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Ageologic hazard orgeohazard is an adversegeologic condition capable of causing widespread damage or loss of property and life.[1] Thesehazards are geological and environmental conditions and involve long-term or short-term geological processes. Geohazards can be relatively small features, but they can also attain huge dimensions (e.g., submarine or surfacelandslide) and affect local and regional socio-economics to a large extent (e.g.,tsunamis).
Sometimes the hazard is instigated by the careless location of developments or construction in which the conditions were not taken into account. Human activities, such as drilling through overpressured zones, could result in significant risk, and as such mitigation and prevention are paramount, through improved understanding of geohazards, their preconditions, causes and implications. In other cases, particularly in montane regions, natural processes can cause catalytic events of a complex nature, such as an avalanche hitting a lake and causing a debris flow, with consequences potentially hundreds of miles away, or creating a lahar by volcanism.
Marine geohazards in particular constitute a fast-growing sector of research as they involve seismic, tectonic, volcanic processes now occurring at higher frequency, and often resulting in coastal sub-marine avalanches or devastatingtsunamis in some of the most densely populated areas of the world[2][3]
Such impacts on vulnerable coastal populations, coastal infrastructures, offshore exploration platforms, obviously call for a higher level of preparedness and mitigation.[4][5]
Sudden phenomena include:
Gradual or slow phenomena include:
Geologic hazards are typically evaluated byengineering geologists who are educated and trained in interpretation of landforms and earth process, earth-structure interaction, and in geologic hazard mitigation. The engineering geologist provides recommendations and designs to mitigate for geologic hazards. Trained hazard mitigation planners also assist local communities to identify strategies for mitigating the effects of such hazards and developing plans to implement these measures. Mitigation can include a variety of measures:
In recent decades,Earth Observation (EO) has become a key tool in geohazards management, including preparedness, response, recovery, and mitigation.[9] By leveragingremote sensing technologies, often supported by ground surveys, EO provides critical information to researchers, decision-makers, and planners. It has revolutionized our ability to map and monitor geohazards with precision and timeliness.[9]
Eleven distinctflood basalt episodes occurred in the past 250 million years, resulting inlarge volcanic provinces, creatinglava plateaus andmountain ranges on Earth.[10] Large igneous provinces have been connected to fivemass extinction events. The timing of six out of eleven known provinces coincide with periods ofglobal warming and marineanoxia/dysoxia. Thus, suggesting that volcanic CO2 emissions can force an important effect on theclimate system.[11]
Media related toGeological hazards at Wikimedia Commons