Natural disasters like volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, storms, or floods often catch the attention and imagination of people all over the world.  These disasters can affect anyone at any time, but most do not think about the ongoing geologic processes that are happening on, and within, the earth every day to create these disasters.   Natural Hazards and Disasters: The Interaction of Geology and People is designed to help students connect geologic processes to our everyday lives through the discussion of natural hazards and disasters.  Through these discussions, students identify key geologic features that signal ongoing or past geologic threats, the impacts these disasters have on people all over the world, and learn what can be done to mitigate the impacts of disasters.

The text is designed to help students understand the ongoing geologic process (the hazard), as well as specific examples of devastating impacts on people (the disasters).  Each subject (earthquakes, volcanoes, etc.) has a paired set of chapters to discuss the hazards and disasters.  The goal is to show students how immediate, and far-reaching a particular disaster can be, while highlighting key aspects/decisions of the case studies that may have led to a particular loss.  While these events can be exciting to the scientific community, they are often devastating to people, infrastructure, and the economy.  The discussions are meant to reflect this far-reaching, multidisciplinary impact.  Updated frequently, this resource reflects the most current mitigation and monitoring techniques, as well as current disasters.