Hey all this is a blog for my geology class at MPC.
My blog will be about the country of japan and how geology relates it the risk and disasters that occur there. The assignment for out first week is to tell you what a natural hazard, a disaster and a catastrophe are.

A Natural Hazard is anything that is a risk to the people in land in a region, that occurs in because of nature. Some examples that both my home state and the country of Japan are at risk for are earth quakes and tsunamis, because of our location on the edge of tectonic plates and the ocean that is next to us.

A Disaster is an contained emergency, such as a river flooding a small town. According to my text book "Natural Hazards" by Keller and Devecchio, it only needs to meet one of four requirements listed below:

• Death toll of ten or more
• Total population affected must be greater than one hundred
• There is a declared state of emergency
• International assistance is requested 

A catastrophic is something that takes years to restore the area back to how it was before the event took place. It covers a large area, is very expensive to recover from, such as the earth quake in 2011 that caused a tsunami in japan. To date restoration efforts are in affect. It required foreign aid and caused a massive loss of lives.