Differences between Hazards, Disasters, and Catastrophes

The planet is often riddled with Natural Processes, proof of the earth moving and changing. It is not until a process occurs near/or affecting humans that it is deemed a Natural Hazard. This is when a natural process such as an earthquake transpires and the damage potentially threatens human lives or property. A hazard is classified as a Natural Disaster when a hazardous process occurs in a concentrated space and time and either kills 10+ people, affects 100+ people, a state of emergency is declared, and/or the area requests international assistance. A disaster is considered a Catastrophe if it requires years to recover at a significant cost. 

 An interesting tidbit I found as I was deciding to study Japan was that the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake is often written about as a disaster despite being the largest earthquake recorded in Japanese history (9.0 magnitude), the following and unpredicted Tsunamis, the damaged Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant cooling system with consequent radioactive pollution, the recorded 15,894 confirmed deaths, and the $199 billion cost (so far) to fix the damage. This small list barely covers the damage caused by the Earthquake but, from this initial lesson, leads me to believe that those covering the earthquake possibly mix up the terms disaster and catastrophe.



I used LiveScience's article summarizing the earthquake and its effects, updated September 13, 2017
https://www.livescience.com/39110-japan-2011-earthquake-tsunami-facts.html

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