1. Catastrophic Events

2. Wildfires How it forms: Main features:
Lightning – 1 out of 5 wildfires start this way
Campfires
Cigarettes
Arsonists
Main features:
Spread slowly – burning material on the forest floor
Spread rapidly – by the wind, which causes it to jump along the tree tops
Help the fire spread
Drought conditions
Wind – gives it oxygen (fuel) and helps it move faster
High temps
Low humidity

3. Wildfires Most Likely to Occur: Impact on the ecosystem:
Every continent except Antarctica
Common in areas that experiences long hot, dry periods
Impact on the ecosystem:
Habitats
Watershed can have the vegetation burned off leaving it prone to erosion
Animals become endangered due to lose of habitat
Economic losses of inhabited areas
Landforms
Can destroy millions of acres
Other impacts
Beneficial for maintaining balance; plants growth comes back quickly to burned area
Affects air and water quality, soil composition, vegetation, & wildlife

4. Wildfires

5. Hurricanes How it forms: Main features:
Moist, Warm air above the ocean rises and cools forming clouds. The warm and cool air begins to spiral upward causing wind
Considered a Hurricane when winds reach 74 mph or more
Main features:
High winds
Tornadoes
Storm Surges as it approaches land
Flooding from torrential rains
Mudslides or landslides

6. Hurricanes Most Likely to Occur: Impact on the ecosystem: East Coast
Hurricane Season: June 1 to November 30
Impact on the ecosystem:
Habitats
Structural and functions damage of ecosystems
Destroying animal life and habitats
Economic losses of inhabited areas
Landforms
Uprooting trees and defoliating vegetation
Other impacts
Damage could take years to rebuild

7. Hurricanes
or 

8. Drought How it forms: Main features: Interruption in the water cycle
Long periods of dry weather that last long enough to cause a water shortage

9. Drought Most Likely to Occur: Impact on the ecosystem: Anywhere
Drier months
Impact on the ecosystem:
Habitats
Adds stress to ecosystems
Landforms
Cracked surfaces
Other impacts
Crop failure, livestock death, increased forest fires, energy production, and water shortages
Heat Waves

10. Drought

11. Volcanos How it forms: Main features:
It is a vent in the Earth which allows molten rocks to escape to the surface
Main features:
Pressure builds up from gases within the magma, then an eruption occurs
Once an eruption, the eruption happened the earth goes back to equilibrium
Eruption can be slow and fairly quiet and violently explosive

12. Volcanos Most Likely to Occur: Impact on the ecosystem:
Along the plates, near vents
Impact on the ecosystem:
Habitats
Structural and functions damage of ecosystems
Destroying animal life and habitats
Economic losses of inhabited areas
Could cause more greenhouse gases
Landforms
New land can be created
After the eruption, soil becomes very rich, so plant life returning is highly likely
Other impacts
Hazards include hot, poison gases, lava flow, land and mudslides, earthquakes, fires, explosions, rockslides, flash flooding, and tsunamis
The Ash can affect breathing, contaminating water supplies, collapse roofs, disrupt machinery, jet engine failure while flying

13. Volcanos

14. Tornados How it forms: Main features:
Violently rotating column of air extending from a thunderstorm
From thunderstorms, which is where warm, moist air ahead of eastward-moving cold front. They mix creating hail, wind and tornados
Main features:
Wind speeds of 250 mph or more
Damage paths can be in excess of one mile wide and 50 miles long
Form to the right or in front of the path a hurricane takes as it comes on land.

15. Tornados Most Likely to Occur: Impact on the ecosystem:
Between the hours of 3pm to 9pm; but can occur anytime
Winter and Early Spring – which has more strong, frontal systems that form in the Central States and moves east
Impact on the ecosystem:
Habitats
Destroy buildings and vegetation. Lose of vegetation can result in soil erosion
Any thing in its path
Economic losses of inhabited areas
Landforms
Uproots trees
Scour the soil off the ground down to the rock
Other impacts
Kills humans and animals
Vegetation that withstood the tornado may grow in abundance in that area which, in turn could hinder animal and plant interaction.

16. Tornados

17. Earthquakes How it forms: Main features:
Vibration of the Earth’s Surface that occurs after a release of energy in the crust
Caused by volcanic eruption or movement of segments of the crust or the collision of the tectonic plates.
The crust may bend and as the stress builds and exceeds the strength of the rock, it breaks and snaps into a new position
Main features:
Shaking of the earth; waves travel outward from the source and the speed of the wave depends on the source and the materials it has to travel through

18. Earthquakes Most Likely to Occur: Impact on the ecosystem:
Over tectonic plates and fault lines
Near volcanos
Impact on the ecosystem:
Habitats
Destruction of the habitats
Large cracks in the ground, causing standing bodies of water to disappear
Property damage and loss of life
Landforms
Land of either side of the fault can raise, lower, move away or toward each other
Other impacts
Liquefaction of the ground
Landslides
Avalanches
Fires
tsunamis

19. Earthquakes

20. Tsunamis How it forms: Main features:
Large ocean waves caused by the following:
Earthquakes
Volcanic eruptions
Meteorite impact
Underwater landslides
Main features:
A series of waves that can travel mph in open ocean
In open ocean, Boats do not feel the waves because the wavelength are several hundred miles apart and the amplitude is only a few feet.
As they approach land, the speed deceases and the amplitude increases (basically it gets slower and taller)
From the starting point, the waves travel outward in all directions
As the waves approach land, the time in between waves ranges from 5-90 minutes
The first wave is usually not the largest or most destructive
The water pulls back before the waves arrive
The waves come to shore as a rapidly rising, turbulent surge of debris filled water

21. Tsunamis Most Likely to Occur: Impact on the ecosystem:
During any season
Areas of risk are less than 25ft. Above sea level and within one mile of shore
Impact on the ecosystem:
Habitats
Loss of habitat or human homes
Flooding
Extreme Damage
Landforms
Flooding of estuaries and rivers
Other impacts
Contamination of drinking water
Fires from broken gas lines
Drowning

22. Tsunamis

23. Floods How it forms: Main features:
Overflowing of water onto normally dry land
Intense or long term precipitation from storms, hurricanes, melting snow or ice
Main features:
Over abundance of water in a lake, river, flood plain
They can last a few minutes or months
The amount of flooding is controlled by the amount of water that builds up, how porous the soil is, and the amount of water already in the soil.

24. Floods Most Likely to Occur: Impact on the ecosystem: Anywhere Coast
Floodplains
Impact on the ecosystem:
Habitats
Paving the ground for houses
Property loss or damage
Total destruction of a habitat
Landforms
Roads and parking lots
Asphalt and concrete is not porous
Other impacts
Contamination of drinking water
Destruction of crop and livestock

25. Floods