Geology 9 - Week 1

 Kenya


    Kenya is a country located on the eastern coast of Africa. The geography of Kenya is widely varied displaying: temperate, dry, arid, semi-arid, and desert regions as well as snowy mountains encirled by lush forests. Great variation in environments entails a similarly great variation of environmental hazards, disasters and catastrophes.

In environmental terms hazards are natural phenomenon that have the potential to negatively impact communities, economic functions, and local ecology. Hazards are described as the 'origin of disasters.' 

There are several classifications of hazards:
Geophysical: Hazards originating from the earth.
Hydrological: Hazard caused by movement or distribution of water.
Meteorological: Hazard caused by short-term extreme weather and atmospheric conditions.
Climatological: Hazard caused by long-term atmospheric processes.
Biological: Hazard caused by exposure to organisms, toxic substances or diseases.
Extraterrestrial: Hazards caused by phenomena from space that have pass near or breached Earth's atmosphere. Can also be a change in interplanetary conditions that affect the magnetophere, ionosphere, and thermosphere.

Disasters are described as small-scale, localized threats that are direct or indirect results of a hazard. Disasters include: death, destruction of property, loss of resources, environmental/ecological damage, upheaval of societal order and overall disfunction of communites affected by the hazard. Catastrophes are similar to disasters except they take place on a much larger scale. Catastrophes are often so overwhelming for the afflicted communites that they require outside assistance.

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