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Week 16 - Canada's Main Natural Hazards

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 The two main natural disasters in Canada are floods and wildfires. Floods mostly occur due to events such as heavy rainfall, melting snow, groundwater flooding, coastal storm surges, etc. The amount of wildfires has been increasing in Canada due to global warming causing warmer-than-average temperatures, drought conditions, and a decrease in soil moisture. These natural disasters are pretty destructive, recent statistics show in the 2023 wildland fire season over 230,000 people had to be evacuated and 6,623 wildland fires burned more than 15 million hectares of forests. How to Prepare Your Home From Floods: Store important documents at a higher level in your home to protect them from flood damage. Make copies of important documents or digitize them. Include important documents in your emergency kit. Purchase sandbags to prevent water from entering your home. Learn how to turn off utilities such as electricity and gas in your residence. Local authorities may instruct you to shut of...
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Week 13 - Coastal Erosion

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 Coastal erosion is having a big impact on Canada's future by negatively impacting many things. Coastal erosion is causing problems such as rising sea levels, putting human lives at risk, etc. Although coastal erosion may be hard to stop, there's way we can mitigate it. Rising Sea Levels: Coastal erosion has been raisi ng sea levels all over the world at a pretty rapid rate. It was stated in an article that I read " Global sea levels have risen at a rate of about 1.7 mm per year over the last century, but recent satellite observations are suggesting that  3 mm per year could be a more accurate prediction  of sea level rise in the past decade." The reason rising sea levels can cause damage is because it increases the amount of floods that happen and cause structural damage to buildings. How Does This Affect Humans? Coastal erosion can affect many people in different ways. It states in the article tha t " Canada has  226,000 kilometers of coastline, and up to 600,0...
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Week 10: Extreme Weather Events

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 Heat Waves In Canada: Heat waves have been happening a lot more frequently in Canada according to sources. With these new heat waves coming in the text states "Canada climate scientists analyzed 37 of the hottest heat waves in 17 regions across Canada." In just this year the scientists concluded that Canada had 37 of the hottest waves they've had yet this year. This photo is showing how us humans are causing these heat waves to happen more frequently and be hotter than before because of global warming. We're putting too many fossil fuels into the air which is the main reason global warming is happening and these extreme weathers are frequently happening more often all around the world. How To Be Prepared For Heat Waves:  Provide community cooling centers, particularly in areas with low-income, elderly, and young populations Ensure proper functioning of energy and water systems Encourage citizens to check on their family, friends, and neighbors to ensure they have acc...
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Week 8: Mass Wasting Events

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  In Canada Mass Wasting Events are very common, such as having landslides and avalanches. These events have caused over the deaths of 600 people and have caused over billions of dollars in damage to Canada since 1840. Canada is also known for having a lot more avalanches happen than landslides. The biggest avalanche that was recorded the most fatalities in Canada was the 1910 Rogers Pass avalanche. This avalanche took place on March 4th 1910 and took the lives of 62 railway workers and left one guy injured.  How to Prepare For an Avalanche: Know Your Avalanche Risk: Learn about your local avalanche risk. Know the signs of increased danger, including recent avalanches and shooting cracks across slopes. Avoid areas of increased risk, such as slopes steeper than 30 degrees or areas under steep slopes. Preparing for Avalanche: Get proper equipment to protect yourself from head injuries and create air pockets. Receive first aid training so you can recognize and treat suffocation,...
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Week 5: Volcanic Hazards

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 Canada has possibly 5 active volcanic areas that are mostly located around the Garibaldi Volcanic Belt. The most recent eruption that happened in Canada was in 1904 in Lava Fork. There were no fatalities in this eruption as it wasn't near any houses or people. It did damage the Blue River by going over it and created many small lakes. - How to prepare for a volcano/volcanic eruption? Familiarize yourself with nearby evacuation routes and shelters. Formulate an emergency plan. Talk to your insurance agent. - What to do during a volcanic eruption? Where long sleeve clothes and pants. Use shelter-in-place procedures. Avoid running engines such as vehicles because volcanic ash can clog them. Use eye covers to help protect your eyes from the ash. Sources: https://chis.nrcan.gc.ca/volcano-volcan/can-vol-en.php https://www.tetoncountywy.gov/459/What-You-Should-Do-in-the-Case-of-a-Volc https://www.selective.com/about-selective/blog/personal-risk-preparedness/prepare-for-volcanic-eruptions...
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Week 3: Earthquakes

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Earthquakes In Canada:  Although Canada is recorded to have over 5,000 earthquakes a year, only 50 of them are felt. It's rare for an earthquake to cause property damage to a structure, let alone be felt by anyone. The most recent earthquake Canada had that involved property damage and people getting hurt was on July 11th, 2024. The earthquake had a magnitude of 6.4 which is pretty high. Seismic Hazard Map: In this map, it shows that the seismic levels of Canada are pretty high around the edges of all of Canada. All the way to the west of Canada you can see a very high relative hazard of seismic levels because that is where the North American Plate and Pacific Plate intersect. Earthquake Mitigation: There are many things you can do in the scenario of an earthquake such as being in a strong structured building, hiding under tables if you're inside a building or any type of cover, finding open land, etc.
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Week 2 - Canada's Tectonic plates and Boundaries

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  What is a tectonic plate? A tectonic plate is a huge slab of stone underground that can affect many things such as shaping land, building mountains, make volcanos, etc. Canada is has two tectonic plates within them such as the pacific plate and the North American plate. These plates interfere with each other on the west side of Canada, the North American Plate is overriding the Pacific Plate. There's also a subduction zone called the Cascadia Subduction Zone that is known to have repeated tsunamis there. Sources: https://www.earthquakescanada.nrcan.gc.ca/info-gen/tsunami-en.php https://pubs.usgs.gov/gip/dynamic/tectonic.html#:~:text=A%20tectonic%20plate%20(also%20called,Plates%20are%20among%20the%20largest.
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