Natural disasters can occur anytime, anywhere! They are mostly unpredictable. They are dangerous and lead to immense loss of life and property. This book introduces children to interesting facts about natural disasters, their causes, and their consequences.
The earth’s atmosphere experiences many natural changes which makes the weather swing from normal to extreme. A killer heat wave in Europe, devastating floods in India and Bangladesh, destructive hurricanes in America and furious storms in the Phillippines. Heatbursts, whiteouts, acid rain, and F1 tornadoes — these and more make up weather at its extreme worst. Over the last few years the earth has been experiencing more and more incidences of extreme weather. What is going wrong? Are human activities changing the pattern of weather more than ever before? This book has the answers.
Nature is unpredictable…by nature! This book chronicles the world’s worst natural catastrophes and reveals the causes behind the disasters. It will also introduce children to interesting facts about the disasters as they occurred as well as their consequences.
Water is a necessary evil. This book proves this proverb right. Water causes havoc with floods and when it dries up, it again destroys human life. This book in an age-appropriate manner tells you how extreme weather destroys everything that comes in its way.
This is the first book to really make sense of the dizzying array of information that has emerged in recent decades about earthquakes. Susan Hough, a research seismologist in one of North America's most active earthquake zones and an expert at communicating this complex science to the public, separates fact from fiction. She fills in many of the blanks that remained after plate tectonics theory, in the 1960s, first gave us a rough idea of just what earthquakes are about. How do earthquakes start? How do they stop? Do earthquakes occur at regular intervals on faults? If not, why not? Are earthquakes predictable? How hard will the ground shake following an earthquake of a given magnitude? How does one quantify future seismic hazard? As Hough recounts in brisk, jargon-free prose, improvements in earthquake recording capability in the 1960s and 1970s set the stage for a period of rapid development in earthquake science. Although some formidable enigmas have remained, much has been learned on critical issues such as earthquake prediction, seismic hazard assessment, and ground motion prediction. This book addresses those issues. Because earthquake science is so new, it has rarely been presented outside of technical journals that are all but opaque to nonspecialists. Earthshaking Science changes all this. It tackles the issues at the forefront of modern seismology in a way most readers can understand. In it, an expert conveys not only the facts, but the passion and excitement associated with research at the frontiers of this fascinating field. Hough proves, beyond a doubt, that this passion and excitement is more accessible than one might think.
For thousands of years, humans have probed and pondered over our planetary home. How was the Earth formed? How old is it? How did it become a living world? Today, because of our expanded knowledge and the wonders of technology, we know a lot more about Earth than our ancestors. We know that it is an evolving planet, undergoing never-ending changes, perhaps at a pace unequalled in its recent, or even remote, past. The Story of Planet Earth gives a detailed, yet interesting, account of a lot more aspects related to the creation of Earth Earths origin in light of the Big Bang explosion, arrival of water on its surface, formation of its atmosphere, evolution of life forms from unicellular organisms to giants like dinosaurs, changes from its core to crust and its current state in terms of unsettling global changes, a majority of which find their roots in our greed and thoughtlessness. The book goes beyond time, into the future, to see what may be in store for our forthcoming generations, if we dont care about this home of ours.
What exactly is an avalanche? Why do tropical cyclones spin in different directions? What is the deadliest heat wave ever to have been recorded? And what are the three different types of lightning? All of this and more is revealed in this fantastic book containing over one hundred facts about the world's most deadly natural disasters. Covering floods, cyclones, landslides, avalanches, tsunamis, fires, earthquakes, blizzards, heatwaves, volcanoes and lightning, this is a fascinating addition to any fact-lover's collection.
Reclaiming Hindu Temples: Episodes from an Oppressive Era by Chandni Sengupta is a detailed, academic look at the Sultanate period, or the early medieval period, which marked the imposition of Islamic fundamentalism in India.From the 13th Century to the arrival of the Mughals in the 16th Century, several dynasties ruled from Delhi, called Sultans - like the Slave dynasty, the Khaljis, the Lodhis, etc - and created havoc in the areas within and around Delhi. They were specifically enthused by their holy war, and indulged wantonly in destroying Hindu temples, killing Hindus, capturing their women to be sold later, and imposing taxation and other methods to torture the Hindus and alienate them from the normal body-politic; besides effecting mass conversions at sword-point. Sengupta quotes copiously from the sources like the court historians of these barbaric rulers, which expose the glee with which they carried out such pogroms. In doing so, the author has systematically exploded the oft-repeated line from historians, who claimed that this period spawned synthesis of syncretic culture, under the influence from the Sultanate rulers. "This period did not have a single moment of peace for the Hindus," says the author.
Natural Hazards: Earth Processes as Hazards, Disasters and Catastrophes, Fourth Edition, is an introductory-level survey intended for university and college courses that are concerned with earth processes that have direct, and often sudden and violent, impacts on human society. The text integrates principles of geology, hydrology, meteorology, climatology, oceanography, soil science, ecology and solar system astronomy. The book is designed for a course in natural hazards for non-science majors, and a primary goal of the text is to assist instructors in guiding students who may have little background in science to understand physical earth processes as natural hazards and their consequences to society. Natural Hazards uses historical to recent examples of hazards and disasters to explore how and why they happen and what we can do to limit their effects. The text's up-to-date coverage of recent disasters brings a fresh perspective to the material. The Fourth Edition continues our new active learning approach that includes reinforcement of learning objective with a fully updated visual program and pedagogical tools that highlight fundamental concepts of the text. This program will provide an interactive and engaging learning experience for your students. Here's how: Provide a balanced approach to the study of natural hazards: Focus on the basic earth science of hazards as well as roles of human processes and effects on our planet in a broader, more balanced approach to the study of natural hazards. Enhance understanding and comprehension of natural hazards: Newly revised stories and case studies give students a behind the scenes glimpse into how hazards are evaluated from a scientific and human perspective; the stories of real people who survive natural hazards, and the lives and research of professionals who have contributed significantly to the research of hazardous events. Strong pedagogical tools reinforce the text's core features: Chapter structure and design organizes the material into three major sections to help students learn, digest, and review learning objectives.