Earthquake
An earthquake (also known as a quake, tremor or temblor) is the result of a sudden release of energy in the Earth's crust that creates seismic waves.
Tsunami
A tsunami also called a tsunami wave train, and at one time incorrectly referred to as a tidal wave, is a series of water waves caused by the displacement of a large volume of a body of water, usually an ocean, though it can occur in large lakes.
Tornado
A tornado (often referred to as a twister or, erroneously, a cyclone) is a violent, dangerous, rotating column of air that is in contact with both the surface of the earth and a cumulonimbus cloud or, in rare cases, the base of a cumulus cloud.
Floods
A flood is an overflow of an expanse of water that submerges land. The EU Floods directive defines a flood as a temporary covering by water of land not normally covered by water
Volcanic Eruptions
Volcanoes can cause widespread destruction and consequent disaster through several ways. The effects include the volcanic eruption itself that may cause harm following the explosion of the volcano or the fall of rock.
Large Igneous Provinces
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Highly active periods of volcanism in what are called large igneous provinces have produced huge oceanic plateaus and flood basalts in the past. These can comprise hundreds of large eruptions, producing millions of cubic kilometers of lava in total. No large flood basalt type eruptions have occurred in human history, the most recent having occurred over 10 million years ago. They are often associated with breakup of supercontinents such as Pangea in the geologic record, and may have contributed to a number of mass extinctions. Most large igneous provinces have either not been studied thoroughly enough to establish the size of their component eruptions, or are not preserved well enough to make this possible. Many of the eruptions listed above thus come from just two large igneous provinces: the Paraná and Etendeka traps and the Columbia River Basalt Group. The latter is the most recent large igneous province, and also one of the smallest. A list of large igneous provinces follows to provide some indication of how many large eruptions may be missing from the lists given here.
| Igneous province | Age (Ma) | Location | Volume (millions of km3) | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ontong Java–Manihiki–Hikurangi Plateau | 121 | Southwest Pacific Ocean | 59–77[n 5] | Largest igneous body on Earth, later split into three widely separated oceanic plateaus, with a fourth component perhaps now accreted onto South America. Possibly linked to the Louisville hotspot. |
| Kerguelen Plateau–Broken Ridge | 112 | South Indian Ocean, Kerguelen Islands | 17[n 5] | Linked to the Kerguelen hotspot. Volume includes Broken Ridge and the Southern and Central Kerguelen Plateau (produced 120–95 Ma), but not the Northern Kerguelen Plateau (produced after 40 Ma). |
| North Atlantic Igneous Province | 55.5 | North Atlantic Ocean | 6.6[n 6] | Linked to the Iceland hotspot. |
| Mid-Tertiary ignimbrite flare-up | 32.5 | Southwest United States: mainly in Colorado, Nevada, Utah, and New Mexico | 5.5 | Mostly andesite to rhyolite explosive (.5 km3) to effusive (5 km3) eruptions, 25–40 Ma. Includes many volcanic centers, including the San Juan volcanic field. |
| Caribbean large igneous province | 88 | Caribbean-Colombian oceanic plateau | 4 | Linked to the Galápagos hotspot. |
| Siberian Traps | 249.4 | Siberia, Russia | 1–4 | Possibly the largest outpouring of lava on land ever recorded, thought to have caused Permian-Triassic extinction, largest mass extinction event ever. |
| Karoo-Ferrar | 183 | Southern Africa, Antarctica | 2.5 | Formed as Gondwana broke up |
| Paraná and Etendeka traps | 133 | Brazil/Angola and Namibia | 2.3 | Linked to the Tristan hotspot |
| Central Atlantic Magmatic Province | 200 | Laurasia continents | 2 | Formed as Pangea broke up |
| Deccan Traps | 65.5 | Deccan Plateau, India | 1.5 | May have helped kill the dinosaurs. |
| Emeishan Traps | 256.5 | Southwestern China | 1 | Along with Siberian Traps, may have contributed to the Permian–Triassic extinction event. |
| Coppermine River Group | 1267 | Mackenzie Large Igneous Province/Canadian Shield | 0.65 | Consists of at least 150 individual flows. |
| Afro-Arabian flood volcanism | 28.5 | Ethiopia/Yemen/Afar, Arabian-Nubian Shield | 0.35 | Associated with silicic, explosive tuffs |
| Columbia River Basalt Group | 16 | Pacific Northwest, United States | 0.18 | Well exposed by Missoula Floods in the Channeled Scablands. |
