Widespread global threat due to environmental factors such as climate change
Geophysical hazard
A hazard formed by geological/tectonic processes (earth quakes)
Hydro meteorological hazard
A hazard caused by hydrological (floods) and atmospheric (storms and droughts) processes
Vulnerability
A high risk combined with an inability of individuals and communities of cope
Disaster
A hazard becoming a reality in an event that causes deaths and damage to goods and the environment
Risk
The probability of a hazard event occurring and creating loss of livelihoods and lives
Albedo
How much solar radiation a surface reflects
Climate change
A long term trend or shift in climate ( average weather over 30 years ) detected-by a sustained shift in the average value for any climatic event ( rainfall,storminess)
Enhanced green house effect
This occurs when the level of green house gases in the atmosphere increase owing to human activity
global warming"
The recently measured rise in the average surface temperature of the planet
Green house effect
The warming of the earths atmosphere due to the trapping of the heat that would otherwise be radiated back into space-enabled the survival of life on earth
Tipping point
The point where the system switches from one stare to another
frequency
How often an event of a certain of a certain size (magnitude)occurs
Magnitude
The size of the event
Asthenosphere
A semi molten zone of rock underlying the earths crust
Conservative boundary
A boundary between plates where the movement of the plates is parallel to the plate margin and the plates slide past each other
constructive boundary
A boundary between plates where the plates are diverging or moving apart
Destructive boundary
A boundary between plates with a plates of converging (moving together)
lithosphere
The crust of the earth around 80/90 km thick
Magma
Molten material that rises to the earth surfaces when hotspots within the asthenosphere generate convection currents
natural hazard
A natural event or process which affects people e.g. causing loss of life or injury, economic damage, disruption to peoples lives
Plates
rigid ,less dense slabs of rock floating on asthenosphere
Hotspot
A localised area of the earths crust with an unusually high temperature
Plume
And upwelling of abnormally hot rock within the earths mantle
Intertropical convergence zone
A zone of your atmospheric pressure near the Equator this migrates seasonally
