Natural Disasters: Types, Causes and Effects

Natural disasters are catastrophic and hazardous resulting in massive environmental destruction. On average, over 300 natural disasters occur every year costing millions of lives and billions of properties. Historically natural disasters have been caused by Earth’s natural processes but lately, humans have been a significant participant in these causes. Increasing global warming and climate changes are causing frequent cyclones and heat waves, resulting in human and capital loss on a wide scale.

Key Terms: Disasters, Earth, Volcanoes Earthquakes, Floods, Drought, Environment, Geological, Hydrological, Cyclones, Four Spheres of Earth

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What are Natural Disasters?

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When natural agents such as earthquakes, floods and droughts have an abnormally high intensity and capability of causing damage and destruction, they are termed natural disasters. A few points about these natural disasters:

• They bring severe disturbances to a community’s or society’s functioning.
• It is beyond one community’s ability to cope with them using available resources.
• They are majorly frequent in nature such as wildfires and cause widespread destruction.
• They are caused by a number of factors such as anthropogenic or natural. 

Natural Disasters

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Types of Natural Disasters

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Broadly, natural disasters are divided into four groups:

• Geological Disasters
• Hydrological Disasters
• Meteorological Disasters
• Biological Disasters

Types of Natural Disasters

Each of the above-mentioned types of natural disasters is individually discussed below.

Geological Disasters

Disasters that occur as a result of geological changes, i.e., changes in Earth, are known as geological disasters. 

Example: Earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. Both of them occur due to the movement of tectonic plates.

Hydrological Disasters

Disasters that occur due to the changes in distribution, quality or movement of water either below the surface or up in the atmosphere, are called hydrological disasters.

Example: Tsunami which is caused by underwater earthquakes or volcanic eruptions.

Meteorological Disasters

Disasters that occur due to meteorological changes, i.e., changes in weather, such as rain, temperature and wind, are termed meteorological disasters. Particularly, these cause severe damage to the environment. 

Example: Cyclones, hurricanes, droughts and tornadoes, etc

Biological Disasters

Disasters that occur due to biological threats such as an infectious disease that can harm a large chunk of the population, are known as biological disasters. 

Example: SARS Covid 19, AIDS, etc.

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Causes of Natural Disasters

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There are two types of causes of natural disasters which are as follows. 

• Natural Causes: Mainly natural phenomena are responsible for natural disasters. These phenomena could be the movement of tectonic plates or extreme weather conditions.
• Man-made Causes: Human activities over the years have been responsible for many disasters due to their negligence and unsustainable habits. Increasing global warming and rapid loss of groundwater are such examples.

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Effects of Natural Disasters

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Natural disasters leave long-lasting effects behind them. A few of them are mentioned below.

• Short-term consequences of such disasters are a human and capital loss.
• Long-term consequences of natural disasters could be a country’s damaged economy.
• Many diseases spread in such disaster-hit areas and many new are born.
• Frequent disasters also cause migration. 

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Examples of Natural Disasters

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Over the years, we have seen many disasters, some causing more extreme harm than others. A few very catastrophic disasters are mentioned below.

• In 1970, an avalanche in Peru killed almost 20,000 people.
• In 1998, landslides in Uttarakhand, India caused havoc. An entire village was wiped out.
• In 79 AD, a volcanic eruption from Mount Vesuvius in Italy releases 100,000 times more thermal energy than the Hiroshima-Nagasaki bombings.
• In 2011, a tsunami hit the pacific coast of Japan, killing over 18,000 people.

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Things to Remember

• Natural disasters are natural processes but with abnormally high intensity.
• There are broadly four types of natural disasters; geological, hydrological, meteorological and biological.
• Earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, cyclones and tornadoes, all are examples of natural disasters.
• Natural disasters can be caused by both, natural as well as man-made causes. 
• Natural disasters can cause widespread destruction including mass human killings.

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