Australia - Hazards, Disasters, and Catastrophes

Australia is usually spared in regards to many sever natural hazards but mass wasting is not one of them. More than one thousand landslides have occurred in Australia since 2015. They experience a large number of slow sediment flows that affect mainly New South Wales which is the southern part of the country. This is due to the larger amount of rainfall in the area as well its steep cliffs. Geoscience, the organization working with the Australia government plays a key role in mitigating damage caused by landslides as well as researching them. Geoscience collects data from landslides from all over the country and are able to evaluate landslide influences. They provide independent information to the government which in return helps improve preparedness and response strategies in the event of a landslide. SOURCES: Link 1 , Link 2

Australia is a country with no active volcanoes. There are dormant volcanoes that exist in Australia yet not a single one has erupted in about 7,000 years. Australia doesn't sit near a plate boundary so this would be the reason for its non existent number of active volcanoes. Though close by is Indonesia which does sit on the Australian - Sunda plate boundary. A large concentration of seismic and volcanic activity can be found here. Just within the past month there has been multiple eruptions across the islands. Indonesia is home to the largest at risk population to volcanic hazards (Dave Applegate). The Indonesian Center for Volcanology and Geologic Hazard Mitigation (CVGHM) as well as the Volcano Disaster Assistance Program (VDAP) work in correspondence with each other to maintain a sophisticated up to date volcanic detection system. Recently the Indonesian government has implemented a new system which alerts civilians through a mobile based application that can be downlo...

As far as seismic activity goes Australia is a sleeping baby. There is next to no seismic activity stirring on the continent. Though seismographs are sparse throughout the country they have a fully running network of them mainly situated along the east coast and the eastern inland areas. They pick up on earthquakes ranging around a 2.0 or higher. Buildings in Australia are not built to handle earthquakes of a high magnitude. Anything above a 3.5 has capabilities of damaging infrastructure and causing harm. Though large earthquakes don't occur often in Australia they do occur every so often. A 6.1 quake came from the earth with Petermann Ranges being the epicenter. This quaked happened in 2016 and before this the largest quaked happened in 1997 with a 6.2 earthquake in Collier Bay. So what is the nation doing to prepare for these rare yet devastating earthquakes? Well the government organization Geoscience Australia is always at work . They provide independent advice to the Austral...

Tectonic boundaries are the outer edges of a tectonic plate. These boundaries are hot spots for natural disaster inducing activity. There are three types of boundaries which primarily give rise to certain geological events. The boundary in effect for the Australian plate in relation to the Sunda plate is a convergent boundary. A convergent boundary is when two parts of the lithosphere are colliding into one another . When this occurs it pushes the lithosphere down and under its counterpart which in returns pushes the opposite part of land mass up. Large convergent collisions can create massive mountainous formations along with the rise of volcanoes.  The Australian plate is subducting under the Sunda plate which is why there is an immense amount  volcanic activity in Indonesia due to it sitting on top of the boundary. Thankfully Australia is approximately 500 miles away from the Sunda plate and about 300 miles to the closes point of the Pacific plate boundary. This means...

     Chapter one posed a multitude of information regarding the differences between natural hazards, disasters and catastrophes. Natural hazards are simply natural processes that take place on the Earth. Some natural hazards include volcanoes, earthquakes, and windstorms. These natural events pose only a potential threat in the case of human life or property being present in their wake. A natural disaster is an event in which less than ten people are killed, less than one hundred people are effected, a state of emergency is declared or a request for international assistance is sent out. Only one of these pieces of criteria need to be met for the event to be considered a disaster. Lastly a catastrophe is a major disaster that devastates an area. A large sum on money and extended period of time is needed to recover from these types of events.