The characteristics of natural disasters can be summed up in six aspects:
First of all, natural disasters are widespread and regional. On the one hand, natural disasters are widely distributed. Whether it is the sea or the land, the ground or the underground, the city or the countryside, the plain or the hilly area or the plateau, as long as there are human activities, natural disasters may occur. On the other hand, the regionality of natural geographical environment determines the regionality of natural disasters.
Secondly, natural disasters are frequent and uncertain, and they happen every year all over the world.
Destructive natural disasters
There are many natural disasters of all sizes. In recent decades, the frequency of natural disasters has increased, and the uncertainty of the time, place and scale of natural disasters has greatly increased the difficulty for people to resist natural disasters.
Third, natural disasters are periodic and non-repetitive. In major natural disasters, whether earthquake, drought or flood, their occurrence presents a certain periodicity. People often say that a natural disaster "once in ten years, once in a hundred years" is actually a popular description of the periodicity of natural disasters. The non-repetition of natural disasters mainly refers to the non-repetition of disaster processes and destruction results.
Fourth, related to natural disasters. The connection between natural disasters is manifested in two aspects. On the one hand, there are links between regions. For example, the "El Nino" phenomenon on the west coast of South America may lead to global meteorological disorder; Industrial waste gas from the United States often forms acid rain in Canada. On the other hand, disasters are related. In other words, some natural disasters can be mutually conditional, forming a disaster group or chain. For example, volcanic activity is a disaster group or chain. Volcanic activity will lead to a series of disasters such as volcanic eruption, melting of ice and snow, debris flow and air pollution.
Fifth, the harm caused by various natural disasters is serious. For example, there are about 5 million earthquakes recorded every year in the world, including about 50,000 felt earthquakes and nearly 1000 damaged earthquakes. However, strong earthquakes with a magnitude of more than 7 on the Richter scale can cause great losses, about 15 times a year, and the economic losses caused by droughts and floods are also very serious, reaching tens of billions of dollars worldwide every year.
Sixth, natural disasters are inevitable and can be alleviated. Because man and nature are always contradictory, as long as the earth is moving and the matter is changing, as long as human beings exist, natural disasters cannot disappear. From this perspective, natural disasters are inevitable. However, intelligent human beings can prevent and reduce disasters in a wider and wider scope, and minimize disaster losses by taking measures such as seeking advantages and avoiding disadvantages, turning harm into benefits, and turning harm into benefits. From this perspective, natural disasters can be alleviated.