"Humans like to think that planet Earth belongs to us. But natural disasters remind us that we're really just along for the ride. In every place humans live, the possibility of a natural disaster exists. There are wildfires in hot, dry regions and avalanches in cold, moist ones. On land, earthquakes rattle buildings and topple trees; underwater, they can trigger monster waves capable of erasing entire coastlines. Volcanoes burble up from Earth's molten core, and hurricanes, tornadoes, and lightning come from the sky. Explore these powerful forces of nature." (From National Geographic's Website)
Explore hurricanes, earthquakes, tornadoes, and volcanoes at National Geographic's Forces of Nature website and National Geographic's Awesome Website on Natural Disasters ! Your job is to:
1. Pick a natural catastrophe to learn about.
2. Explore this catastrophe by exploring the catastrophe at your own pace. Do NOT just skip to the simulation at the end!! (If I see this happening, you will lose computer privileges.)
3. Once you have read & explored the information of the catastrophe of your choice, write a well developed paragraph describing your catastrophe in detail (focus on sensory details). Then write a second paragraph about the new facts that you learned. This should be done on loose leaf paper.
4. Proofread your paragraph for spelling & grammar errors (Sentences should have a subject, a predicate, a capital letter and proper end punctuation. Use a dictionary to proofread your writing for spelling errors.)
5. Edit your paragraph for WORD CHOICE.
6. Post your paragraphs to this blog.
Due date: October 9 .
24 comments:
Lightning often strikes one place more than once. Each bolt contains up to one billion volts of electricity. Lightning is made between positive and negative charges. During a storm if rain, ice, or snow collides it increases the negative charges. Rare forms are extreme forest fires, volcanic eruption, and snowstorms. A flash of lightning can heat the air to five times hotter than the sun’s surface. Lightning cannot only be spectacular. It can be dangerous. 2,000 people are killed worldwide each year. Earth is struck by lightning 100 times each second. Negative charges race downward at 200 mph.
Tornadoes
The facts I learned about tornadoes are it starts by a violently rotating column of air that extends from a thunderstorm to the ground. The most violently tornadoes come from super cells, large thunderstorms that already have wind in rotation. The air has to be dry and moist for tornadoes. Tornadoes usually have hail coming down from the sky. A tornado destroys many homes and kills many people. Meteorologists use Doppler radars to tell if a tornado or huge storm is coming. Tornadoes can be 250 feet tall in the air.
What I learned was tornadoes usually have hail coming the sky. For a tornado, it needs to be moist and dry in the air. Every single year it costs 400 million dollars for the damages. Tornadoes kill an average of 70 people every year. Doppler radars are used by meteorologists to find out if a tornado or a huge storm is coming. The most violently tornadoes come from super cells, large thunderstorms that have winds already in rotation.
I learned about hurricanes. I now know that there are three names for a rotating storm. First, hurricanes start over the Atlantic or Eastern Pacific Oceans. Cyclones start over the northern Indian Ocean. Typhoons develop in the Western Pacific. Hurricanes come in all sizes and strengths. Once on land, a hurricane has high winds, heavy rains, tornadoes, and deadly storm surges. Hurricanes are dangerous and can cause destruction. Its most destructive deadly force is water. Hurricanes have drowned and killed thousands of people.
A very destructive catastrophe is definitely a hurricane. Hurricanes are big, spiraling, tropical storms. The winds speeds can be over 160 miles per hour. Hurricanes start in warm water. They spin around and the center is called the eye. These storms are very destructive. People should make evacuation plans before a hurricane warning is issued. The water can wipe away beaches, destroy homes, boats, and kill people. This is what happened to New Orleans in 2005. The houses were destroyed and demolished.
Hurricanes are large tropical storms with outrageously fast winds of at least 74 miles an hour. Hurricanes can possibly destroy coastal areas and cause huge numbers of deaths. “Huracan” is the word hurricane came from many centuries ago, and it means evil spirits and weather gods. Around a hundred tropical disturbances are created every year, but less than 10 percent are anything more than a thunderstorms. Hurricanes are capable of going from one day to multiple weeks in length and can vary wildly in size and strength.
Hurricanes are very deadly! Storm surges are the most deadly part. Nine out of ten hurricane deaths are caused by storm surges, which are the rising of the sea due to the storm. Storm surges can be 20 feet tall at the most and extend to almost 100 miles in length. Hurricanes can cause gigantic floods, landslides, and even flash floods. The average hurricane drops 2.4 trillion gallons per day. Their winds can go up to more than 160 miles per hour.
TOP TORNADOES
A tornado is a violent rotating funnel cloud that touches the ground. If it does not touch the ground it is not a tornado. There are five types of tornadoes. They are F0, F1, F2, F3, F4, and F5. The F5 is the worst type of tornado. The wind speeds can get up to 298 miles an hour. When a tornado forms the sky is greenish and dark clouds gather. The air has to be dry and the temperature needs to be falling. When a tornado happens baseball size hail falls from the sky. A tornado sounds like a bursting vaccum, and tears up everything in its path!!!!
Another type of tornado is a Waterspout. They occur over warm waters and sometimes come inland and then turn into a tornado. The last type of tornado is a Dust Devil. They pick up dirt and dust, and may hurt you. A Supercell can produce a tornado. A Supercell is a storm with winds already in rotation. Five or six Supercells wil sprout off of a tornado. Most tornadoes happen in Tornado Alley. Texas, Nebraska, Colorado, Iowa, Indiana, Kansas, Illinois, Missouri, Arkansas and Florida are Tornado Alley. May brings the most tornadoes. April has the most violent tornadoes. Tornadoes usually happen in the late afternoon.
Why I choose volcano is becase it is a werid nature disaster.It pumps lava from in ground and it pumps dissolved gases and silica.For it to be a great danger.It would be high gases and high silica and the type of volcano composie volcano. Then it would explod and ash spring out and explod with lava. They have a viscoscity scale if that hapenned that would be on the top. A one that is in the center of the scale. That one would do and make a little ash and lava. The little tiny one the bottom of the scale. That one would do tiny ash and tiny lava not a lot of damage. When all the ash and lava dry they become soild and hard.
Next i will tell you how weird they are. First they pump magma from the core of the earth. If you feel it you will get burened and die. Which is not fun so do not touch it. It is harmful. But if you feel the volcano it is just dirt and if you taste it you will die again. If you do taste the volcano it will just taste like dirt and nasty. You can not hear anything from the lava and the real volcano. Also if you look at it i will look like orange and red. If you look at the real volcano and you will just look at it you will see it doing nothing.
One hot and steamy night, I was outside playing with my friend when all of a sudden the sky lit up with the most spectacular light show I’ve ever seen. There were vivid colors of bright white, and light and dark blues flashing in the night sky, as quickly as I could blink my eye. It was as though the sun peaked out at night. A loud roar that sounded like a gigantic mountain had hit the ground where I was playing filled my ringing ears. That huge mountain must have crumbled into tiny little pieces because there was a lingering cracking sound that seemed to last for ever. As my scrunched and blinking eyes searched the sky I saw crooked and zigzag lines mark the dark sky with a flash of fury. I scattered as fast as a frightened mouse searching for shelter from a hungry cat. Before I caught my breath, it happened all over again.
I learned that lightning kills about 2000 people each year. Each lightning bolt can have up to one billion volts of electricity. Lightning is an electrical discharge that is caused by an imbalance between positive and negative charges. When there is a storm, particles of rain, ice, or snow that collide with each other increase this imbalance and negatively charge the lower part of storm clouds. Then, objects on the ground, like steeples, trees, and the earth become positively charged. It creates an imbalance that nature corrects by passing current between the two charges.
Some ways to stay safe during lightning is not to take a bath or shower. Do not talk on a land line telephone, or use any electrical appliance like a dish washer, television, or computer. If you are outside, stay away from tall objects like trees. Go inside of a grounded building, or a car. If there are no grounded shelters around, find the lowest area the crunch down. Do not lie on the ground because the current of lightning often travels along the ground. Lightning is like a natural light show, but it is very dangerous. Don’t be like Benjamin Franklin and take the risk of getting shocked by lightning. In all I LOVE a good lightning storm!
TSUNAMIS Tsunamis are the worst kind of wave you will EVER see in your lifetime. Tsunamis are waves that build up its speed and height and crash down with its destructive terror. About 80% of tsunamis happen within the Pacific Ocean’s “Ring of Fire”. They can be caused by underwater landslides and volcanic eruptions. Tsunamis are as fast as a jet airplane flying in the sky. At first a wave might be a foot high but when it gets closer to the shorelines it builds up energy and height it turns into a tsunami and its all downhill from there. They also are gigantic waves that terrify people with its death-defying horror. Tsunamis are a really bad kind of wave. You never want to come across one. I learned that about 80% of tsunamis happen within the Pacific Ocean’s “Ring of Fire”. And that they can be caused by underwater land slides or eruptions. Also that a tsunami can be up to 500mph. And that when a tsunami is forming the top half is faster than the bottom half and that’s all I learned about tsunamis.
Tsunamis are the worst kind of wave you will EVER see in your lifetime. Tsunamis are waves that build up its speed and height and crash down with its destructive terror. About 80% of tsunamis happen within the Pacific Ocean’s “Ring of Fire”. They can be caused by underwater landslides and volcanic eruptions. Tsunamis are as fast as a jet airplane flying in the sky. At first a wave might be a foot high but when it gets closer to the shorelines it builds up energy and height it turns into a tsunami and its all downhill from there. They also are gigantic waves that terrify people with its death-defying horror. Tsunamis are a really bad kind of wave. You never want to come across one. I learned that about 80% of tsunamis happen within the Pacific Ocean’s “Ring of Fire”. And that they can be caused by underwater land slides or eruptions. Also that a tsunami can be up to 500mph. And that when a tsunami is forming the top half is faster than the bottom half and that’s all I learned about tsunamis.
Lightning strikes one place more than once. Each bolt of lightning has one billion volts. 2000 people are killed each year by lightning each year. Lightning can be 5 times hotter than the sun. Negative and positive charges are in a volt of lightning. 100 strikes of lightning strike every second. When lightning hits a car, it travels right to the wheels. Lightning can blow a tree a part. When a bolt of lightning hits a house, it is grounded. Lightning races to the ground at 200,000 mph.
WHAT I KNEW: Earthquakes most happen where plates meet.An earthquake is when part of the earth splits .It feels like an large truck is driving by.They can bring down
homes, stores and other things.
WHAT I LEARNED:An earthquake is when the earth splits.There are 4 kinds of earthquakes.1 is a normal fault. 2 is a reverse fault 3 is strike-slip fault.And last 4 is a dip-slip fault.All these are different earthquakes. Scientist today can find where the earthquake began with a SEISMOGRAPHS. They find were the earthquake began by drawing a line on a paper in the ground.And this is what I learned!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The catastrophe that I chose was lightning. Lightning is spectacular yet very dangerous. What makes lightning so spectacular are the jagged, bright flashes. The flashing bolts light up the night sky during summer. The bolt is a long vertical strike from the clouds to the ground. One dangerous thing about lightning is, it can strike trees and start bursting in flames. Lightning does not only strike objects it can also strike people. The bolts that strike always appear in the night sky. Lightning bolts can strike any where at any time. Lightning is very dazzling and dangerous.
Some facts about lightning are: lightning can strike twice in the same spot, about 100 bolts of lightning strike the earth’s surface every second, and a bolt of lightning can contain up to a billion volts of electric. The bolt is caused by an imbalance between positive and negative charges. During a storm, colliding particles of precipitation increase this imbalance. A stepped ladder is a series of negative charges. The stepped ladder works its way incrementally downward from the bottom of a storm cloud toward the earth. Each segment is about 150 ft. long. When the lowest step comes within 46 meters of a positively charged bolt it is met by a climbing surge of positive electricity called a streamer. A type of lightning is ball lightning. Ball lightning is a small charged sphere that floats, glows, and bounces along the laws of gravity and physics (this still puzzles scientists). Therefore, these are the facts about lightning that I know of, so have fun learning!
Lightning
Lightning is very dangerous and very spectacular. Lightning is a step like series of negative charges. Lightning can and often dose strike the same place twice especially tall buildings and tall mountaintops. There are many different forms of lightning. Some types of lightning including most common types never leave the clouds but travel between differently charged areas within and between clouds. Over two thousand people are killed world wide by lightning a year. Hundreds more survive strikes but suffers form a variety of lasting symptoms, including memory lost, dizziness, weakness, numbness, and other life-altering ailments. Lightning is extreme hot one bolt of lightning can heat the space around it five times hotter than the suns surface.
What I learned
• Over two thousand people are killed are from lightning and some people survives strikes by lightning.
• There are different forms of lightning
• One bolt of lightning makes the area as hot as the sun
Earthquakes cause the earth to move and buildings to fall. Everything shakes and you don’t know why. Everything moves even things that never moved before and are not supposed to move. You don’t know where to run or where is safe. But, I believe there are different levels of earthquakes. Plates in the earth shift and send shockwaves through the ground. Many earthquakes are too weak to be felt. Big quakes however, can destroy cities.
An earthquake is when the earth splits. There are 4 kinds of earthquakes. One is a normal fault. The second is a reverse fault. The third is a strike-slip fault. And last is a dip-slip fault. All these are different types of earthquakes. Scientist today can find the time line of an earthquake and the intensity of the quake using SEISMOGRAPHS. The most deadly earthquake was in China where 83,000 people died. Each year approximately 10,000 people die on average because of earthquakes.
Tornadoes
Tornadoes are one of the deadliest storms in the USA. You may also call them twisters. These twisters can be very dangerous and can kill many people. They can reach up to 250 mph, at this rate it could rip every thing in the way. It also depends on how big it is because if is very small, even though it is at a high speed it could do such little damage compared to what a big tornado at 1.6 miles wide and has 250 mph wind speed could do .That could cause 10 times more damage than the small ones.
Tornadoes are a destructive whirlwind that goes over parts of land. They are a violent column of wind which descends from a thunderstorm to the ground. They usually don’t come in a pair of four. You may mix hurricanes up with tornadoes and say they are alike but they are vey different.
Tornadoes
Tornadoes are one of the deadliest storms in the USA. You may also call them twisters. These twisters can be very dangerous and can kill many people. They can reach up to 250 mph, at this rate it could rip every thing in the way. It also depends on how big it is because if is very small, even though it is at a high speed it could do such little damage compared to what a big tornado at 1.6 miles wide and has 250 mph wind speed could do .That could cause 10 times more damage than the small ones.
Tornadoes are a destructive whirlwind that goes over parts of land. They are a violent column of wind which descends from a thunderstorm to the ground. They usually don’t come in a pair of four. You may mix hurricanes up with tornadoes and say they are alike but they are vey different.
Tornadoes are one of the deadliest storms in the USA. You may also call them twisters. These twisters can be very dangerous and can kill many people. They can reach up to 250 mph, at this rate it could rip every thing in the way. It also depends on how big it is because if is very small, even though it is at a high speed it could do such little damage compared to what a big tornado at 1.6 miles wide and has 250 mph wind speed could do .That could cause 10 times more damage than the small ones.
Tornadoes are a destructive whirlwind that goes over parts of land. They are a violent column of wind which descends from a thunderstorm to the ground. They usually don’t come in a pair of four. You may mix hurricanes up with tornadoes and say they are alike but they are very different.
LIGHTNING
October 9, 2008
Lightning is a horrible, but amazing thing. It kills about 2,000 people each year! Hundreds more survive the terrifying shock. It’s wonderful and miraculous that they survive, but they usually suffer from life lasting symptoms such as memory loss, dizziness, and numbness. You probably understand that was the horrible part, but the amazing part is, that lightning can strike 100 times in one second!
Lightning is caused by positive and negative discharges. The negative charges move down towards earth from the clouds. Positive electricity rises up through anything. It can go up through buildings, trees, even people! You know the saying,” lightning never strikes the same place twice?” Well, Scientist have proved that lightning actually can, and does strike the same place twice. Lightning is very hot. It is so hot, that one strike can make the sky five times hotter than the sun’s surface. That high level of heat causes the air to expand, which makes that terribly horrifying crash we call thunder.
You may think that the only kind of lightning is the kind that looks like string flashing in the sky, but you would be wrong! Scientist have discovered a different type of lightning. It is called ball lightning. Ball lightning is a small spherical ball of lightning that bounces around oblivious to the laws of gravity and physics. It floats, and it grows. Scientists still don’t know how it’s caused. Lightning can be made by many different things such as forest fires, volcanic eruptions, even snow storms! So, overall lightning can be horrible, amazing, and kind of confusing.
A tornado is a violent rotating column of air that extends from a thunderstorm to the ground. The sky is often dark and greenish before this happens. Black storm clouds gather and baseball size hail may fall. A funnel suddenly appears from the cloud. Then the tornado hits the ground and rushes forward with the sound of a train.
The tornado tears through everything in it's way. They are one of the earth's MOST DANGEROUS weather events. Nearly a thousand tornadoes occur every year,the most dangerous come from SUPERCELLS,big storms that already have swirling winds. Most tornadoes in the USA are locaded in TORNADO ALLEY. It is a path of land that stretches from Texas to Nebraska. Tornado season begins in early spring for the states along the Gulf of Mexico.
Hi Mrs. Perry,
I am practicing posting a comment so that I may complete my natural catastrophe project and post it tonight.
For an American, the chance of being struck by lightning is approximately 576,000 to 1 and the chance of actually being killed by lightning is approximately 2,320,000 to 1. Lightning can also occur within the ash clouds from volcanic eruptions. Large volcanic eruptions, which eject gases and material high into the atmosphere, can trigger lightning.
Benjamin Franklin tested the theory that sparks shared some similarity with lightning using a spire which was being built in Philadelphia. While waiting for completion of the spire he got the idea to use a kite with a metal key tied to it. He was not the first to perform the kite experiment. There where a lot of other people too. Like Tomas Edison. Lightning can be up to 1,000,000.000 volts per strike. Lightning is a highly visible form of energy transfer. The two most frequently struck tree types are the oak and the elm. Lightning produces thunder, and the volume of the thunder depends on how far away it is. If lightning is far, it will make a rumble of thunder. If the lightning is close, it will sound like a loud crackle. In the United States from 1980 through 1995, 1318 deaths were attributed to lightning.
What I Learned
Sap is a poor conductor of lightning and that is why trees split when they get hit.
Lightning can be up to 1,000,000.000 volts per strike
That lightning makes thunder.
Volcanic eruptions can also make lightning.
So lightning can be very dangers
So be careful
Tornadoes
Tornadoes are fast spinning columns of air that are associated with thunderstorms. Its usually portended with greenish and dark sky. Dark storm clouds my gather around and if the storm is bad baseball hail could fall over you! Some disasters that are like tornadoes are water spouts and dust devils. Water spouts are weak twisters that form over warm water and mostly moves inland. On th other hand dust devils are fast rotating columns that are never associated with thunderstorms.
Things that I learned are that the most destructive tornadoes come from things called super cells. Also most tornadoes happen in a place called tornado alley which is located from Texas to Nebraska. Tornado season starts in early spring and did you know the most violent tornadoes happen in April. So those are some things I learned while researching.
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