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Flashcards by fayehollister98, updated more than 1 year ago
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Created by fayehollister98
over 9 years ago
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| Question | Answer |
| Hazard | A natural event that has the potential to threaten both life and property |
| Event | A natural occurrence that does not affect people |
| Disaster | Most powerful event with significant damage to property and life i.e. high deaths |
| Hydro-meteorological Hazard | A hazard resulting from atmospheric or hydrological processes e.g. Cyclone |
| Geophysical Hazard | A hazard resulting from geological (rock) or geomorphological (land) processes e..g. Volcanic Eruption |
| Disaster Risk Equation | Frequency or magnitude of a hazard x Level of vulnerability / Capacity to cope |
| Risk | The probability of a hazard event occurring and creating loss of lives and livelihoods |
| Vulnerability | How at risk or exposed you are to a bad situation i.e. living on a flood plain |
| Capacity to Cope | The ability or inability to be able to deal with a bad situation |
| Magnitude | The size of the event e.g. An Earthquake on the Richter Scale |
| Frequency | How often an event of a certain magnitude occurs and it's recurrence interval |
| El Niño | A continually oscillating climatic pattern. It is a natural event that occurs irregularly every 5-7 years |
| La Niña | An extreme normal year that is the reverse of El Niño |
| ENSO | El Niño Southern Oscillation |
| Population | The amount of people living in a set area/region |
| Urbanisation | The social process whereby cities grow and societies become more urban |
| Land degradation/deforestation | Where the value of the biophysical environment is affected by human activities e.g. Removal of trees |
| Volcano | A mountain or hill, typically conical, that has a crater through which lava, rock fragments, hot vapour, and gas are erupted from the earth's crust. |
| Active Volcano | A Volcano that has had at least one eruption in the last 10,000 years |
| Dormant Volcano | A dormant volcano is an active volcano that is not erupting, but supposed to erupt again in the future |
| Extinct Volcano | A volcano that has not had an eruption for at least 10,000 years and is not expected to erupt again in the future. |
| Earthquake | A sudden violent shaking of the ground, as a result of movements within the earth's crust |
| Epicentre | The point on the earth's surface vertically above the focus of an earthquake. |
| Focus | The point of origin of an earthquake |
| Plate Tectonics | A theory explaining the structure of the earth's lithosphere and the motion of the different plates |
| Constructive Boundary | Where the plates move apart due to convection currents inside the earth. Volcanoes are formed as magma wells up to fill the gap, and eventually erupts e.g. Mid Atlantic Ridge |
| Destructive Margin | Where the plates are moving towards each other, usually involving a continental plate and an oceanic plate |
| Subduction Zone | The point at which subduction happens: where the oceanic plate is denser than the continental plate and so as they move together, it becomes sunducted under the continental plate |
| Conservative margin | Where the plates slide past each other in opposite directions, building up pressure which is eventually released as shock waves, producing an Earthquake e.g. San Andreas Fault |
| Oceanic Plate | A tectonic plate which lies underneath the ocean and consists mainly of Basalt rock |
| Continental Plate | A plate which lies underneath surface land made up of granite rock |
| Continental Drift | The theory of the gradual movement of the continents across the earth's surface through geological time. |
| Tsunami | A long, high sea wave triggered by an earthquake out at sea |
| Landslide | A collapse of a mass of earth or rock from a mountain or cliff |
| Avalanche | Both a hydrometeorological and geophysical hazard where a mass of snow, ice, and rocks descend rapidly down a mountainside |
| Flood | A hydro-meteorological hazard where there is an overflow of a large amount of water beyond its normal limits, over what is normally dry land, e.g. extensive rainfall, tsunami, hurricane |
| Monsoon | A seasonal prevailing wind in the region of Southern Asia and the Indian Ocean, bringing rain from the south-west in the summer (May-Sep) and from the north-east in the winter (Oct-April) |
| Hurricane/Cyclone | A large tropical storm with wind strengths exceeding 74 mph according to the Beaufort Scale |
| Drought | A prolonged period of abnormally low rainfall, leading to a shortage of water |
| Inter-tropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) | A narrow zone near the equator where northern and southern air masses converge, typically producing low atmospheric pressure |
| Disaster Hotspot | An area/region which is exposed to two or more hazards, they are likely to be where plate boundaries intersect |
| Context Hazard | Hazards that have widespread effects with the potential to affect the entire planet e.g. Climate Change |
| Chronic Hazard | A hazard that is ongoing and may increase the likelihood of other hazard events occurring i.e. Global Warming, El Niño/La Niña |
| Climate Change | Variations in the earth's average atmospheric temperature (both up and down) |
| Greenhouse Effect | The warming of the Earth's atmosphere due to the trapping of heat that would otherwise be radiated back into space, enabling the survival of life on Earth |
| Enhanced Greenhouse effect | When the levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere increase due to human activity i.e. Burning fossil fuels, using CFCs |
| Global Warming | A recently measured rise in the average surface temperature of the planet |
| Greenhouse gas | A gas that contributes to the greenhouse effect by absorbing infra-red radiation i.e. Carbon Dioxide, Methane, Nitrous Oxide, Water Vapour |
| Fossil Fuel | Energy sources that are rich in carbon and which release carbon dioxide when burnt e.g. Coal |
| Little Ice Age | A cool period in Europe (possibly Globally) where the climate peaked -0.5 below average temp and in which many Alpine glaciers advanced, from around 1400-1850 |
| Medieval Warm Period | A period of unusually warm North Atlantic Climate, where temperatures peaked at +0.3 above average temperature, from around 800-1400 |
| Thermal Expansion | The increased volume of the oceans as a result of their higher water temperature, leading to sea-level rise (it accounted for about 60% of sea-level rise in the late 20th century) |
| Milankovitch cycles | A diagram which suggests the theory of Astronomical forcing, referring to long term variations in the orbit of the Earth, which result in changes in climate over 100,000 years |
| Interglacial Period | A period of warmer global average temperatures, between consecutive glacial periods, lasting thousands of years within an ice age. |
| Glacial Period | A period of cooler temperatures and glacier advances, over thousands of years within an ice age, where polar and mountain ice sheets were unusually extensive across the earth's surface |
| Sunspot | Dark spots that appear on the surface of the sun caused by intense magnetic storms, they determine the amount of solar radiation emitted to the earth |
| Albedo | The amount of solar radiation reflected by a surface, light surfaces have a high albedo (reflect the most) i.e. ice, dark surfaces have a low albedo (absorb the light) i.e. sea |
| Climate Forcing | Any mechanism that alters the global energy balance and forces the climate to change in response |
| Feedback Mechanism | Where the output of a system acts to amplify (positive) or reduce (negative) further output i.e. melting of Arctic permafrost leads to the release of trapped methane, causing further Global Warming |
| Global Dimming | A decrease in the amount of sunlight reaching the surface of the earth, believed to be caused by pollution in the atmosphere from human activities |
| Anthropogenic cause | The proportion of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere that is produced directly by human activities, such as the burning of fossil fuels |
| Ice Core | An ice core is a core sample that is typically removed from an ice sheet, to test long term climate change, i.e. from the polar ice caps of Antarctica, Greenland |
| Tree Rings | Visible when a tree is cross-sectioned and used to investigate medium term Climate Change - many trees are sensitive to changes in temperature, the thickness of the annual growth ring records climatic conditions |
| Proxy Records | Data that helps us reconstruct the climate before the start of instrumental records i.e. paintings, diaries, poems |
| Eustatic Change | Change in sea level due to the change in the amount of water in the oceans |
| Isostatic Change | Movement of land in response to loss or gain of mass e.g. melting ice sheets leads to uplift |
| Tipping Point | The point at which a system switches from one state to another, reached when climate change occurs irreversibly and at an increasing rate - certain level of GH emissions (450ppm C02), temp rise of 2°C |
| Thermohaline Circulation System/Ocean Conveyor Belt | A global system of surface and deep-water ocean currents, driven by differences in temperature and salinity, between areas of the oceans |
| Carbon Sinks | a natural or artificial reservoir that accumulates and stores carbon. Public awareness of the significance of CO2 sinks has grown since passage of the Kyoto Protocol, which promotes their use as a form of carbon offset |
| Environmental Refugees | People who have been forced to leave their habitat temporarily or permanently, because of a marked environmental disruption (natural or triggered by people) that jeopardizes their existence and/or the quality of their life |
| Ecosystem | A biological community of interacting organisms and their physical environment |
| Habitat | The natural home or environment of an animal, plant, or other organism |
| Permafrost | Permanently frozen ground i.e. Arctic permafrost |
| Tundra | A vast, flat, treeless Arctic region of Europe, Asia, and North America in which the subsoil is permanently frozen. |
| Tree line | The line or altitude on a mountain above which no trees grow |
| Boreal Forest | A subarctic area of northern Eurasia and North America located just south of the tundra and covered largely with coniferous forests |
| Indigenous People | Native groups especially protected in international or national legislation as having a set of specific rights based on their historical ties to a particular territory, and their cultural or historical distinctiveness from other populations |
| Carbon Cycle | The series of processes by which carbon compounds are inter-converted in the environment i.e. Burning of Fossil Fuels |
| Desertification | The process by which fertile land becomes desert, typically as a result of drought, deforestation, or inappropriate agriculture |
| Vector-borne Disease | Infectious diseases transmitted into the human body by insects i.e. Ticks, Mosquitos |
| Water-borne Disease | Diseases transmitted into the human body from drinking contaminated water which contains pathogenic microorganisms |
| Food Security | The state of having reliable access to a sufficient quantity of affordable, nutritious food |
| Cash Crop | A crop produced for its commercial value rather than for use by the grower |
| Intergovernmental Panel of Climate Change (IPCC) | Apart of the UN and discusses scientific issues related to human induced climate change and its impacts, and the options of Mitigation/Adaptation |
| Adaptation | A strategy to cope with climate change by changing our lifestyles to cope with a new environment rather than trying to stop it e.g. managed retreat policy, drought-resistant crops |
| Mitigation | A strategy to cope with climate change that means reducing the output of greenhouse gases and increasing the size of greenhouse gas sinks e.g. Carbon 'capturing', using renewable energy sources - wind power |
| Carbon Footprint | The amount of carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere as a result of the activities of a particular individual, organization, or community |
| International treaty - Kyoto Protocol | An agreement under national law to set targets to reduce each countries output of greenhouse gas emissions |
| Sustainable Development | Development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs |
| Renewable Energy | Energy from a source that is not depleted when used and instead replaced naturally, e.g. wind or solar power |
| Conservatism | A general preference for the existing order of society, and an opposition to efforts to bring about sharp change |
| Biofuels | Fuels that are extracted from plants and do not pollute as much to the environment e.g. Ethanol |
| Adaptive Capacity | The extent to which a system can cope with climate change, in human systems it depends on available human, physical and financial resources |
| Climate Vulnerability | The degree to which a natural or human system is unable to cope with climate change. Vulnerability is a result of the magnitude of the change, its speed of onset, the sensitivity of the system and its adaptive capacity |
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