Natural Disasters

EENS 204/ EVST 203/ EENS 605

Fall Semester 2009

Prof. Stephen A. Nelson


Course Description

An examination of the causes, effects, and options available to mitigate natural disasters, such as earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, landslides, subsidence, flooding, severe weather, and meteorite impacts.

Follow the links below to material related to this course. New links will be added and updated throughout the semester, so check back with this page often.

Send e-mail to Prof. Nelson: snelson@tulane.edu


Click on the Topic of Interest Below

Course Announcements

 

Syllabus 204

Syllabus 605

Disaster Summary Information

Lecture Notes

 

Homework Exercises

Web Links

 

Field Trip Infomation

 


Announcements - Look here  for announcements concerning this course



October 13 , 2009 - The midterm exam has been graded and will be returned in class today. To see the distribution of scores and other information about the exam, click HERE.  

October 7 , 2009 - Another seat is now available for the Sunday, October 11th field trip.  If you still have not signed up for the field trip, do so now as there will not likely be another oppotunity.

For those of you going on the the field trip on Sunday October 11th,  the field trip will leave from Freret Street in front of the Howard Tilton Library.  Look for the school bus. The field trip leaves at 9:00 AM.  That means you should be at the start point before 9:00 AM so that you don't get left behind.

September 17 , 2009 - Another seat has opened for the Saturday, September 19th field trip.  Send an email -snelson@tulane.edu if you want to claim that seat.

September 14 , 2009 - For those of you going on the the field trip on Saturaday, September 19,  the field trip will leave from Freret Street in front of the Howard Tilton Library.  Look for the school bus. The field trip leaves at 9:00 AM.  That means you should be at the start point before 9:00 AM so that you don't get left behind.

September 4 , 2009 - The field trip scheduled for Saturday, Sept. 19th is now completely booked.  There is still plenty of room on the field trip for Sunday, October 11th.   If anyone wants to change their field trip date from Sept. 19th, to October 11th, now is the time to do it.

August 25, 2009 - Be sure to sign up for a field trip to the levee breaches - click HERE for information on how to sign up and for further information on the field trip.

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Lecture Notes

Note:  Two versions of each set of lecture notes are shown in the table below.  The first is in html format, optimized for viewing on the Web.  You can print this version directly from your Web browser, but there is no guarantee that the pages will break where they are supposed to, since each person's browser can be set up differently (margins, fonts, font sizes, etc.).  

The PDF (Portable Document Format) versions of the lecture notes are optimized for printing.  All page breaks should occur correctly.  If your web browser has the proper plug-in installed, clicking on the PDF will bring the file into your web browser from which you can then print the notes.  If the plug-ins are not installed, your web browser will either attempt to download the PDF files or offer to send you to the Adobe web site to download the plug-ins for your browser.  If you choose to download the PDF format lecture notes you will still need the free Adobe Acrobat Reader to view and print the files.  This and further information about the browser plug-ins can be obtained by clicking on the icon below.

getacro.gif (712 bytes)

Note for Netscape Users - Netscape versions 6 and 7 do not display the symbol font used in many of these documents. If you don't see the following characters as Greek letters alpha and beta - a b , then your browser has this problem.  If you are using Netscape versions 6 or 7, either see the following web site to modify your Netscape Browser so that it displays the symbol font correctly

http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/~osborne/MathTutorial/SYMFIX.HTM

or, view the PDF versions of the files which will always display all fonts correctly.

Note: Only Files with the Red Asterisk * have been updated for the Fall 2009 Semester

 Natural Disasters & Assessing Hazards and Risk*

PDF File*

Earth Structure, Materials, Systems, and Cycles*

PDF File*

Earthquakes: Causes and Measurements*

PDF File*

Earthquake Hazards & Risks*

PDF File*

Earthquake Prediction and Control*

PDF File*

Earthquake Case Histories*

PDF File*

Tsunami*

PDF File*

Volcanoes, Magma, and Volcanic Eruptions*

PDF File*

Volcanic Landforms, Volcanoes & Plate Tectonics*

PDF File*

Volcanic Hazards, Beneficial Aspects, & Predicting Eruption*

PDF File*

Volcanic Case Histories*

PDF File*

Mass Wasting and Mass-Wasting Processes*

PDF File*

Slope Stability, Triggering Events, Mass Wasting Events*

PDF File*

Subsidence*

PDF File*

The Ocean-Atmosphere System*


PDF File*

Tornadoes & Other Severe Weather*

PDF File*

Tropical Cyclones*

PDF File*

Coastal Zones*

PDF File*

River Systems & Causes of Flooding*

PDF File*

River Flooding*

PDF File*

Flooding Hazards, Prediction & Human Intervention*

PDF File*

 

Meteorites, Impacts, and Mass Extinction

PDF File

 

 

References to works cited in Lecture Notes

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Homework Exercises

Note: Both HTML and PDF files are available from the list below.

Note: Only files with an asterisk (*) have been updated for the Spring 2009 Semester.

I. Disaster Info on the Internet* - Due Sept. 8

PDF File*

II. Seismological Exercises*- Due Sept. 22

PDF File*

III. Volcanological Exercises* - Due Oct. 1

PDF File*

IV. Mass Wasting Exercises* - Due Oct. 27

PDF File*

V. Weather Exercises*   - Due Nov. 12

PDF File*

VI.  Flooding Exercises*- Due Dec. 1

PDF File*

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Links to Natural Disaster Information on the Internet
Note: This list is not exhaustive, but it contains some important links that will also contain other links to natural disaster information.

 Plate Tectonics

Natural Disasters in General

Earthquakes

Volcanic Eruptions

Tsunami

Landslides

Floods

Weather Related Disasters

 Meteorite Impacts

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