Brazil deals with many natural hazards, but two main ones that stood out to me are the soil erosion, more specifically the sinkholes and then the tornadoes that they have to deal with. I am choosing to focus on these two, because they are the ones that impact Brazil more than any of the others and the ones that occur the most. Soil erosion can be caused by many things, but in Brazil, it is mainly caused by the expansion of their agriculture. Between all the crop and livestock activity, the soil keeps eroding and causing issues for Brazil. A sinkhole is a surface depression or cavity in the ground by water erosion, which creates a route for surface water to go under the surface. The most recent sink hole that Brazil has experienced was in 2017, then in 2015, 2014, and 2010, and many more before that. Brazil is no stranger to sinkholes. Luckily in all of these, no one was hurt, but this is a major impact for Brazil. No one was hurt, however in a couple of them, houses and neighborhoo...
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A coastal hazard is anything that puts life or property at risk on the coastline, usually due to short and long term erosion, coastal flooding, high wind and waves, and storm urges. Luckily for Brazil, they only have to deal with coastal hazards in the east, since that is the only shoreline they have. And, for the most part they deal with soil erosion and coastal flooding the most in Brazil. Brazil is home to 8,500 kilometers of coastline, but mainly sees the coastal erosion on the northeast coast of Brazil. The main causes of coastal erosion in Brazil are human activity and short and medium term natural causes (https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00206819709465300). Northeast Brazil is also at risk of elevated sea levels, due to their low topography and its high ecological and touristic value (https://www.researchgate.net/publication/260494736_Coastal_risk_assessment_and_adaptation_of_the_impact_of_sealevel_rise_climate_change_and_hazards_A_RS_and_GIS_based_approach_in_Apodi-...
This week, we are talking about extreme weather within countries, and we can choose any country that we want to research. However, I decided to stick with Brazil and see what kind of extreme weather they have to deal with. One major thing I saw Brazil deals with is tornadoes. Tornadoes usually occur due to the updrafts and downdrafts of a thunderstorm. Some parts of Brazil have tornadoes much more often than other parts. Most of the tornadoes that occur in Brazil are in either the South or the Southeast portion of Brazil (https://journals.ametsoc.org/doi/full/10.1175/2011WCAS1095.1). In April of 2015, there was a deadly tornado that hit Brazil. This tornado ruined about 500 homes, killing two people, and sending almost 120 to the hospitals, 15 of these people were seriously injured. This tornado occured due to a super cell storm. A super cell storm is a thunderstorm with a deep rotating updraft. This was one of the largest tornadoes Brazil has ever seen. This is a picture of some of th...
Brazil is mainly in the low category and in some areas is in the very low category of landslide susceptibility (http://thinkhazard.org/en/report/37-brazil/LS). Brazil does not really receive earthquakes which can cause landslides, and they get rain, but it does not rain enough for landslides. In January of 2011, many people of Brazil died due to landslides. The Brazilian government did not warn or alert the people of Brazil (http://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-12205338). Since landslides, mudslides and avalanches all do not occur to often, it is not that great of a threat to Brazil. After this event, they are now sending out alerts over the phone and helping them prepare before it happens (http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/17/world/americas/17brazil.html).
Luckily for Brazil, it is in the middle of the South African plate and not on the edges of any tectonic plates. This means that they do not have many volcanoes there at all (http://www.invivo.fiocruz.br/ cgi/cgilua.exe/sys/start.htm?UserActiveTemplate=english &infoid= 1275&sid=43). Although they do have some. On the Brazilian island, Trindade, there is a volcano which classifies as dormant (https://www.volcanodiscovery.com/trindade.html). A dormant volcano is a volcano that has not erupted in the past 10,000 years, but is still expected to erupt again. There are no active or even dormant volcanoes on mainland Brazil, but there are two extinct volcanoes in the mainland. There is the Nova Igua รง u Volcano and the Pico do Cabugi Volcano, both in the mainland and extinct (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_volcanoes_in_Brazil). An extinct volcano is a volcano that no one expects to ever erupt again. I could not find anything on what Brazil is doing to warn people when a volcano...
Brazil is classified as a medium hazard level, which means that there is only a 10 percent chance that Brazil will experience a potentially damaging earthquake in the next 50 years (http://thinkhazard.org/en/report/37-brazil/EQ). Earthquake risks are relatively low in Brazil compared to many other South American countries, but low and medium intensity hazards occur at a certain frequency in Brazil. On November 5, 2015, the Fundao tailings dam of Brazil collapsed due to a series of earthquakes with the magnitude of 2.01 to 2.55, which caused the worst environmental disaster in Brazilian history. In Brazil on average, magnitude 3 earthquakes occur twice a month, magnitude 4 earthquakes occur twice a year, and magnitude 5 earthquakes occur once every 50 years (https://phys.org/news/2017-08-seismic-hazards-brazil.html). Since Brazil does not really experience "big" earthquakes, they do not have to worry too much. In 2015, the dam that fell was just fragile and was not built for ...
Brazil lies on the South American plate, which classifies as a major tectonic plate (http://kangbrazil.blogspot.com/2015/06/plate-tectonics-in-brazil.html). A major tectonic plate contains part of a continent, in this case South America, and part of an ocean basin. Brazil's plate boundaries are divergent, which means that the tectonic plates move away from each other.
A catastrophe is an event that cause sufficient damage to people, property, or society that causes recovery to be long and complex, such as a flood, a hurricane, or a tornado. A disaster is usually a sudden event that causes great damage and/or loss of life in a limited area and limited time. A hazard is a danger that poses a threat to people or property. A hazard is usually one that is not caused by humans.