Environmental Hazards
Explain earthquakes, volcanoes and tropical storms and compare impacts, prediction, planning and response.
How to study National 5 Geography
Start from located evidence, identify the geographical process, develop each causal link and test management against the people and environments affected.
Core concepts
Concept 1
Plate movement and boundary processes create earthquake and volcanic hazards; warm ocean energy, rotation and low wind shear support tropical-storm development.
Exam cue: Explain the physical sequence that generates the named hazard.
Concept 2
Impacts reflect hazard magnitude and location plus exposure, vulnerability, capacity, preparedness and secondary processes.
Exam cue: Separate primary from secondary effects and link differences to vulnerability.
Concept 3
Monitoring, prediction, land-use planning, engineering, warnings, evacuation, emergency response and recovery reduce different parts of risk.
Exam cue: Judge a strategy by lead time, coverage, cost, compliance and the hazard it targets.
Risk pitfalls and guardrails
Claiming earthquakes can be predicted precisely.
Guardrail: Check the command word, option, scale, location, time period and whether the evidence supports every link in the answer.
Equating hazard magnitude directly with disaster severity.
Guardrail: Check the command word, option, scale, location, time period and whether the evidence supports every link in the answer.
Listing responses without distinguishing preparation, immediate response and recovery.
Guardrail: Check the command word, option, scale, location, time period and whether the evidence supports every link in the answer.
Memory anchors
Disaster risk
Hazard interacting with exposure and vulnerability, moderated by capacity.
Earthquake
Stored strain is released as rocks move along a fault.
Volcano
Magma rises where tectonic setting and pressure allow it to reach the surface.
Tropical-storm ingredients
Warm deep water, moist rising air, rotation and low vertical wind shear.
Primary effect
A direct result of the hazardous event.
Risk reduction
Monitor, plan, protect, warn, respond and recover.
Checkpoint rule
Do the check-up only after you can summarize each concept in one sentence and identify one dangerous pitfall from memory.
Knowledge Check (after reading)
Short check-up to confirm understanding of this module.
Check-up Questions
What causes most earthquakes?
Why do volcanoes occur at destructive margins?
Answer all questions to submit.
Next step personalized recommendations
Continue learning
Move forward only after this module is stable.
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