Natural Disasters

What are natural disasters?

A natural disaster is a serious event caused by forces of nature that can injure people and damage property. In Australia, we experience bushfires, floods, earthquakes, cyclones and droughts. They can happen anywhere, and often there is little or no warning.

Who is affected?

When a natural disaster happens it can have an impact on individuals (children, teenagers, adults), families (mums, dads, grandparents) and the community (schools, shops, roads, places where you hang out).

How does it affect people?

Natural disasters can be scary, confusing and cause things to change physically (body stuff), socially (with friends and family) and emotionally (feelings stuff). Some reactions are really common and get better over time, but sometimes you may need some extra help to get things back on track.

This website will help you understand the reactions that happen after natural disasters, and will give you some information on how and where to get help if you (or your friends) need it. There’s some information for your parents and teachers too.

Bushfire

Bushfires are different from controlled burning. Australian bushfires can be particularly severe as eucalyptus trees contain large amounts of oil, which can burn very fast and very hot. Long periods of dry, hot weather and natural vegetation that burns easily makes Australia particularly vulnerable to bushfires.

Textual material presented in this section has been sourced from http://www.australia.gov.au/about-australia/australian-story/natural-disasters
and is provided under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Australia - external site licence

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Cyclones

A cyclone is an area of low pressure around which the winds flow clockwise in the Southern Hemisphere and counterclockwise in the Northern Hemisphere. If the sustained winds around the centre reach 119 km/h (with wind gusts in excess of 170 km/h), then the system is called a severe tropical cyclone. In other countries severe tropical cyclones are called hurricanes or typhoons. The Tropical Cyclone Season in Australia extends from November to April.

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Drought

A drought is a prolonged, abnormally dry period when there is not enough water for our normal needs. Drought is not simply low rainfall; if it was, much of inland Australia would be in almost perpetual drought. Because people use water in so many different ways, there is no universal definition of drought.

-- Living with Drought, Australian Government Bureau of Meteorology

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Earthquake

Earthquakes are the vibrations caused by rocks breaking under stress. The underground surface along which the rock breaks and moves is called a fault plane.

Earthquakes in Australia are usually caused by movements along faults as a result of compression in the Earth’s crust.

The size or magnitude of earthquakes is determined by measuring the amplitude of the seismic waves recorded on a seismograph and the distance of the seismograph from the earthquake. Earthquake magnitude was traditionally measured on the Richter scale.

In Australia, earthquakes with magnitudes of less than 3.5 seldom cause damage, the smallest magnitude earthquake known to have caused fatalities is the magnitude 5.6 Newcastle earthquake in 1989. However, magnitude 4.0 earthquakes or above could result in damage which could potentially cause injuries or fatalities.

© Commonwealth of Australia (Geoscience Australia) 2015.
The Geoscience Australia material on this website is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence.

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Flood

Floods occur when water covers land, which is normally dry. Floods in Australia range from localised flash flooding as a result of thunderstorms, to more widespread flooding following heavy rain over the catchment areas of river systems. Flooding is also a regular seasonal phenomenon in Northern Australia.

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