republic severely limited international assistance in the disaster zone, it tried to solve the problem with my own hands. According to experts, the Chinese thus wanted to hide the real extent of what happened.

For publishing real data about the dead and destruction, as well as for articles about corruption, which led to such huge numbers of losses, the PRC authorities even imprisoned the most famous contemporary Chinese artist, Ai Weiwei, for several months.

Hurricane Katrina

However, the scale of the consequences of a natural disaster does not always directly depend on the quality of construction in a particular region, as well as on the presence or absence of corruption there. An example of this is Hurricane Katrina, which hit the Southeast coast of the United States in the Gulf of Mexico in late August 2005.

The main impact of Hurricane Katrina fell on the city of New Orleans and the state of Louisiana. The rising water level in several places broke through the dam protecting New Orleans, and about 80 percent of the city was under water. At that moment, entire areas were destroyed, infrastructure facilities, transport interchanges and communications were destroyed.

The population who refused or did not have time to evacuate fled on the roofs of houses. The famous Superdom stadium became the main gathering place for people. But it turned into a trap at the same time, because it was already impossible to get out of it.

During the hurricane, 1,836 people died and more than a million were made homeless. The damage from this natural disaster is estimated at 125 billion dollars. At the same time, New Orleans for ten years has not been able to return to a full-fledged normal life– The population of the city is still about a third less than in 2005.

March 11, 2011 at pacific ocean east of the island of Honshu, shocks with a magnitude of 9-9.1 occurred, which led to the appearance of a huge tsunami wave up to 7 meters high. She hit Japan, washing away many coastal objects and going deep into the tens of kilometers.

AT different parts In Japan, after the earthquake and tsunami, fires broke out, infrastructure was destroyed, including industrial. In total, almost 16 thousand people died as a result of this disaster, and economic losses amounted to about 309 billion dollars.

But this turned out to be not the worst. The world knows about the 2011 disaster in Japan, primarily because of the accident at the Fukushima nuclear power plant, which occurred as a result of the collapse of a tsunami wave on it.

More than four years have passed since this accident, but the operation at the nuclear power plant is still ongoing. And the settlements closest to it were permanently settled. So Japan got its own.

A large-scale natural disaster is one of the options for the death of our Civilization. We have collected .

In this paper, we will determine how natural disasters affect the climate of planet Earth, therefore, we consider it necessary to define this phenomenon and its main manifestations (types):

The term natural disasters is used for two different concepts, in a sense overlapping. Catastrophe in literal translation means a turn, a restructuring. This value corresponds to the most general idea about catastrophes in natural science, where the evolution of the Earth is seen as a series of different catastrophes that cause a change geological processes and types of living organisms.

Interest in the catastrophic events of the past is fueled by the fact that an inevitable part of any forecast is the analysis of the past. The older the catastrophe, the more difficult it is to recognize its traces.

Lack of information always breeds fantasies. Some researchers explain the same steep milestones and turns in the history of the Earth by cosmic causes - meteorite falls, changes in solar activity, seasons of the galactic year, others - by the cyclical processes taking place in the bowels 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 opposed to man-made disasters, i.e. those caused directly by human activity

The main types of natural disasters

Earthquakes are underground shocks and vibrations of the Earth's surface caused by natural causes (mainly tectonic processes). In some places on the Earth, earthquakes occur frequently and sometimes reach great strength, breaking the integrity of the soil, destroying buildings and causing loss of life.

The number of earthquakes recorded annually on the globe is in the hundreds of thousands. However, the vast majority of them are weak, and only a small proportion reaches the degree of catastrophe. Until the 20th century known, for example, are such catastrophic earthquakes as the Lisbon earthquake in 1755, the Vernensky earthquake in 1887, which destroyed the city of Verny (now Alma-Ata), the earthquake in Greece in 1870-73, etc.

By its intensity, i.e. according to the manifestation on the surface of the Earth, earthquakes are divided, according to the international seismic scale MSK-64, into 12 gradations - points.

The area of ​​occurrence of an underground shock - the focus of an earthquake - is a certain volume in the thickness of the Earth, within which the process of releasing the accumulated long time energy. In a geological sense, a focus is a gap or a group of gaps along which an almost instantaneous movement of masses occurs. In the center of the focus, a point is conventionally distinguished, called the hypocenter. The projection of the hypocenter onto the Earth's surface is called the epicenter. Around it is the region of the greatest destruction - the pleistoseist region. Lines connecting points with the same vibration intensity (in points) are called isoseists.

Flooding - significant flooding of the area with water as a result of a rise in the water level in a river, lake or sea, caused by various reasons. Flooding on the river occurs from a sharp increase in the amount of water due to the melting of snow or glaciers located in its basin, as well as as a result of heavy precipitation. Flooding is often caused by an increase in the water level in the river due to blockage of the channel by ice during ice drift (jam) or due to clogging of the channel under the immovable ice cover by accumulations of intra-water ice and the formation of an ice plug (jam). Floods often occur under the influence of winds that bring water from the sea and cause an increase in the level due to the delay at the mouth of the water brought by the river. Floods of this type were observed in Leningrad (1824, 1924), the Netherlands (1952).

On sea coasts and islands, floods can occur as a result of flooding of the coastal strip by a wave formed during earthquakes or volcanic eruptions in the ocean (tsunami). Similar floods are not uncommon on the shores of Japan and other Pacific islands. Floods can be caused by breaks of dams, protective dams. Floods happen on many rivers Western Europe- Danube, Seine, Rhone, Po, etc., as well as on the Yangtze and Yellow Rivers in China, Mississippi and Ohio in the USA. In the USSR, large N. were observed on the river. Dnieper and Volga.

Hurricane (French ouragan, from Spanish huracan; the word is borrowed from the language of the Caribbean Indians) is a wind of destructive force and considerable duration, the speed of which is over 30 m / s (according to the Beaufort scale 12 points). Tropical cyclones, especially in the Caribbean, are also called hurricanes.

Tsunami (Japanese) - marine gravity waves of very large length, resulting from the upward or downward displacement of extended sections of the bottom during strong underwater and coastal earthquakes and, occasionally, due to volcanic eruptions and other tectonic processes. Due to the low compressibility of water and the speed of the process of deformation of the bottom sections, the water column resting on them also shifts without having time to spread, as a result of which a certain elevation or depression forms on the ocean surface. The resulting perturbation turns into oscillatory movements of the water column - tsunami waves propagating at high speed (from 50 to 1000 km / h). The distance between neighboring wave crests varies from 5 to 1500 km. The height of the waves in the area of ​​their occurrence varies between 0.01-5 m. Near the coast, it can reach 10 m, and in areas unfavorable in terms of relief (wedge-shaped bays, river valleys, etc.) - over 50 m.

About 1000 cases of tsunamis are known, of which more than 100 had catastrophic consequences, which caused complete destruction, washing away of structures and soil and vegetation cover. 80% of tsunamis occur on the periphery of the Pacific Ocean, including the western slope of the Kuril-Kamchatka Trench. Based on the patterns of occurrence and spread of tsunamis, the zoning of the coast is carried out according to the degree of threat. Measures for partial protection against tsunamis: creation of artificial coastal structures (breakwaters, breakwaters and embankments), planting forest strips along the ocean coast.

Drought is a prolonged and significant lack of precipitation, more often at elevated temperatures and low air humidity, as a result of which moisture reserves in the soil dry out, which leads to a decrease or death of the crop. The beginning of a drought is usually associated with the establishment of an anticyclone. abundance solar heat and dry air create increased evaporation (atmospheric drought), and soil moisture reserves are depleted without replenishment by rains (soil drought). During drought, water supply to plants through root systems becomes more difficult, the consumption of moisture for transpiration begins to exceed its inflow from the soil, the water saturation of tissues decreases, and the normal conditions for photosynthesis and carbon nutrition are violated. Depending on the season, there are spring, summer and autumn droughts. Spring droughts are especially dangerous for early crops; summer causes severe damage to both early and late grain and other annual crops, as well as fruit plants; autumn are dangerous for winter seedlings. The most destructive are spring-summer and summer-autumn droughts. Most often, droughts are observed in the steppe zone, less often in the forest-steppe zone: 2-3 times a century, droughts occur even in the forest zone. The concept of drought is inapplicable to areas with a rainless summer and extremely low rainfall, where agriculture is possible only with artificial irrigation (for example, the Sahara, Gobi, etc.).

To combat droughts, a complex of agrotechnical and reclamation measures is used to enhance the water-absorbing and water-retaining properties of the soil, to retain snow in the fields. Of the agrotechnical control measures, the most effective is the main deep plowing, especially soils with a highly compacted subsurface horizon (chestnut, solonets, etc.)

Landslides - sliding displacement of rock masses down the slope under the influence of gravity. Landslides occur in any part of a slope or slope due to an imbalance in rocks caused by: an increase in the steepness of the slope as a result of water washing; weakening of the strength of rocks during weathering or waterlogging by precipitation and groundwater; the impact of seismic shocks; construction and economic activities carried out without taking into account the geological conditions of the area (destruction of slopes by road cuts, excessive watering of gardens and vegetable gardens located on slopes, etc.). Most often, landslides occur on slopes composed of alternating water-resistant (clay) and water-bearing rocks (for example, sand-gravel, fractured limestone). The development of a landslide is facilitated by such an occurrence when the layers are located with an inclination towards the slope or are crossed by cracks in the same direction. In highly moistened clay rocks, landslides take the form of a stream. In plan, landslides often have the shape of a semicircle, forming a depression in the slope, called a landslide cirque. Landslides inflict great damage agricultural land, industrial enterprises, settlements etc. To combat landslides, bank protection and drainage structures are used, slopes are fixed with piles driven in, vegetation is planted, etc.

Volcanic eruptions. Volcanoes are geological formations that arise above channels and cracks in the earth's crust, along which they erupt at earth's surface from deep magmatic sources of lava, hot gases and rock fragments. Volcanoes usually represent individual mountains composed of eruptions. Volcanoes are divided into active, dormant and extinct. The former include: those that are currently erupting constantly or periodically; about the eruptions of which there are historical data; about the eruptions of which there is no information, but which emit hot gases and water (solfatar stage). Dormant volcanoes are those whose eruptions are not known, but they have retained their shape and local earthquakes occur under them. Extinct volcanoes are called heavily destroyed and eroded volcanoes without any manifestations of volcanic activity.

Eruptions are long-term (for several years, decades and centuries) and short-term (measured by hours). Eruption precursors include volcanic earthquakes, acoustic phenomena, changes magnetic properties and composition of fumarole gases and other phenomena. An eruption usually begins with an increase in gas emissions, first along with dark, cold lava fragments, and then with red-hot ones. These ejections are in some cases accompanied by an outpouring of lava. The height of the rise of gases, water vapor, saturated with ash and lava fragments, depending on the strength of the explosions, ranges from 1 to 5 km (during the Bezymyanny eruption in Kamchatka in 1956, it reached 45 km). The ejected material is transported over distances from several to tens of thousands of kilometers. The volume of ejected clastic material sometimes reaches several km3. The eruption is an alternation of weak and strong explosions and lava outpourings. Explosions maximum strength called climax paroxysm. After them, there is a decrease in the strength of explosions and a gradual cessation of eruptions. The volumes of the erupted lava are up to tens of km3.

climate natural disaster atmosphere

Natural disasters and their impact on change

physical and geographical location

The physical-geographical position is the spatial location of any area in relation to the physical-geographical data (equator, prime meridian, mountain systems, seas and oceans, etc.).

The physical and geographical position is determined by geographical coordinates (latitude, longitude), absolute altitude in relation to sea level, proximity (or remoteness) to the sea, rivers, lakes, mountains, etc., position in the composition (location) of natural (climatic, soil-vegetative, zoogeographic) zones. This is the so-called. elements or factors of physical and geographical location.

The physical and geographical position of any locality is purely individual, unique. The place that each territorial entity occupies is not only individually in itself (in the system of geographical coordinates), but also in its spatial environment, i.e., in its location in relation to the elements of the physical and geographical position. Consequently, a change in the physical-geographical position of any locality leads, as a rule, to a change in the physical-geographical position of neighboring localities.

A rapid change in the physical and geographical position can only be due to natural disasters or the activities of man himself.

Hazardous natural phenomena include all those that deviate the state of the natural environment from the range that is optimal for human life and for their economy. Cataclysmic natural disasters include those that change the face of the earth.

These are catastrophic processes of endogenous and exogenous origin: earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, tsunamis, floods, avalanches and mudflows, landslides, subsidence of soils, sudden onset of the sea, global climate change on Earth, etc.

In this paper, we will consider physical and geographical changes that have ever occurred or are occurring in our time under the influence of natural disasters.

CHARACTERISTICS OF NATURAL DISASTERS

earthquakes

Earthquakes are the main source of physical and geographical changes.

An earthquake is a shaking of the earth's crust, underground shocks and vibrations of the earth's surface, caused mainly by tectonic processes. They manifest themselves in the form of tremors, often accompanied by an underground rumble, undulating vibrations of the soil, the formation of cracks, the destruction of buildings, roads and, most sadly, human casualties. Earthquakes play a significant role in the life of the planet. More than 1 million tremors are recorded annually on Earth, which averages about 120 shocks per hour or two shocks per minute. We can say that the earth is in a state of constant trembling. Fortunately, few of them are destructive and catastrophic. There is an average of one catastrophic earthquake and 100 destructive ones per year.

Earthquakes occur as a result of the pulsating-vibrational development of the lithosphere - its compression in some regions and expansion in others. At the same time, tectonic breaks, displacements and uplifts are observed.

At present, zones of earthquakes of different activity have been identified on the globe. To zones strong earthquakes include the territories of the Pacific and Mediterranean belts. In our country, more than 20% of the territory is prone to earthquakes.

Catastrophic earthquakes (9 points or more) cover the areas of Kamchatka, the Kuril Islands, Pamir, Transbaikalia, Transcaucasia and a number of other mountainous regions.

Strong (from 7 to 9 points) earthquakes occur in a territory stretching in a wide strip from Kamchatka to the Carpathians, including Sakhalin, the Baikal region, the Sayans, Crimea, Moldova, etc.

As a result of catastrophic earthquakes, large disjunctive dislocations appear in the earth's crust. Thus, during the catastrophic earthquake on December 4, 1957 in the Mongolian Altai, the Bogdo fault, about 270 km long, appeared, and the total length of the resulting faults reached 850 km.

Earthquakes are caused by sudden, rapid displacements of the wings of existing or newly formed tectonic faults; the voltages that arise in this case are capable of being transmitted over long distances. The occurrence of earthquakes on large faults occurs during a long-term displacement in opposite directions of tectonic blocks or plates that are in contact along the fault. At the same time, cohesive forces keep the fault wings from slipping, and the fault zone experiences a gradually increasing shear deformation. When it reaches a certain limit, the fault “rips open” and its wings are displaced. Earthquakes on newly formed faults are considered as a result of the regular development of systems of interacting cracks that combine into a zone of increased concentration of faults, in which a main fault is formed, accompanied by an earthquake. The volume of the medium, where part of the tectonic stresses are removed and some of the accumulated potential energy of deformation is released, is called the earthquake source. The amount of energy released during one earthquake depends mainly on the size of the shifted fault surface. The maximum known length of faults that rupture during an earthquake is in the range of 500-1000 km (Kamchatka - 1952, Chile - 1960, etc.), the wings of the faults were displaced to the sides up to 10 m. The spatial orientation of the fault and the direction of displacement its wings are called the earthquake focal mechanism.

Earthquakes capable of changing the face of the Earth are catastrophic earthquakes with magnitude X-XII points. Geological consequences of earthquakes, leading to physical and geographical changes: cracks appear on the ground, sometimes gaping;

air, water, mud or sand fountains appear, while accumulations of clay or piles of sand are formed;

some springs and geysers stop or change their action, new ones appear;

groundwater becomes cloudy (stirred);

landslides, mud and mudflows, landslides occur;

there is a liquefaction of the soil and sandy-clayey rocks;

underwater creep occurs, and turbidity (turbidite) flows are formed;

coastal cliffs, river banks, bulk areas collapse;

seismic sea waves (tsunami) occur;

snow avalanches break down;

icebergs break off ice shelves;

zones of rift-type disturbances with internal ridges and dammed lakes are formed;

the soil becomes uneven with areas of subsidence and swelling;

seiches occur on lakes (standing waves and churning of waves off the coast);

the regime of ebbs and flows is violated;

volcanic and hydrothermal activity is activated.

Volcanoes, tsunamis and meteorites

Volcanism is a set of processes and phenomena associated with the movement of magma in the upper mantle, the earth's crust and on the surface of the earth. As a result of volcanic eruptions, volcanic mountains, volcanic lava plateaus and plains, crater and dam lakes, mud flows, volcanic tuffs, cinders, breccias, bombs, ash are formed, volcanic dust and gases are emitted into the atmosphere.

Volcanoes are located in seismically active zones, especially in the Pacific. In Indonesia, Japan, Central America, there are several dozen active volcanoes - in total on land from 450 to 600 active and about 1000 "sleeping" volcanoes. About 7% of the world's population is dangerously close to active volcanoes. There are at least several dozen large underwater volcanoes on the mid-ocean ridges.

In Russia, Kamchatka, the Kuril Islands, and Sakhalin are exposed to the danger of volcanic eruptions and tsunamis. There are extinct volcanoes in the Caucasus and Transcaucasia.

The most active volcanoes erupt on average once every few years, all currently active volcanoes erupt on average once every 10-15 years. In the activity of each volcano there are, apparently, periods of relative decrease and increase in activity, measured in thousands of years.

Tsunamis often occur during eruptions of island and underwater volcanoes. Tsunami is a Japanese term for an unusually large sea ​​wave. These are the waves high altitude and destructive forces arising in zones of earthquakes and volcanic activity ocean floor. The speed of such a wave can vary from 50 to 1000 km/h, the height in the area of ​​origin is from 0.1 to 5 m, and near the coast - from 10 to 50 m or more. Tsunamis often cause destruction on the coast - in some cases catastrophic: they lead to erosion of the coast, the formation of turbidity flows. Another cause of ocean tsunamis are underwater landslides and avalanches breaking into the sea.

About 70 seismogenic tsunamis have been recorded in the last 50 years dangerous dimensions, of which 4% in the Mediterranean, 8% in the Atlantic, the rest in the Pacific Ocean. The most tsunami-prone shores are Japan, the Hawaiian and Aleutian Islands, Kamchatka, the Kuril Islands, Alaska, Canada, the Solomon Islands, the Philippines, Indonesia, Chile, Peru, New Zealand, the Aegean, Adriatic and Ionian Seas. In the Hawaiian Islands, tsunamis with an intensity of 3-4 points occur on average 1 time in 4 years, on the Pacific coast South America- once every 10 years.

Flooding is a significant flooding of an area as a result of a rise in the water level in a river, lake or sea. Floods are caused by heavy rainfall, melting snow, ice, hurricanes and storms, which contribute to the destruction of bulk structures, dams, dams. Floods can be river (floodplain), surge (on the coasts of the seas), planar (flooding of vast watershed areas), etc.

Large catastrophic floods are accompanied by a rapid and high rise in the water level, a sharp increase in the speed of flows, their destructive power. Devastating floods occur almost every year in various regions of the earth. In Russia, they are most frequent in the south of the Far East.

flood on Far East in 2013

Disasters of cosmic origin are of no small importance. The Earth is constantly bombarded by cosmic bodies ranging in size from fractions of a millimeter to several meters. The larger the size of the body, the less often it falls on the planet. Bodies with a diameter greater than 10 m, as a rule, invade the Earth's atmosphere, only weakly interacting with the latter. The bulk of matter reaches the planet. The speed of cosmic bodies is enormous: approximately from 10 to 70 km/s. Their collision with the planet leads to strong earthquakes, an explosion of the body. At the same time, the mass of the destroyed substance of the planet is hundreds of times greater than the mass of the fallen body. Huge masses of dust rise into the atmosphere, shielding the planet from solar radiation. The earth is cooling. The so-called "asteroid" or "comet" winter is coming.

According to one hypothesis, one of these bodies that fell in the Caribbean hundreds of millions of years ago led to significant physical and geographical changes in the area, the formation of new islands and reservoirs, and along the way to the extinction of most of the animals that inhabited the Earth, in particular dinosaurs. .

Some cosmic bodies could fall into the sea in historical times(5-10 thousand years ago). According to one version, the global flood, set out in legends different peoples, could be caused by a tsunami as a result of a space body falling into the sea (ocean). The body could fall into the Mediterranean and the Black Sea. Their coasts were traditionally inhabited by peoples.

Fortunately for us, collisions of the Earth with large cosmic bodies are very rare.

NATURAL DISASTERS IN THE HISTORY OF THE EARTH

Natural disasters of antiquity

According to one of the hypotheses, natural disasters could cause physical and geographical changes in the hypothetical Gondwana supercontinent that existed approximately 200 million years ago in southern hemisphere Earth.

The southern continents have common history development natural conditions- they were all part of Gondwana. Scientists believe that the internal forces of the Earth (the movement of the substance of the mantle) led to the split and expansion of a single continent. There is a hypothesis about the cosmic causes of the change appearance our planet. It is believed that the collision of an extraterrestrial body with our planet could cause a split of a giant landmass. One way or another, in the spaces between the separate parts of Gondwana, the Indian and Atlantic oceans gradually formed, and the continents occupied their present position.

When trying to "gather" together the pieces of Gondwana, one can come to the conclusion that some land areas are clearly not enough. This suggests that there could be other continents that disappeared as a result of any natural disasters. Until now, disputes about the possible existence of Atlantis, Lemuria and other mysterious lands have not stopped.

For a long time it was believed that Atlantis was a huge island (or mainland?), Sunk in the Atlantic Ocean. Currently the bottom Atlantic Ocean well surveyed and found that there is no island that sank 10-20 thousand years ago. Does this mean that Atlantis did not exist? It is quite possible not. They began to look for her in the Mediterranean and Aegean seas. Most likely, Atlantis was located in the Aegean Sea and was part of the Santorian archipelago.

Atlantis

The death of Atlantis is first described in the writings of Plato, the myths about its death come to us from the ancient Greeks (the Greeks themselves could not describe this, due to the lack of writing). Historical information suggest that the natural disaster that destroyed the island of Atlantis was the explosion of the Santorian volcano in the 15th century. BC e.

Everything that is known about the structure and geological history of the Santorian archipelago is very reminiscent of the legends of Plato. As geological and geophysical studies have shown, as a result of the Santorian explosion, at least 28 km3 of pumice and ash were thrown out. Emission products covered the surroundings, the thickness of their layer reached 30-60 m. The ash spread not only within the Aegean Sea, but also in the eastern part mediterranean sea. The eruption lasted from several months to two years. In the last phase of the eruption, the interior of the volcano collapsed and sank hundreds of meters under the waters of the Aegean Sea.

Another type of natural cataclysm that changed the face of the Earth in ancient times is an earthquake. As a rule, earthquakes cause enormous damage and cause casualties, but do not change the physical and geographical position of the regions. Such changes lead to the so-called. super earthquakes. Apparently, one of these super-earthquakes was in prehistoric times. A crack up to 10,000 km long and up to 1,000 km wide has been discovered at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean. This crack could have formed as a result of a super-earthquake. With a focus depth of about 300 km, its energy reached 1.5 1021 J. And this is 100 times more than the energy of the strongest earthquake. This should have led to significant changes in the physical and geographical position of the surrounding territories.

Floods are another no less dangerous element.

One of the global floods could be the already mentioned biblical global flood. As a result of it, the highest mountain of Eurasia, Ararat, was under water, and some expeditions are still looking for the remains of Noah's Ark on it.

global flood

noah's ark

During the entire Phanerozoic (560 million years), eustatic fluctuations did not stop, and in some periods the water level of the World Ocean rose by 300-350 m relative to its current situation. At the same time, significant areas of land (up to 60% of the area of ​​\u200b\u200bthe continents) were flooded.

Changed the appearance of the Earth in ancient times and cosmic bodies. The fact that in prehistoric times asteroids fell into the ocean is evidenced by craters at the bottom of the oceans:

Mjolnir crater in the Barents Sea. Its diameter was about 40 km. It arose as a result of the fall of an asteroid with a diameter of 1-3 km into a sea with a depth of 300-500 m. This happened 142 million years ago. An asteroid at a distance of 1 thousand km caused a tsunami with a height of 100-200 m;

Lokne crater in Sweden. It was formed about 450 million years ago by the fall of an asteroid about 600 m in diameter into a sea 0.5-1 km deep. The cosmic body caused a wave with a height of 40-50 m at a distance of about 1 thousand km;

Eltanin crater. It is located at a depth of 4-5 km. It arose as a result of the fall of an asteroid 0.5-2 km in diameter 2.2 million years ago, which led to the formation of a tsunami with a height of about 200 m at a distance of 1 thousand km from the epicenter.

Naturally, the height of the tsunami waves near the coast was much higher.

In total, about 20 craters have been discovered in the world's oceans.

Natural disasters of our time

Now there is no doubt that the past century was marked by a rapid increase in the number of natural disasters and the volume of material losses associated with them and physical and geographical changes in the territories. In less than half a century, the number of natural disasters has tripled. The increase in the number of disasters occurs mainly due to atmospheric and hydrospheric hazards, which include floods, hurricanes, tornadoes, storms, etc. The average number of tsunamis remains almost unchanged - about 30 per year. Apparently, these events are associated with a number of objective reasons: population growth, growth in energy production and its release, changes in the environment, weather and climate. It is proved that the air temperature over the past few decades has increased by about 0.5 degrees Celsius. This led to an increase in the internal energy of the atmosphere by about 2.6 1021 J, which is tens and hundreds of times higher than the energy of the strongest cyclones, hurricanes, volcanic eruptions and thousands and hundreds of thousands of times the energy of earthquakes and their consequences - tsunamis. It is possible that the increase in the internal energy of the atmosphere destabilizes the metastable ocean-land-atmosphere (OSA) system responsible for the weather and climate on the planet. If so, then it is quite possible that many natural disasters are related.

The idea that the growth of natural anomalies is generated by a complex anthropogenic impact on the biosphere was put forward in the first half of the 20th century by the Russian researcher Vladimir Vernadsky. He believed that the physical and geographical conditions on Earth are generally unchanged and are due to the functioning of living things. However economic activity human disturbs the balance of the biosphere. As a result of deforestation, plowing of territories, drainage of swamps, urbanization, the surface of the Earth, its reflectivity is changing, and the natural environment is being polluted. This leads to a change in the trajectories of heat and moisture transfer in the biosphere and, ultimately, to the appearance of undesirable natural anomalies. Such a complex degradation of the natural environment is the cause of natural disasters leading to global geophysical changes.

The historical genesis of the earth's civilization is organically woven into the global context of the evolution of nature, which has a cyclical nature. It has been established that the geographic, historical and social phenomena come, not sporadically and arbitrarily, they are in organic unity with certain physical phenomena of the surrounding world.

From a metaphysical point of view, the nature and content of the evolution of all life on Earth is determined by the regular change of historical and metrical cycles of sunspot-forming activity. At the same time, the cycle change is accompanied by all sorts of cataclysms - geophysical, biological, social and others.

Thus, the metaphysical measurement of the fundamental qualities of space and time makes it possible to track and identify the most serious threats and dangers to the existence of earthly civilization in different periods development of world history. Based on the fact that the safe paths of evolution of the earth's civilization are organically linked with the stability of the planet's biosphere as a whole and the mutual conditionality of the existence of all biological species in it, it is important not only to understand the nature of natural and climatic anomalies and cataclysms, but also to see the ways of salvation and survival of mankind .

According to existing forecasts, already in the foreseeable the future will happen another change in the global historical and metrical cycle. As a result, humanity will face cardinal geophysical changes on planet Earth. According to experts, natural and climatic cataclysms will lead to a change in the geographical configuration of individual countries, shifts in the state of the habitat and ethnic landscapes. Flooding of vast territories, an increase in the area of ​​marine areas, soil erosion, an increase in the number of lifeless spaces (deserts, etc.) will become common phenomena. Change in habitat conditions, in particular duration daylight hours, characteristics of precipitation, the state of the ethno-nourishing landscape, etc., will actively influence the characteristics of biochemical metabolism, the formation of the subconscious and the mentality of people.

Analysis of the probable physical and geographical causes of powerful floods in Europe in last years(in Germany, as well as in Switzerland, Austria and Romania) conducted by a number of scientists, shows that the primary cause of destructive cataclysms is, most likely, the release from the ice of the Arctic Ocean.

In other words, due to the ongoing sharp warming of the climate, it is quite possible that floods are just beginning. Increased the amount of open blue water in the straits between arctic islands Great Canadian Archipelago. Giant polynyas appeared even between the northernmost of them - Ellesmere Island and Greenland.

Release from multi-year, heavy landfast ice, with which the aforementioned straits between these islands were literally clogged, can lead to a sharp increase in the so-called Western flow into the Atlantic of cold Arctic water (with a temperature of minus 1.8 degrees Celsius) from the western side of Greenland. And this, in turn, will sharply reduce the cooling of this water, which so far flows out in bulk from the eastern side of Greenland, which is moving towards it from the Gulf Stream. The Gulf Stream in the future can be cooled by this runoff by 8 degrees Celsius. At the same time, American scientists predicted a catastrophe if the water temperature in the Arctic rises even by one degree Celsius. Well, if it rises by a few degrees, then the ice covering the ocean will melt not in 70-80 years, as American scientists predict, but in less than ten.

According to experts, in the foreseeable future, coastal countries whose territories are directly adjacent to the waters of the Pacific, Atlantic and Arctic oceans will be in a vulnerable position. Members of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change believe that due to the active melting of the glaciers of Antarctica and Greenland, the level of the World Ocean may rise by 60 cm, which will lead to the flooding of some island states and coastal cities. First of all, we are talking about the territories of North and Latin America, Western Europe, Southeast Asia.

Such assessments are contained not only in open scientific articles, but also closed studies of special state structures USA and UK. In particular, according to Pentagon estimates, if in the next 20 years there will be problems with temperature regime Gulf Stream in the Atlantic, this will inevitably change the physical and geographical position of the continents, a global crisis of the world economy will come, which will lead to new wars and conflicts in the world.

According to the studies, on the planet the greatest resistance to natural disasters and anomalies, due to its physical and geographical data, will continue to be preserved by the Eurasian continent, the post-Soviet space and, above all, the modern territory of the Russian Federation.

We are talking here about what is happening, according to scientists, the movement of the energy center of the Sun to a "large physical and geographical zone" from the Carpathians to the Urals. Geographically, it coincides with the lands " historical Russia”, to which it is customary to include the modern territories of Belarus and Ukraine, the European part of Russia. The action of such phenomena of cosmic origin means a point concentration of solar and other energy on the fauna and flora of the “large physical-geographical zone”. In a metaphysical context, a situation arises in which the area of ​​settlement of the peoples of this territory will play a major role in world social processes.

not so long ago there was a sea

At the same time, according to existing geological assessments, the physical and geographical position of Russia, unlike many other countries, will suffer to a lesser extent from catastrophic consequences natural changes on the ground. It is expected that the general warming of the climate will contribute to the regeneration of the natural and climatic habitat, an increase in the diversity of fauna and flora in certain areas of Russia. global changes will have a beneficial effect on the fertility of the lands of the Urals and Siberia. At the same time, experts suggest that the territory of Russia is unlikely to escape large and small floods, the growth of steppe zones and semi-deserts.

CONCLUSION

Throughout the history of the Earth, the physical and geographical position of all elements of the land has changed under the influence of natural disasters.

A change in the factors of the physical and geographical position can occur, as a rule, only under the influence of natural disasters.

The largest geophysical disasters associated with numerous casualties and destruction, changes in the physical and geographical data of territories, are caused as a result of seismic activity of the lithosphere, which most often manifests itself in the form of earthquakes. Earthquakes provoke other natural disasters: volcanic activity, tsunamis, floods. A real megatsunami occurred when space bodies with dimensions from tens of meters to tens of kilometers fell into the ocean or sea. Such events in the history of the Earth happened many times.

Many specialists of our time recognize an obvious trend towards an increase in the number of natural anomalies and disasters, the number of natural disasters per unit of time continues to grow. Perhaps this is due to the deterioration of the environmental situation on the planet, with an increase in the temperature of gas in the atmosphere.

According to experts, due to the melting of the Arctic glaciers, new severe floods await the northern continents in the very near future.

Evidence of the reliability of geological forecasts are all sorts of natural disasters that have occurred recently. Today natural anomalous phenomena, temporary climatic imbalances, sharp temperature fluctuations become constant companions of our life. They increasingly destabilize the situation and make significant adjustments to the daily life of the states and peoples of the world.

The situation is complicated by the increasing influence of the anthropogenic factor on the state of the environment.

In general, the coming natural, climatic and geophysical changes, which carry a serious threat to the very existence of the peoples of the world, require states and governments to be ready to act in crisis conditions today. The world is gradually beginning to realize that the problems of vulnerability of the current ecological system Earth and Sun, acquired the rank global threats and require immediate approval. According to scientists, humanity is still able to cope with the consequences of natural and climatic changes.