Natural Disasters

For the past few weeks our class has been learning about natural disasters and their effect on the environment. After we read about some disasters like hurricanes and forest fires as a class, we each chose another type of disaster to research. We wrote five-paragraph essays about what we learned.

After we finished our essays, we made a video to show what these dramatic natural disasters look like. We used the FxGuru iPhone app to create the special effects.

Here are some of the interesting facts we learned about the natural disasters we studied:

• Most people know about how Mount Vesuvius erupted in the year 79 A.D. and covered Pompeii, but it has also erupted at least 50 more times.
• The Tri-State Tornado on March 18, 1925, was the most destructive in history. It went through Missouri, Illinois and Indiana, and its path was over 200 miles long. It killed 695 people and injured over 2,000.
• The longest lightning bolt was almost 200 miles long. It happened during a thunderstorm in Oklahoma on June 20, 2007.
• Avalanches are a danger on mountains after 12 or more inches of snow have fallen. If an avalanche is triggered, the snow can pour down the mountain at a rate of over 80 miles per hour.
• Floods can be deadly, but they also can help the environment. The sediment in flood waters may cause the soil to be more fertile.