The Science of Natural Disasters: When Nature and Humans Collide

By Diane C. Taylor

An informative and compelling book for ages 12 to 15 about both the science and human sides of natural disasters, full of hands-on investigative activities and research projects along with real-world connections that encourage kids to dive deeper into a topic that directly affects them.

News reports from around the world offer detailed descriptions of wildfires, floods, tsunamis, earthquakes, and more. While these kinds of events might seem horrifically random, scientists can explain quite a lot about why they happen, how they develop, how we can try to prevent them, and how we can predict where and when they’ll happen next. The Science of Natural Disasters: When Nature and Humans Collide examines the science behind earthquakes, volcanoes, hurricanes, tornadoes, floods, and wildfires,

• Use historical and current events as case studies, such as Hurricane Katrina in 2005, the floods in China in 1931, and the eruption of Mount Tambora in 1815, the Galveston, Texas, hurricane in 1900, and the Daulatpur-Saturia tornado in 1989.

• Kids explore natural disasters using real-world data to work those critical-thinking skills as they brainstorm innovative solutions for the problems facing our planet today and in the future.

• Many different kinds of careers are related to studying, preventing, warning about, and combatting natural disasters, from meteorologists to municipal program leaders to geologists to boots on the ground—kids will explore how different roles that contribute to our understanding and prevention of hurricanes, floods, and wildfires.

• Science-minded STEM activities such as assessing the flood risk of the town where you live, researching a wildfire of historical significance, and engineering hurricane resistant cities encourage readers to think like scientists while essential questions, fascinating facts, links to online resources, and more encourage readers to explore the ever-evolving dynamics of this incredible planet.

About the Inquire & Investigate Earth Science set and Nomad Press

The Science of Natural Disasters is part of a set of three Inquire & Investigate Earth Science books that explore the earth, the atmosphere, and everything in between. The other titles in this series are The Science of Weather and Climate: Rain, Sleet, and the Rising Tide and Rocks and Minerals: Get the Dirt on Geology.

Nomad Press books in the Inquire & Investigate series integrate content with participation, encouraging readers to engage in student-directed learning. Combining content with inquiry-based projects stimulates learning and makes it active and alive. Nomad’s unique approach simultaneously grounds kids in factual knowledge while allowing them the space to be curious, creative, and critical thinkers.

All books are leveled for Guided Reading level and Lexile and align with Common Core State Standards and National Curriculum Standards for Social Studies. All titles are available in paperback, hardcover, and ebook formats.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Nomad Press
• Release date: Jan 15, 2020
• ISBN: 9781619308565

Diane C. Taylor

Diane C. Taylor is a freelance writer whose published works include both fiction and nonfiction. She is the author of The Science of Natural Disasters: When Nature and Humans Collide; Gutsy Girls Go for Science: Engineers; The Renaissance Thinkers; and The Renaissance Artists. Diane lives in Bowling Green, Kentucky.

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Printed in the United States.

Interested in primary sources?

Look for this icon.

You can use a smartphone or tablet app to scan the QR codes and explore more! Cover up neighboring QR codes to make sure you’re scanning the right one. You can find a list of URLs on the Resources page.

If the QR code doesn’t work, try searching the internet with the Keyword Prompts to find other helpful sources.

natural disasters

What are source notes?

In this book, you’ll find small numbers at the end of some paragraphs. These numbers indicate that you can find source notes for that section in the back of the book. Source notes tell readers where the writer got their information. This might be a news article, a book, or another kind of media. Source notes are a way to know that what you are reading is information that other people have verified. They can also lead you to more places where you can explore a topic that you’re curious about!

Timeline

Introduction

Warning!

Chapter 1

Earthquakes: When the Earth Shakes

Chapter 2

Volcanoes: A Burping Earth

Chapter 3

Hurricanes: Perfect Storms

Chapter 4

Tornadoes: The Sound and the Fury

Chapter 5

Floods: Rivers Rising

Chapter 6

Wildfires: Out of Control

Index

TIMELINE

Warning!

What is a natural disaster?

A natural disaster is an event in nature that causes harm to the human population, such as tornadoes, hurricanes, volcanic eruptions, and many other events.

When humans live in harmony with nature, all is well. Rain falls to water our crops, the sun shines to grow them, rivers flow across the land to provide water and transportation routes. Humans couldn’t exist without nature to support us—as a species, we are tied to the cycles of the natural world.

Unfortunately, human beings and nature are not always on the best of terms. Have you ever been in a hurricane, a flood, or a tornado? Have you ever lived someplace that experienced a drought? When a natural event such as these causes significant damage to a human population, we call it a natural disaster.

In 2018, people from all around the globe found themselves in desperate circumstances because of natural disasters. About 27 miles from Guatemala City, Guatemala, a volcano named Mount Fuego erupted without warning on June 3. An ash column soared more than 9 miles into the atmosphere, burying several villages in hot ash and melting car tires into the ground.

Later that month, three people in Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, were driving on highway RS-463 when a tornado snatched their trucks off the road and tossed them into nearby fields. Two people died, thousands of homes were damaged, and more than 200,000 chickens in 10 different aviaries were killed.

The month of July brought three times the normal amount of rainfall into southwestern Japan. The resulting floods and mudslides claimed the lives of at least 100 people and left 2 million without a place to call home.

July was a tough month for the citizens of California, too. Record high temperatures, dry vegetation, and the misdeeds of an arsonist resulted in 17 active wildfires. They burned along a 650-mile corridor from the north of the state to the south, destroying 300,000 acres of land and more than 600 homes.

VOCAB LAB

There is a lot of new vocabulary in this book. Turn to the glossary in the back when you come to a word you don’t understand. Practice your new vocabulary in the VOCAB LAB activities in each chapter.

An aerial view of Mount Fuego in Guatemala and the wide range of likely damage its eruption caused, shown by the areas of red and yellow

credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ESA/Copernicus/Google

DISASTERFACT

The term science refers to research, or adding to our understanding of the world for the sake of knowledge itself. The phrase applied science refers to using that knowledge to affect change in the world.

In late September, more than 2,000 people died and another 330,000 were left homeless when a massive earthquake struck the Central Sulawesi province of Indonesia. Then, in early October, people as