A Distance Education Course offered by the University of British Columbia
EOSC 114
The Catastrophic Earth:  Natural Disasters

One of the topic modules below is linked to a sample lesson.  Students who register for this course can see all the lessons.


MODULE 1: A Fragile System? 

1 Introduction
2 Unit A: Natural Disasters are Rare Events
3 Unit B: Materials
4 Unit C: Energy
5 Unit D: Waves and Turbulence
6 Unit E: Is the Earth a Fragile System?
7 Self-Study/Review - A Fragile System?		Earth

MODULE 2: The Shaking Earth (Earthquakes)

1 Introduction
2 Unit A: Global Distribution
3 Unit B: Earthquake Sources
4 Unit C: Seismic Energy and Waves
5 Unit D: Forecasting
6 Unit E: Engineering for Survival
7 Conclusion
8 Q-A: Check your Understanding		earthquake damage is Kashmir

MODULE  3: The Explosive Earth (Volcanoes)

1 Introduction
2 Unit A: Volcano Characteristics
3 Unit B: What Threats Do Volcanoes Pose?
4 Unit C: Preventing Destruction from Eruptions
5 Unit D: Where are Violent Volcanoes Found?		volcano

MODULE 4: The Unstable Ground (Landslides) 

1 The Unstable Ground: Overview
2 Unit A: Landslide Mechanics
3 Unit B: Landslide Causes and Triggers
4 Unit C: Landslide Classification
5 Unit D: Landslide Mitigation		Rockslide at Porto Cove

MODULE 5: The Turbulent Atmosphere (Storms) 

1 Introduction
2 Unit A: Thunderstorms & Humidity
3 Unit B: Thunderstorm Cells/Supercells & Energy
4 Unit C: Lightning and From Heat to Motion
5 Unit D: How Thunderstorms Harness Energy
6 Unit E: Tornadoes
7 Unit F: Hurricanes
thunderstorm

MODULE 6: The Violent Ocean (Tsunami) 

1 Introduction
2 Unit A: How do Waves Work?
3 Unit B: Destructive Ocean Waves
-  3.1 Storm Surge
-  3.2 Tsunami
-  3.3 Seiche
-  3.4 Rogue Waves
4 Unit C: Waves and Shorelines
5 Unit D: Global Warming and Sea-Level Rise
Tsunami

MODULE 7: Impacts from Space and Mass Extinction Events 

1 Introduction
2 Unit A: Extinctions - The Great Dyings
3 Unit B: The Cretaceous - Tertiary Extinction
4 Unit C: Comet & Asteroid Impacts and Mankind
5 Self Study/Review Questions		Impact with Earth
See samples of other Distance Ed courses offered by the UBC Earth, Ocean & Atmospheric Science Dept.
See learning goals and textbook info for this course.  
Photo credits:
1) Earth from space.  The underlying image of the full disk of Earth and its clouds was taken on September 9, 1997, by a Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES) operated by the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), and built by NASA. The ocean color data was collected in late September and early October 1997 by NASA's Sea-viewing Wide Field-of-view Sensor (SeaWiFS) satellite. The land color is portrayed by a vegetation index calculated using data collected from September 9-19, 1997, by Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) instruments carried aboard NOAA's Polar Orbiting Environmental Satellites (POES).  Credit: NASA.
2) Kashmir 2005, earthquake magnitude 7.6. Approximately 100,000 people were killed in this earthquake.
3) Tungurahua Volcano - 1999 Image by USGS.  
4) Rockslide on Sea-to-Sky Highway near Porto Cove, British Columbia.   Photo by Erik Eberhardt.
5) Supercell thunderstorm over Chaparral, N.M. caused widespread damage, April 3, 2004. Photo from NOAA Photo Library.  
6) Tsunami in 2004.
7) An artist's conception of an extra-terrestrial object impacting the Earth. Digital image by Karen Carr. 
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