Natural Hazards: Earth’s Processes as Hazards, Disasters, and Catastrophes

733 Pages·2014·54.65 MB·English

by  Edward A. Keller

NATURAL HAZARDS

Fourth Edition
Natural Hazards
Earth’s Processes as Hazards, Disasters, and Catastrophes
Edward A. Keller
University of California, Santa Barbara
Duane E. DEVecchio
University of California, Santa Barbara
with assistance from
Robert H. Blodgett
First published 2015, 2012, 2009, 2006 by Pearson Education, Inc.
Published 2016 by Routledge
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ISBN 9780321939968 (pbk)
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Keller, Edward A., 1942-
Natural hazards : earth’s processes as hazards, disasters, and catastrophes /
Edward A. Keller, University of California, Santa Barbara; Duane E. DeVecchio,
University of California, Santa Barbara; with assistance from
Robert H. Blodgett. — Fourth Edition.
pages cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-321-93996-8
1. Natural disasters. I. DeVecchio, Duane E. (Duane Edward), 1970- II. Blodgett, Robert H., 1951- III. Title.
II. Blodgett, Robert H., 1951- III. Title.
GB5014.K45 2014
551—dc23
2013048286
To Valery Rivera-Keller, who recognized early on the importance of writing about hazards and encouraged me to write the first edition.
E.A.K.
For the victims of the 2011 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami, and Hurricane Sandy in 2012, may the lessons learned from your tragic losses illuminate a path for a world that is more scientifically aware and safe
from the natural hazards that confront humans, such that no people should have to endure the hardship that you have survived.
D.E.D.
About the Authors
Edward A. Keller
Ed Keller is a professor, researcher, writer, and most importantly, mentor and teacher to undergraduate and graduate students. Ed's students are currently
working on earthquake hazards, how waves of sediment move through a river system following a disturbance, and geologic controls on habitat to
endangered southern steel-head trout.
Ed was born and raised in California. He received bachelor's degrees in geology and mathematics from California State University at Fresno and a
master's degree in geology from the University of California at Davis. It was while pursuing his Ph.D. in geology from Purdue University in 1973 that Ed
wrote the first edition of Environmental Geology, a text that became the foundation of an environmental geology curriculum in many colleges and
universities. He joined the faculty of the University of California at Santa Barbara in 1976 and has been there ever since, serving multiple times as chair of
both the Environmental Studies and Hydrologic Science programs. In that time he has been an author on more than 100 articles, including seminal works on
fluvial processes and tectonic geomorphology. Ed's academic honors include the Don J. Easterbrook Distinguished Scientist Award, Geological Society of
America (2004); the Quatercentenary Fellowship from Cambridge University, England (2000); two Outstanding Alumnus Awards from Purdue University
(1994, 1996); a Distinguished Alumnus Award from California State University at Fresno (1998); and the Outstanding Outreach Award from the Southern
California Earthquake Center (1999).
Ed and his wife Valery, who brings clarity to his writing, love walks on the beach at sunset and when the night herons guard moonlight sand at Arroyo
Burro Beach in Santa Barbara.
Duane E. Devecchio
Duane DeVecchio is a research professor in the School of Earth and Space Exploration at Arizona State University. During his graduate studies at Idaho State
University, where he earned a master's of science degree, and at the University of California at Santa Barbara, where he completed his dissertation, Duane
devoted a significant amount of time to becoming an effective communicator of science. He is a passionate teacher and feels strongly that students need to
develop critical thinking skills, which will enable them to analyze and interpret data presented in graphs and tables from various sources. This is particularly
important today, when the Internet and cable television offer accessibility to vast amounts of information, yet the validity of this information is often
questionable or misleading. Integrating data from current and relevant research into core curriculum to illustrate the methodology and rigor of scientific
investigations is essential to his teaching strategy.
Duane has a broad field-based background in the geological sciences and likes to share stories about his many months living alone in mobile trailers in
the mountains and deserts so he could study rocks and landforms for his research. For his master's degree and postmaster's research he conducted structural
and stratigraphic analyses as well as numerical dating of volcanic and volcaniclastic rocks in southeastern Idaho and the central Mojave Desert of California,
which record the Miocene depositional and extensional histories of these regions. Duane's dissertation and current research focus on the timing and rates of
change of Earth's surface due to depositional and erosional processes that result from climate change and tectonics. When Duane is not teaching or
conducting research, he enjoys hang gliding, rock climbing, whitewater rafting, snowboarding, and camping with his partner Christy.
Brief Contents
1 Introduction to Natural Hazards
2 Internal Structure of Earth and Plate Tectonics
3 Earthquakes
4 Tsunamis
5 Volcanoes
6 Flooding
7 Mass Wasting
8 Subsidence and Soils
9 Atmospheric Processes and Severe Weather
10 Hurricanes and Extratropical Cyclones
11 Coastal Hazards
12 Climate and Climate Change
13 Wildfires
14 Impacts and Extinctions
Contents
Preface
1 Introduction to Natural Hazards
1.1 Why Studying Natural Hazards Is Important
Processes: Internal and External
Hazard, Disaster, or Catastrophe
Death and Damage Caused by Natural Hazards
1.2 Role of History in Understanding Hazards
1.3 The Geologic Cycle
The Tectonic Cycle
The Rock Cycle
The Hydrologic Cycle
Biogeochemical Cycles
1.4 Fundamental Concepts for Understanding
Natural Processes as Hazards
Science and Natural Hazards
1 Science helps us predict hazards.
Hazards Are Natural Processes
Forecast, Prediction, and Warning of Hazardous Events
2 Knowing hazard risks can help people make decisions.
3 Linkages exist between natural hazards.
4 Humans can turn disastrous events into catastrophes.
Examples of Disasters in Densely Populated Areas
Population Growth as a Factor in Hazards
Magnitude and Frequency of Hazardous Events
5 Consequences of hazards can be minimized.
Reactive Response: Impact of and Recovery from
Disasters
Anticipatory Response: Avoiding and Adjusting to
Hazards
CASE STUDY 1.1 Professional Profile: Professor Robert
Bea, University of California, Berkeley
1.5 Many Hazards Provide a Natural Service
Function
1.6 Global Climate Change and Hazards
Concepts in Review
Critical Thinking Questions
2 Internal Structure of Earth
and Plate Tectonics
2.1 Internal Structure of Earth
2.2 Plate Tectonics
Movement of the Tectonic Plates
Types of Plate Boundaries
Rates of Plate Motion
2.3 A Detailed Look at Seafloor Spreading
Paleomagnetism
Hot Spots
2.4 Pangaea and Present Continents
2.5 How Plate Tectonics Works: Putting It
Together
2.6 Plate Tectonics and Hazards
Concepts in Review
Critical Thinking Questions