Disaster Fun Facts



Tornado

  • Each year, about a thousand tornadoes touch down in the United States, far more than any other country.
  • The United States have an average of 800 tornadoes every year.
  • Waterspouts are tornadoes that form over a body of water.
  • A strong tornado can pick up a house and move it down the block.
  • Nebraska, South Dakota, Oklahoma, Texas and Kansas make up Tornado alley, where tornadoes strike regularly in the spring and early summer.
  • Many houses in tornado alley have strong basement shelters.
  • Knives and forks flung from a tornado have been found embedded in tree trunks.
  • Usually a tornado starts off as a white or gray cloud but if it stays around for a while, the dirt and debris it sucks up eventually turns it into black one.
  • 3 out of every 4 tornadoes in the world happen in the United States.
  • Thunderstorms most likely to give birth to Tornadoes are called supercells.
  • Tornado winds are the fastest winds on Earth.
  • A Tornado in Oklahoma once destroyed a whole motel. People later found the motel’s sign in Arkansas.
  • A Tornado can sometimes hop along its path. It can destroy one house and leave the house next door untouched.
  • In 1928, a tornado in Kansas plucked the feathers right off of some chickens.
  • Usually, a tornado’s color matches the color of the ground.
  • Some tornadoes make a considerable amount of noise while others make very little. It depends on the objects a tornado might hit or carry. A tornado moving along an open plain may make very little noise.
  • Some people think the crop circles in the UK are the result of weak whirlwinds. About 60 of these small tornadoes are formed every year in Britain.
  • An EF-5 tornado has winds over 200 miles per hour. That’s as fast as a NASCAR.
  • Oklahoma City has been struck by tornadoes about 32 times in the past 90 years.
  • In Texas, a mother huddled in an inside closet with six children. A tornado ripped off the roof of their house, tore down one wall and destroyed their garage. But none of the seven people in the closet were scratched.
  • In 1931, a tornado in Minnesota lifted an 83-ton railroad train with 117 passengers and carried it for 80 feet.
  • In Mississippi, a mother and her daughter sought shelter in their bathtub. After the tornado hit, the bathroom was the only room left.
  • One town, Codell, Kansas, was struck three times: In 1916, 1917 and 1918—each time on May 20.

Winter Storm

  • Snow forms when water vapor in the atmosphere freezes into ice crystals.
  • Snow is a form of precipitation; other forms of precipitation are rain, hail and sleet.
  • Light and fluffy snow is often called ‘powder’.
  • Heavy snowfalls are often called ‘snowstorms’.
  • Snowstorms with high winds are often called ‘blizzards’.
  • Snow reflects a high level of ultraviolet radiation and can cause snow blindness (photokeratitis). Sunglasses, goggles and other eye protection help absorb/reflect the ultraviolet rays.
  • A number of winter sports rely on snow, including skiing and snowboarding.
  • Recreational activities such as snowball fights, tobogganing and making snowmen are also popular in the snow.
  • Skis, sleds and snowmobiles are useful transport options through snow.
  • Snow can lower visibility, making driving conditions dangerous.
  • The highest snowfall ever recorded in a one year period was 31.1 meters (1224 inches) in Mount Rainier, Washington State, United States, between February 19, 1971 and February 18, 1972.
  • The lowest temperature in the United States was -79.8°F (-62.1C) at Prospect Creek Camp in the Endicott Mountains of northern Alaska on January 23, 1971.
  • Outside from Alaska, the coldest U.S. temperature was -69.7°F (56.5°C) in Rogers Pass, Montana, January 20, 1954.
  • One storm, from February 13-19, 1959, dumped 189 inches of snow at Mt. Shasta Ski Bowl, California.
  • The greatest snowfall in 24 hours in the United States was at Silver Lake, Colorado, on April 14-15, 1921: 75.8 inches.
  • The most snow in the United States in one month—390 inches (32.5 feet) fell at Tamarack, California, in January 1911.
  • In the winter of 1971-72, 93.5 feet (1,122 inches) of snow fell at the Rainier Paradise Ranger Station in the state of Washington.
  • In the Antarctic, there is a 30-30-30 rule. When the temperature is 30 below, and the wind is 30 miles per hour, a person can live only 30 minutes outside.
  • During the winter, you often hear the term “wind chill.” Wind combined with cold air makes your body feel even colder than the actual temperature. You get that feeling when you get out of the pool or ocean in the summer. In winter, wind chill can be dangerous.
  • When the outside temperature is zero degrees and the wind speed is 20 miles per hour; the wind chill makes it feel like 22 degrees below zero. Exposed skin will freeze in less than 30 minutes.

Rain & Floods

  • Raindrops are much smaller than we think! They are actually smaller than a centimeter. Raindrops range from 1/100 inch (.0254 centimeter) to 1/4 inch (.635 centimeter) in diameter.
  • Not including wind-driven rain, raindrops fall between 7 and 18 miles per hour (3 and 8 meters per second) in still air. The range in speed depends on the size of the raindrop. Air friction breaks up raindrops when they exceed 18 miles per hour.
  • A mere 2 feet of water can float a large vehicle or even a bus. Just 6 inches of rapidly moving flood water can knock a person down.
  • Natural flooding of river plains and deltas each year is essential for farming in many areas of the world as the waters bring nutrient rich silt deposits that create very fertile alluvial soils.
  • Many ancient communities relied heavily on the annual flooding of floodplain valleys on rivers such as The Tigris-Euphrates, the Nile, and the Ganges.
  • The Yellow River (Huang He) in China has had the four deadliest flood events in world history. The floods of 1931 resulted in 1 to 4 million people being killed.

Lightning

  • Technically, lightning is the movement of electrical charges and doesn't have a temperature; however, resistance to the movement of these electrical charges causes the materials that the lightning is passing through to heat up. If an object is a good conductor of electricity, it won't heat up as much as a poor conductor. Air is a very poor conductor of electricity and gets extremely hot when lightning passes through it. In fact, lightning can heat the air it passes through to 50,000 degrees Fahrenheit (5 times hotter than the surface of the sun).
  • When lightning strikes a tree, the heat vaporizes any water in its path which could cause the tree to explode or a strip of bark to be blown off.
  • A typical lightning flash is about 300 million Volts and about 30,000 Amps. In comparison, household current is 120 Volts and 15 Amps. There is enough energy in a typical flash of lightning to light a 100-watt incandescent light bulb for about three months or the equivalent compact fluorescent bulb for about a year.
  • Lightning often strikes the same place repeatedly, especially if it’s a tall, pointy, isolated object. The Empire State Building is hit nearly 100 times a year.
  • Lightning often strikes more than three miles from the center of the thunderstorm, far outside the rain or thunderstorm cloud. “Bolts from the blue” can strike 10-15 miles from the thunderstorm.
  • Most cars are safe from lightning, but it is the metal roof and metal sides that protect you, NOT the rubber tires. Remember, convertibles, motorcycles, bicycles, open-shelled outdoor recreational vehicles and cars with fiberglass shells offer no protection from lightning. When lightning strikes a vehicle, it goes through the metal frame into the ground. Don't lean on doors during a thunderstorm.
  • The human body does not store electricity. It is perfectly safe to touch a lightning victim to give them first aid. This is the most chilling of lightning Myths. Imagine if someone died because people were afraid to give CPR!
  • Being underneath a tree is the second leading cause of lightning casualties. It is better to stay out from under a tree.
  • A house is a safe place to be during a thunderstorm as long as you avoid anything that conducts electricity. This means staying off corded phones, electrical appliances, wires, TV cables, computers, plumbing, metal doors and windows. Windows are hazardous for two reasons: wind generated during a thunderstorm can blow objects into the window, breaking it and causing glass to shatter and second, in older homes, in rare instances, lightning can come in cracks in the sides of windows.
  • Many lightning casualties occur because people do not seek shelter soon enough. No game is worth death or life-long injuries. Seek proper shelter immediately if you hear thunder. Adults are responsible for the safety of children.
  • Height, pointy shape, and isolation are the dominant factors controlling where a lightning bolt will strike. The presence of metal makes absolutely no difference on where lightning strikes. Mountains are made of stone but get struck by lightning many times a year.
  • When lightning threatens, take proper protective action immediately by seeking a safe shelter don’t waste time removing metal. While metal does not attract lightning, it does conduct it so stay away from metal fences, railing, bleachers, etc.
  • Lying flat increases your chance of being affected by potentially deadly ground current. If you are caught outside in a thunderstorm, you keep moving toward a safe shelter.

Earthquakes

  • The largest recorded earthquake in the United States was a magnitude 9.2 that struck Prince William Sound, Alaska on Good Friday, March 28, 1964.
  • The largest recorded earthquake in the world was a magnitude 9.5 in Chile on May 22, 1960.
  • The earliest reported earthquake in California was felt in 1769 by the exploring expedition of Gaspar de Portola while the group was camping about 48 kilometers (30 miles) southeast of Los Angeles.
  • Before electronics allowed recordings of large earthquakes, scientists built large spring-pendulum seismometers in an attempt to record the long-period motion produced by such quakes. The largest one weighed about 15 tons. There is a medium-sized one three stories high in Mexico City that is still in operation.
  • The average rate of motion across the San Andreas Fault Zone during the past 3 million years is 56 mm/yr (2 in/yr). This is about the same rate at which your fingernails grow. Assuming this rate continues, scientists project that Los Angeles and San Francisco will be adjacent to one another in approximately 15 million years.
  • The East African Rift System is a 50-60 km (31-37 miles) wide zone of active volcanics and faulting that extends north-south in eastern Africa for more than 3000 km (1864 miles) from Ethiopia in the north to Zambezi in the south. It is a rare example of an active continental rift zone, where a continental plate is attempting to split into two plates which are moving away from one another.
  • The first “pendulum seismoscope” to measure the shaking of the ground during an earthquake was developed in 1751, and it wasn’t until 1855 that faults were recognized as the source of earthquakes.
  • Moonquakes (“earthquakes” on the moon) do occur, but they happen less frequently and have smaller magnitudes than earthquakes on the Earth. It appears they are related to the tidal stresses associated with the varying distance between the Earth and Moon. They also occur at great depth, about halfway between the surface and the center of the moon.
  • Although both are sea waves, a tsunami and a tidal wave are two different unrelated phenomenona. A tidal wave is a shallow water wave caused by the gravitational interactions between the Sun, Moon, and Earth. A tsunami is a sea wave caused by an underwater earthquake or landslide (usually triggered by an earthquake) displacing the ocean water.
  • The hypocenter of an earthquake is the location beneath the earth’s surface where the rupture of the fault begins. The epicenter of an earthquake is the location directly above the hypocenter on the surface of the earth.
  • The world’s greatest land mountain range is the Himalaya-Karakoram. It contains 96 of the world’s 109 peaks over 7,317m (24,000 ft). The longest range is the Andes of South America which is 7,564km (4700 mi) in length. Both were created by the movement of tectonic plates.
  • It is estimated that there are 500,000 detectable earthquakes in the world each year. 100,000 of those can be felt, and 100 of them cause damage.
  • It is thought that more damage was done by the resulting fire after the 1906 San Francisco earthquake than by the earthquake itself.
  • A seiche (pronounced SAYSH) is what happens in the swimming pools of Californians during and after an earthquake. It is “an internal wave oscillating in a body of water” or, in other words, it is the sloshing of the water in your swimming pool, or any body of water, caused by the ground shaking in an earthquake. It may continue for a few moments or hours, long after the generating force is gone. A seiche can also be caused by wind or tides.
  • Each year the southern California area has about 10,000 earthquakes. Most of them are so small that they are not felt. Only several hundred are greater than magnitude 3.0, and only about 15-20 are greater than magnitude 4.0. If there is a large earthquake, however, the aftershock sequence will produce many more earthquakes of all magnitudes for many months.
  • The magnitude of an earthquake is a measured value of the earthquake size. The magnitude is the same no matter where you are, or how strong or weak the shaking was in various locations. The intensity of an earthquake is a measure of the shaking created by the earthquake, and this value does vary with location.
  • The Wasatch Range, with its outstanding ski areas, runs North-South through Utah, and like all mountain ranges it was produced by a series of earthquakes. The 386 km (240-mile)-long Wasatch Fault is made up of several segments, each capable of producing up to a magnitude 7.5 earthquake. During the past 6,000 years, there has been a magnitude 6.5+ about once every 350 years, and it has been about 350 years since the last powerful earthquake, which was on the Nephi segment.
  • As far as we know, there is no such thing as "earthquake weather". Statistically, there is an equal distribution of earthquakes in cold weather, hot weather, rainy weather, etc.
  • From 1975-1995 there were only four states that did not have any earthquakes. They were: Florida, Iowa, North Dakota, and Wisconsin.
  • The core of the earth was the first internal structural element to be identified. In 1906, R.D. Oldham discovered it from his studies of earthquake records. The inner core is solid, and the outer core is liquid and so does not transmit the shear wave energy released during an earthquake.
  • The swimming pool at the University of Arizona in Tucson lost water from sloshing (seiche) caused by the 1985 magnitude 8.1 Michoacan, Mexico earthquake 2000 km (1240 miles) away.
  • Earthquakes occur in the central portion of the United States too! Some very powerful earthquakes occurred along the New Madrid fault in the Mississippi Valley in 1811-1812. Because of the crustal structure in the Central US which efficiently propagates seismic energy, shaking from earthquakes in this part of the country are felt at a much greater distance from the epicenters than similar size quakes in the Western US.
  • Most earthquakes occur at depths of less than 80 km (50 miles) from the Earth’s surface.
  • The San Andreas fault is NOT a single, continuous fault, but rather is actually a fault zone made up of many segments. Movement may occur along any of the many fault segments along the zone at any time. The San Andreas fault system is more than 1300 km (800 miles) long, and in some spots is as much as 16 km (10 miles) deep.
  • The world’s deadliest recorded earthquake occurred in 1556 in central China. It struck a region where most people lived in caves carved from soft rock. These dwellings collapsed during the earthquake, killing an estimated 830,000 people. In 1976 another deadly earthquake struck in Tangshan, China, where more than 250,000 people were killed.
  • Florida and North Dakota have the smallest number of earthquakes in the United States.
  • The deepest earthquakes typically occur at plate boundaries where the Earth’s crust is being subducted into the Earth’s mantle. These occur as deep as 750 km (400 miles) below the surface.
  • Alaska is the most earthquake-prone state and one of the most seismically active regions in the world. Alaska experiences a magnitude 7 earthquake almost every year, and a magnitude 8 or greater earthquake on average every 14 years.
  • The majority of the earthquakes and volcanic eruptions occur along plate boundaries such as the boundary between the Pacific Plate and the North American plate. One of the most active plate boundaries where earthquakes and eruptions are frequent, for example, is around the massive Pacific Plate commonly referred to as the Pacific Ring of Fire.
  • The earliest recorded evidence of an earthquake has been traced back to 1831 BC in the Shandong province of China, but there is a fairly complete record starting in 780 BC during the Zhou Dynasty in China.
  • It was recognized as early as 350 BC by the Greek scientist Aristotle that soft ground shakes more than hard rock in an earthquake.
  • The cause of earthquakes was stated correctly in 1760 by British engineer John Michell, one of the first fathers of seismology, in a memoir where he wrote that earthquakes and the waves of energy that they make are caused by “shifting masses of rock miles below the surface”.
  • In 1663 the European settlers experienced their first earthquake in America.
  • Human beings can detect sounds in the frequency range 20-20,000 Hertz. If a P wave refracts out of the rock surface into the air, and it has a frequency in the audible range, it will be heard as a rumble. Most earthquake waves have a frequency of less than 20 Hz, so the waves themselves are usually not heard. Most of the rumbling noise heard during an earthquake is the building and its contents moving.
  • When the Chilean earthquake occurred in 1960, seismographs recorded seismic waves that traveled all around the Earth. These seismic waves shook the entire earth for many days! This phenomenon is called the free oscillation of the Earth.
  • The interior of Antarctica has icequakes which, although they are much smaller, are perhaps more frequent than earthquakes in Antarctica. The icequakes are similar to earthquakes, but occur within the ice sheet itself instead of the land underneath the ice. Some of our polar observers have told us they can hear the icequakes and see them on the South Pole seismograph station, but they are much too small to be seen on enough stations to obtain a location.

Volcanoes

  • Volcanoes are openings in the Earth’s surface. When they are active they can let ash, gas and hot magma escape in sometimes violent and spectacular eruptions.
  • The word volcano originally comes from the name of the Roman god of fire, Vulcan.
  • Volcanoes are usually located where tectonic plates meet. This is especially true for the Pacific Ring of Fire, an area around the Pacific Ocean where over 75% of the volcanoes on Earth are found.
  • While most volcanoes form near tectonic boundaries, they can also form in areas that contain abnormally hot rock inside the Earth. Known as mantle plumes, these hotspots are found at a number of locations around the globe with the most notable being in Hawaii.
  • Hot liquid rock under the Earth’s surface is known as magma, it is called lava after it comes out of a volcano.
  • Some famous volcanic eruptions of modern times include Mount Krakatoa in 1883, Novarupta in 1912, Mount St Helens in 1980 and Mt Pinatubo in 1991.
  • While we certainly have some big volcanoes here on Earth, the biggest known volcano in our solar system is actually on Mars. Its name is Olympus Mons and it measures a whooping 600km (373 miles) wide and 21km (13 miles) high.
  • The object with the most volcanic activity in our solar system is Io, one of Jupiter’s moons. Covered in volcanoes, its surface is constantly changing due to the large amount of volcanic activity.
  • Most people think of volcanoes as large cone shaped mountains but that is just one type, others feature wide plateaus, fissure vents (cracks were lava emerges) and bulging dome shapes.
  • There are also volcanoes found on the ocean floor and even under icecaps, such as those found in Iceland.
  • Volcanoes can be active (regular activity), dormant (recent historical activity but now quiet) or extinct (no activity in historical times and unlikely to erupt again). While these terms are useful, scientists are more likely to describe volcanoes by characteristics such a how they formed, how they erupt and what their shape is.
  • Common volcanic gases include water vapor, carbon dioxide, sulfur dioxide, hydrogen chloride, hydrogen fluoride and hydrogen sulfide.
  • Volcanic eruptions can send ash high into the air, over 30km (17 miles) above the Earth’s surface.
  • Large volcanic eruptions can reflect radiation from the Sun and drop average temperatures on Earth by around half a degree. There have been several examples of this over the last century.
  • Pumice is a unique volcanic rock (igneous) that can float in water. It can also be used as an abrasive and is sometimes used in beauty salons for removing dry skin.