Naturaleza enojada: ciencia, geografía e historia de los desastres naturales

In this class, students will learn the basic science behind why five kinds of natural disasters occur and will study some examples of the most destructive and memorable occurrences of these natural disasters in history.

Class 1: Tornadoes

In this first class, students will learn that tornadoes form when warm, humid air collides with cold, dry air. They'll learn about supercell thunderstorms and mesocycles, and how they can birth tornadoes. I'll explain why tornadoes tend have "seasons." We'll examine the geography of "Tornado Alley" (the area spanning eastern South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, northern Texas, and eastern Colorado) and talk about why it's such a hot spot for tornadoes. (I'll briefly explain how waterspouts relate to tornadoes, as well.)

Then, we'll discuss the Tri-State Tornado of March 18, 1925, which struck parts of three states in the Central United States, and was by far the deadliest tornado in United States history and the second-deadliest in world history. We'll also study the 1974 Super Outbreak (April 3-4) and the 2011 Super Outbreak (April 27), the two largest tornado outbreaks on record for a single 24-hour period.

Class 2: Hurricanes

In our second class, students will learn that hurricanes are fueled by warm water and moist, warm air, (which is why they begin in the tropics). The storms move heat from the ocean surface high into Earth's atmosphere and can travel thousands of miles from the tropics toward the Earth's poles.

We'll look at Hurricane Katrina, a Category 5 tropical cyclone that occurred in August 2005, which caused over 1,200 deaths and $125-$160 billion in damage, particularly in the city of New Orleans and the surrounding areas. We'll also talk about the 2017 Category 4 hurricane, Hurricane Harvey, that made landfall on Texas and Louisiana in August 2017, causing catastrophic flooding and many deaths.

Class 3: Volcanic Eruptions

Students will learn that a volcano is a rupture in Earth's crust that allows hot lava, volcanic ash, and gases to escape from a magma chamber below the surface. Earth's volcanoes occur because its crust is broken into 17 major, rigid tectonic plates that float on a hotter, softer layer in its mantle. We'll learn about several types of volcanic eruptions distinguished by volcanologists (e.g., magmatic, phreatomagmatic, phreatic) and their subtypes.

We'll talk about some of the most famous volcanic eruptions in history, including the Mt. Vesuvius eruption in A.D. 79, which occurred over several days and covered the cities of Pompeii and Stabiae in lava and ash. We'll look at the destruction of Mount Tambora, one of Indonesia's 100-plus active volcanoes, and the after-effects of its eruptions in 1815 (e.g., death, disease, harm to the growth of crops in the surrounding regions, and climate changes as far away as North America). Finally, we'll talk about the 'supervolcano' in Yellowstone National park, Wyoming, and how it's last thought to have erupted about 600,000 to 700,000 years ago. We'll also examine a map of active volcanoes around the world and discuss the Pacific Ring of Fire.

Class 4: Earthquakes

In this class, students will learn that earthquakes are caused by a sudden slip on a fault, (often triggered by volcanic eruptions, human induction, or collapse), and occur along the edge of oceanic and continental plates. The tectonic plates are always slowly moving, but they get stuck at their edges due to friction. When the stress on the edge overcomes the friction, there is an earthquake that releases energy in waves that travel through the earth's crust and cause the shaking that we feel. We'll examine a map of the locations of the plates around the world.

Then, we'll talk about the famous earthquakes of San Francisco (April 18, 1906), Tokyo (September 1, 1923), and Sumatra (December 26, 2004), known for their magnitudes on the Richter scale and the destruction that they left in their wake.

Class 5: Tsunamis

In this last class, students will learn about the science, geography, and history of tsunamis. They'll learn that tsunamis are giant (and extremely long) waves that are caused by a large and sudden displacement of the ocean, usually the result of an earthquake below or near the ocean floor - called a submarine earthquake. (They can also be triggered by landslides, volcanic eruptions, glacier collapses, and extraterrestrial collisions, such as meteorites.) This force creates waves that radiate outward in all directions away from their source, sometimes crossing entire ocean basins. Tsunamis can be generated by movements along fault zones associated with plate boundaries, which is why they occur most often in the Pacific Ocean and Indonesia, as the Pacific Rim bordering the Ocean has a large number of active submarine earthquake zones (The Pacific Ring of Fire). I'll also briefly explain how rogue waves and tsunamis differ.

Finally, we'll discuss three famous tsuamis in recent history. We'll look at the tsunami of Lituya Bay, Alaska, U.S. (July 9, 1958), when an earthquake on the Fairweather Fault in Alaska loosened 40 million cubic yards (30.6 million cubic meters) of rock 3000 feet (914 meters) above the northeastern shore of Lituya Bay, causing the highest wave ever recorded. The scale of this wave was so much greater than ordinary tsunamis that it eventually led to the new category of megatsunamis. Secondly, we'll learn about how the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake triggered a series of tsunamis on December 26, 2004 and how it was the deadliest tsunami and one of the deadliest natural disasters in recorded history. (The earthquake was also the third largest earthquake in recorded history.) Last, we'll talk about the tsunami that occurred along the Pacific coast of Japan on 11 March, 2011. The wave caused widespread devastation and precipitated multiple hydrogen explosions and nuclear meltdown at the Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant.

I'll be using slide show presentations with text, photos, images/illustrations, and maps, as well as some brief videos. (I will do my best to avoid sensationalizing the death and destruction caused by these natural disasters as we discuss specific events.)