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Geological/Geophysical Disasters

  • Reference work entry
  • First Online:
Encyclopedia of Natural Hazards

Part of the book series: Encyclopedia of Earth Sciences Series ((EESS))

  • 736 Accesses

Definition

Disaster

A disaster is an event that causes hardship, loss of life, or damage to infrastructure, the environment, the economic well-being, or other things that humans value. It is a cultural construct that refers to the relative impact of a hazard. It is important to recognize that a disaster would not exist without some direct impact on humans. A volcanic event, for instance, is an occurrence of a volcano. A volcanic hazard is the threat to humans from impacts of this event. A volcanic disaster is the negative impact of a volcanic hazard on things humans value. Disasters are therefore heavily influenced by a community’s vulnerability to a particular hazard or group of hazards.

As a cultural construct, a disaster may be perceived differently by individual persons or groups of people, and there is no absolute disaster scale. The magnitude of a disaster may not be related to the magnitude of a hazard, highlighting, once again, the important role of vulnerability by humans and...

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Director of Geohazards and Geomorphology, MDH Engineered Solutions, SNC Lavalin Group, 909 5th Ave SW, Calgary, AB, Canada

    Dr. Richard Guthrie

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  1. Dr. Richard Guthrie
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Correspondence to Richard Guthrie .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, Canada

    Peter T. Bobrowsky

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Guthrie, R. (2013). Geological/Geophysical Disasters. In: Bobrowsky, P.T. (eds) Encyclopedia of Natural Hazards. Encyclopedia of Earth Sciences Series. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-4399-4_155

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