GEOL 107: Natural Disasters

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Class Program

Geology

Credits

Weekly Contact Hours

Course ID

091586

Meets Degree Requirements For

Natural Science

Description

Scientific study of earthquakes, floods, landslides, volcanic eruptions, extreme weather, wildfires, asteroid impacts, and other disruptive events. Introduces and applies elements of geology, meteorology, physics, and astronomy. Examines human factors, risk reduction, disaster prediction, monitoring, alert systems, and disaster recovery. Includes historic examples and disasters in the news.

Grading Basis

Graded

Course Learning Outcomes

Define basic terms and explain basic principles and theories of geology, atmospheric science, physics, and astronomy that apply to natural disasters.

Account for the behavior of nature in each type of earth hazard by applying appropriate scientific terminology, principles, and theories.

Describe the roles of people, society, culture, and technology in increasing or decreasing the risk of natural disasters.

Evaluate how to prepare for natural disasters, respond to the emergency of one occurring, and recover resiliently, including factors of costs, benefits, and policies.

Map where each type of natural disaster occurs and how its effects vary from place to place.

Discuss how natural hazards can be predicted in terms of location, frequency, time and date of occurrence, and impact.

Evaluate methods and technologies for predicting, monitoring, warning, and alerting of natural disasters, and propose improvements.

Determine from graphs or equations quantitative aspects of natural hazard impacts (such as earthquake magnitudes, volumes of erupted volcanic material, frequency of floods) and use the numbers to make comparisons and estimates.

Create reports on historic catastrophes that describe the effects on people and society and scientifically explain the cause.

Create maps and reports on natural disasters in students’ home area, from local to regional.

Share and listen to stories of personal experiences with earth hazards and respond after reflecting on other people’s experiences.

Collaborate with other students on a range of inquiries, from working on basic concepts in class by explaining them to others, to larger team projects on earth hazards.

Evaluate and selectively use appropriate tools and sources in order to access and manipulate geologic and environmental information.

Understand, appreciate, and discuss the different impacts of disasters on populations with different incomes and different lifestyles, analyze whether some groups are at greater risk, and share the results.

Examine the relationship between self and the environment, evaluate potential impacts of actions, and make choices based on that examination and evaluation.

Core Topics

scientific methods
plate tectonics
earth systems
weather and climate
natural processes that lead to the following:
1. earthquakes
2. tsunamis
3. volcanic eruptions
4. floods
5. landslides
6. coastal flooding, coastal erosion, and sea level rise
7. extreme weather (hurricanes, tornadoes, mid-latitude storms, cold snaps, heat waves, droughts)
8. wildfire
9. asteroid and comet impacts
how human activities contribute to natural disasters
perspectives on natural disasters from a variety of viewpoints, cultures, and countries
ways to reduce the occurrence of disasters
role of climate change in natural disasters
role of governments and individuals in preventing, preparing, and responding to disaster
how to make infrastructure more resilient to disaster
monitoring methods
warning and alert systems
natural hazards in our part of the world
relating natural disasters in today’s news to scientific theories of what causes them