Syllabus
1. Natural disasters (introduction), definition of the term, relationship between antropogenous and natural hazards, disasters in geological past, recent disasters, impact of natural disasters on evolution of organism, climate etc.,
2. Climatic hazards and disasters: - tropical and extra tropical cyclones and related hazards - storms, dust storms, tornadoes and related hazards (hail, lightning, freezing rain snowstorms), - flash floods, regional floods and related hazards, - climatic oscillation (drought, desertification, bushfires),
3. Oceanographic hazards - waves related hazards, sea ice, fluctuation of the sea level, sea-bank erosion etc.
4. Geological disasters and hazards - earthquakes (geological and plate tectonic background, genetic types, classification, distribution of earthquakes, examples of earthquakes effects, earthquake monitoring and prediction, earthquake mitigation, seismic engineering, warning systems, crisis management, mitigation of earthquake impacts, - tsunamis, tsunamis generated by earthquakes, volcanic explosion generated tsunamis, landslide generated tsunamis, - disasters and hazards related to volcanic processes, types of volcanic eruption, examples from the world, distribution of volcanoes, relation of volcanism to geological processes in the earth crust and mantle (plate tectonic and geodynamic background), -major types of volcanic hazards (gas plumes, lavas flows, lahars, ash-clouds, landslides, debris flows, pyroclastic flows), - mass movements - (rheological properties of soils and rocks, classification of mass movements, solifluction, creep, landslides, earthflows, debris flows, mud flows, rocks avalanches, debris avalanches, snow avalanches, -movements associated with subsidence,
5. Disaster related to large meteorite impacts (examples from the geological past), impact processes, influence of large impact on the earth ecosystems.
Annotation
The lecture gives an outline to natural disasters (geological, climatologic, oceanographic). Causes of natural disasters, their course and impact on nature and society are briefly explained. The basic methods of their prediction, prevention and mitigation are outlined.
Students present in the frame of semester works orally or in the written forms case studies of different aspects of natural disasters and hazards.