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The Kids Ahead program is an initiative to increase the number of kids with science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) competencies and interests.

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Science >> Earth Science for Kids

Weather - Hurricanes (Tropical Cyclones)

What is a hurricane?

A hurricane is a large rotating storm with high speed winds that forms over warm waters in tropical areas. Hurricanes have sustained winds of at least 74 miles per hour and an area of low air pressure in the center called the eye.

Different Names for Hurricanes

The scientific name for a hurricane is a tropical cyclone. Tropical cyclones go by different names in different places. In North America and the Caribbean they are called "hurricanes", in the Indian Ocean they are called "cyclones", and in Southeast Asia they are called "typhoons."

How do hurricanes form?

Hurricanes form over the warm ocean water of the tropics. When warm moist air over the water rises, it is replaced by cooler air. The cooler air will then warm and start to rise. This cycle causes huge storm clouds to form. These storm clouds will begin to rotate with the spin of the Earth forming an organized system. If there is enough warm water, the cycle will continue and the storm clouds and wind speeds will grow causing a hurricane to form.

Parts of a Hurricane

Eye - At the center of the hurricane is the eye. The eye is an area of very low air pressure. There are generally no clouds in the eye and the wind is calm. Don't let this fool you, however, the most dangerous part of the storm is at the edge of the eye called the eye wall.

Eye wall - Around the outside of the eye is a wall made up of very heavy clouds. This is the most dangerous part of the hurricane and where the highest speed winds are. The winds at the eye wall can reach speeds of 155 miles per hour.

Rainbands - Hurricanes have large spirally bands of rain called rainbands. These bands can drop huge amounts of rainfall causing flooding when the hurricane hits land.

Diameter - Hurricanes can become huge storms. The diameter of the hurricane is measured from one side to the other. Hurricanes can span a diameter of over 600 miles.

Height - The storm clouds that power hurricanes can become very tall. A powerful hurricane can reach nine miles into the atmosphere.

The structure of a hurricane

Where do tropical cyclones occur?

Tropical cyclones occur over the ocean in areas near the equator. This is because there is plenty of warm water in these areas to allow the storms to form. There are seven major areas in the world that tend to produce tropical cyclones. See the map below.

Locations of tropical cyclones throughout the world

When do hurricanes occur?

Hurricanes that form in the Caribbean and the Atlantic Ocean occur between June 1st and November 30th each year. This is called hurricane season.

Why are hurricanes dangerous?

When hurricanes strike land they can cause huge amounts of damage. Most of the damage is caused by flooding and storm surge. Storm surge is when the ocean level rises at the coastline due to the power of the storm. Hurricanes also cause damage with high speed winds that can blow downtrees and damage homes. Many hurricanes can develop several small tornados as well.

How are they named?

Hurricanes in the Atlantic are named based on a list of names maintained by the World Meteorological Organization. The names go in alphabetical order and the storms are named as they appear. So the first storm of the year will always have a name that starts with the letter "A." There are six lists of names and each year a new list is used.

Categories

Tropical cyclones are categorized according to the speed of sustained winds.

Tropical Depression - 38 mph or less

Tropical Storm - 39 to 73 mph

Hurricane

Category 1 - 74 to 95 mph

Category 2 - 96 to 110 mph

Category 3 - 111 to 129 mph

Category 4 - 130 to 156 mph

Category 5 - 157 or higher mph

Interesting Facts about Hurricanes

Hurricanes rotate counterclockwise in the northern hemisphere and clockwise in the southern hemisphere. This is due to the rotation of the Earth called the Coriolis effect.

The letters Q, U, X, Y, and Z are not used for the first letter when naming hurricanes.

The names are alternated between boy and girl names.

Weather forecasters draw a cone showing where they think the hurricane is most likely to travel.

You can always find out the latest information on hurricanes at the website of the National Hurricane Center which tracks and forecasts hurricanes.

Activities

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Earth Science Subjects

Science >> Earth Science for Kids

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Kids learn about hurricanes (Tropical Cyclones) including how they form, names, eye, eye wall, rainbands, locations, seasons, facts, and categories.

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The wind at the beach is whipping at 95 miles an hour. Waves 16 feet tall are crashing down. Even sharks are heading out to calmer waters. A hurricane is on its way.

These powerful storms have different names depending on where in the world they form. They're called hurricanes if they occur in the Atlantic Ocean, Caribbean Sea, Gulf of Mexico, and eastern Pacific Ocean. In the western Pacific Ocean, they're known as typhoons; in the southern Pacific and Indian Oceans, they're called cyclones.

Scientists know them all as tropical cyclones. As many as 150 occur around the world each year.

How a hurricane forms

Hurricanes are strong storms that start in the ocean and have winds of at least 74 miles an hour. In the Northern Hemisphere (the part of Earth north of the equator), hurricanes generally occur between mid-August to late October. In the Southern Hemisphere (the area south of the equator), storm season is between April and December, with peak storm activity around May and November. During these times, oceans have warmer water, which is what a hurricane needs to form.

Hurricanes begin when a tropical depression forms in the ocean. A tropical depression is a line of rain showers and weak thunderstorms that circle around an area of low air pressure. If the water is at least 79°F, a hurricane might form.

The low air pressure causes the hot, humid air from the ocean to rise in a spiral shape. As that warm air rises, it releases heat, cools down, and condenses into gusty bands of clouds and storms. The low-pressure area continues to suck up hot, moist air, and the spiral gets stronger and faster.

When winds reach 39 miles an hour, the tropical depression becomes a tropical storm. When winds reach 74 miles an hour, it's officially a hurricane.

As a hurricane moves over cooler water or hits land, it loses the warm water that fuels it and begins to weaken. But dangerous winds can still cause damage, and storm surges-when a strong storm pushes ocean water ashore-can flood coastal areas with more than 20 feet of water. Heavy rains and floods can continue far inland.

Understanding a hurricane's strength

Hurricanes are classified by wind speed and the amount of damage that scientists predict the storm will cause when it reaches land. (In the United States, this is done by the National Hurricane Center, part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.)

For example, a Category 1 storm has wind speeds of 74 to 95 miles an hour and will probably damage some homes and cause a few power outages. But a Category 5 hurricane is considered a powerful, destructive storm. These storms have winds of 156 miles an hour or more and will likely cause so much damage that people must abandon their communities, which will need months to clean up.

These rankings can help predict the severity of an approaching storm, but any hurricane can be devastating. For instance, Hurricane Katrina was only a Category 3 storm when it hit the U.S. Gulf Coast around Louisiana and Mississippi in 2005. The storm caused over $100 billion in damages, and nearly 2,000 people died.

Predicting the path

Meteorologists can predict the path that a hurricane will travel-and where it will make landfall-by analyzing changes in temperature, cloud formations, and air circulation patterns. That data is gathered by specialized aircraft, satellites, and weather surveillance radar from above the Earth. Other scientific devices that float in the ocean can measure winds, waves, and air and sea temperatures.

The information from these tools is used to create computer forecasting models used by scientists to learn when a storm is forming, where it might travel, and how severe it will be. That can help local officials release warnings or even evacuation orders in order to keep people safe from the coming hurricane.

Naming hurricanes

Once a storm's wind speed reachers 39 miles an hour, it becomes a tropical storm and is given a name. The name is chosen from a list of about 20 names issued by the World Meteorological Organization at the beginning of the hurricane season. They alternate between female and male names.

But you won't see David, Katrina, Andrew, or Laura on that list-those hurricanes were so destructive that the names have been removed. And you won't hear of any hurricanes starting with Q, U, X, Y, or Z, since few names begin with those letters.

More powerful storms in the future?

In the future, scientists don't expect to see more hurricanes, but they do expect more powerful ones. That's because hurricanes get bigger more quickly in warmer water. As climate change causes ocean temperatures to rise, scientists predict that future hurricanes will be rainier and longer lasting.

How to survive a hurricane

The safest thing to do is to follow local instructions and leave the area, or evacuate, if officials say you should. Here are other tips for staying safe if a hurricane is headed your way.

Before a hurricane
* Know the evacuation routes in your neighborhood, and make sure your parents have put gas in the car.
* Check your yard to see if any branches are broken on trees and alert an adult if they are. (Those branches could break off and soar through a window!)
* Bring in anything that could blow away, like garbage cans and outdoor furniture.
* Close all your windows, storm shutters, blinds, and curtains.

During a hurricane
* If you haven't evacuated, stay indoors where it's safe.
* Fill all bathtubs and sinks with clean, cold water in case water lines are damaged or the supply becomes contaminated.
* Ride out the storm in an interior room, such as a hallway or closet on the lowest level of your house.
* Never go near a window, even if it's boarded up.
* If it looks like the storm is going to hit your home, lie on the floor under a table or another sturdy object.
* Limit the use of cell phones to free up space for emergency calls.

After a hurricane
* Listen to weather reports to make sure the storm has passed. A calm sky might be just the hurricane's eye, or center, and more storm fun will be on the way.
* If you evacuated, return only when officials say it's safe.
* Check all food for spoilage. Remember: If in doubt, throw it out.

Adapted from the Nat Geo Kids book Extreme Weather by Thomas Kostigen, revised for digital by Laura Goertzel

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The wind at the beach is whipping at 95 miles an hour. Waves 16 feet tall are crashing down. Even sharks are heading out to calmer waters. A hurricane is on its way. These powerful storms have different names depending on where in the world they form.

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Hurricanes are dangerous and can cause major damage from storm surge, wind damage, rip currents and flooding. They can happen along any U.S. coast or in any territory in the Atlantic or Pacific oceans. Storm surge historically is the leading cause of hurricane-related deaths in the United States.

Prepare for Hurricanes
Know Your Hurricane Risk Make an Emergency Plan Know your Evacuation Zone Recognize Warnings and Alerts Those with Disabilities Review Important Documents Strengthen your Home Get Tech Ready Help your Neighborhood Gather Supplies
Stay Safe During a Hurricane

Returning Home After a Hurricane

Additional Resources
Videos Graphics and Social Media More Information

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Learn how to prepare for a hurricane, stay safe during a hurricane, and what to do when returning home from a hurricane. Hurricanes are dangerous and can cause major damage because of storm surge, wind damage, and flooding. They can happen along any U.S. coast or in any territory in the Atlantic or Pacific oceans.

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What is a hurricane?
A hurricane is a huge storm! It can be up to 600 miles across and have strong winds spiraling inward and upward at speeds of 75 to 200 mph. Each hurricane usually lasts for over a week, moving 10-20 miles per hour over the open ocean. Hurricanes gather heat and energy through contact with warm ocean waters. Evaporation from the seawater increases their power. Hurricanes rotate in a counter-clockwise direction around an "eye" in the Northern Hemisphere and clockwise direction in the Southern Hemisphere. The center of the storm or "eye" is the calmest part. It has only light winds and fair weather. When they come onto land, the heavy rain, strong winds and large waves can damage buildings, trees and cars.

How do hurricanes form?
Hurricanes only form over really warm ocean water of 80°F or warmer. The atmosphere (the air) must cool off very quickly the higher you go. Also, the wind must be blowing in the same direction and at the same speed to force air upward from the ocean surface. Winds flow outward above the storm allowing the air below to rise. Hurricanes typically form between 5 to 15 degrees latitude north and south of the equator. The Coriolis Force is needed to create the spin in the hurricane and it becomes too weak near the equator, so hurricanes can never form there.
Hurricane Tracking Charts
Atlantic Ocean
Eastern Pacific

What is storm surge?
Storm surges are frequently the most devastating element of a hurricane. As a hurricane's winds spiral around and around the storm, they push water into a mound at the storm's center. This mound of water becomes dangerous when the storm reaches land because it causes flooding along the coast. The water piles up, unable to escape anywhere but on land as the storm carries it landward. A hurricane will cause more storm surge in areas where the ocean floor slopes gradually. This causes major flooding.
As you watch the storm-surge animations, notice the effect that the physical geography of each coastline has on storm surge. Also, note the waves on top of the ocean's surface. Wind, waves, and sea-level rise all contribute to storm-surge damage.

Shallow-Water Coastline

Deep-Water Coastline

With technology the way it is, there are computer models that allow forecasters to predict the amount of storm surge that will affect a coastal area. These are called Slosh Models and take into account a storm's strength, its path, how the ocean shallows, and the shape of the land. Then it calculates how much storm surge a hurricane will probably cause.

When does hurricane season start?
The Atlantic hurricane season is from June 1 to November 30, but most hurricanes occur during the fall months. The Eastern Pacific hurricane season is from May 15 to November 30. (Below is a graphic that shows you when hurricanes are most active across parts of the world.)

Who names hurricanes?
From 1950 to 1952, tropical cyclones of the North Atlantic Ocean were identified by the phonetic alphabet (Able-Baker-Charlie-etc.), but in 1953 the US Weather Bureau switched to women's names. The rest of the world eventually caught on, and naming rights now go by the World Meteorological Organization, which uses different sets of names depending on the part of the world the storm is in. Around the U.S., only women's names were used until 1979, when it was decided that they should alternate a list that included men's names too. There's 6 different name lists that alternate each year. If a hurricane does significant damage, its name is retired and replaced with another.
Atlantic Hurricane Names
Eastern Pacific Hurricane Names

What is the difference between a hurricane and a typhoon?
Nothing except geography. Tropical storms occur in several of the world's oceans, and except for their names, they are essentially the same type of storm. In the Atlantic Ocean, Gulf of Mexico, and the Eastern Pacific Ocean, they are called hurricanes. In the Western Pacific Ocean, they are called typhoons. In the Indian Ocean, the Bay of Bengal, and Australia, these types of storms are called cyclones.

Who are the "Hurricane Hunters"?
The brave "hurricane hunters" work for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Each mission lasts about ten hours, with the crews passing four to six times through the storm. The planes carry radar, sophisticated computers, and weather instruments that determine characteristics such as temperature, air pressure, wind speed, and wind direction inside the hurricane. The crews also release instruments that measure temperature, air pressure, and wind at different levels as the devices drop through the hurricane toward the ocean. By mission's end, NOAA can warn everyone in the hurricane's path. Below is a photo of the hurricane hunters taking measurements inside Hurricane Katrina.

What is coastal beach erosion?
Coastal beach erosion is the wearing away of land, the removal of beach or dune sediments by wave action, tidal currents, wave currents, or drainage. Waves are generated by storms, wind, or hurricanes and can cause coastal erosion. This may take the form of long-term losses of sediment and rocks, or merely the temporary redistribution of coastal sediments.

TROPICAL STORM WATCH - Tropical Storm conditions with sustained winds from 39 -74 mph are possible in your area within the next 36 hours.

TROPICAL STORM WARNING - Tropical Storm conditions are expected in your area within the next 24 hours.

HURRICANE WATCH - Hurricane conditions with sustained winds of 74 mph or greater are possible in your area within the next 36 hours. This WATCH should trigger your family's disaster plan, and protective measures should be initiated. Especially, those actions that require extra time such as securing a boat and leaving a barrier island.

HURRICANE WARNING - Hurricane conditions are expected in your area within 24 hours. Once this WARNING has been issued, your family should be in the process of completing protective actions and deciding the safest location to be during the storm.

COASTAL FLOOD WATCH - The possibility exists for the inundation of land areas along the coast within the next 12 to 36 hours.

COASTAL FLOOD WARNING - Land areas along the coast are expected to become, or have become, inundated by sea water above the typical tide action.

SMALL CRAFT ADVISORY - A small craft advisory is a type of warning issued by the National Weather Service, most frequently in coastal areas. It is issued when winds have reached, or are expected to reach within 12 hours, a speed marginally less than that which is considered gale force, usually 25-38 mph.

Click Here to see if there are any active warnings in your area.

Tropical Wave - A low pressure trough moving generally westward with the trade winds.

Tropical Disturbance - An organized area of thunderstorms that usually forms in the tropics. Typically, they maintain their identity for 24 hours and are accompanied by heavy rains and gusty winds.

Tropical Cyclone - A generic term for any organized low pressure that develops over tropical and sometimes sub-tropical waters. Tropical depressions, tropical storms, and hurricanes are all example of tropical cyclones.

Tropical Depression - An organized area of low pressure in which sustained winds are 38 mph or less.

Tropical Storm - A tropical cyclone with maximum sustained wind speeds that range from 39 to 73 mph.

Hurricane - A tropical cyclone with sustained winds of at least 74 mph.

To learn more about hurricanes, Click Here to watch a variety of videos teaching you the ins and outs of nature's fury. I would like to give a special thanks to Pinellas County Emergency management for putting these instructional videos together.

BEFORE A HURRICANE: Have a disaster plan and a pet plan ready. Before a storm threatens, contact your veterinarian or local humane society for information on preparing your pets for an emergency. Board up windows and bring in outdoor objects that could blow away. Make sure you know which county or parish you live in and know where all the evacuation routes are. Prepare a disaster supplies kit for your home and car. Include a first aid kit, canned food and a can opener, bottled water, battery-operated radio, flashlight, protective clothing and written instructions on how to turn off electricity, gas, and water. Have a NOAA weather radio handy with plenty of batteries, so you can listen to storm advisories. Have some cash handy as well, because following a hurricane, banks and ATMs may be temporarily closed. Make sure your car is filled with gasoline.

DURING A HURRICANE: Stay away from low-lying and flood prone areas. Always stay indoors during a hurricane, because strong winds will blow things around. Leave mobile homes and to go to a shelter. If your home isn't on higher ground, go to a shelter. If emergency managers say to evacuate, then do so immediately.

AFTER A HURRICANE: Stay indoors until it is safe to come out. Check for injured or trapped people, without putting yourself in danger. Watch out for flooding which can happen after a hurricane. Do not attempt to drive in flooding water. Stay away from standing water. It may be electrically charged from underground or downed power lines. Don't drink tap water until officials say its safe to do so.

Stay alert to storm advisories by using your NOAA weather radio.

Enact your family disaster plan.

Map out your route. Use travel routes specified by local authorities.

Do not get on the road without a place to go.

Fill your car with gasoline.

Enact your pet plan. Before a storm threatens, contact your veterinarian or local humane society for information on preparing your pets for an emergency.

Bring your disaster supply kit. Make sure you include important documents. Have enough food and water for at least 3 days. Bring flashlights for emergency lightning, since it's likely that there will be power outages and most places will be running on backup power.

Secure your home before leaving. Board up windows and glass doors, anchor loose objects or bring them inside and lock your doors.

Have some cash handy. Following a hurricane, banks and ATMs may be temporarily closed.

Notify your family and friends of your plans.

WHEN EVACUATING:

If possible, evacuate to the home of either friends or family in a non-vulnerable area within your county or parish.

Next, try a hotel.

As a last result, go to a public shelter. Remember, shelters are not designed for comfort and do not usually accept pets.

Here is a list of what what you will need for 3 to 5 days if you chose to stay at your home during a hurricane.

Drinking Water Battery-operated Weather Radio

Canned Food Portable Alarm Clock

Manual Can Opener Extra Batteries

Extra Prescription Medicine Flashlights

Eating Utensils Rope

First Aid Kit Hammer and Nails

Trash Bags Duct Tape

Cash Extension Cords

Pillows and Blankets Tarp

Sleeping Bags Mosquito Repellent

Water Jugs Cleaning Supplies

As far as tools are concerned, the following are a must. Remember, power tools may be useless for several days after a storm.

Hand Saw (8 or 10 point)

Claw Hammer

Shovel

Push Broom

Screw Drivers

Limb Saw (pruning saw)

Vice Grips

Utility Knife

Cotton Work Gloves

Lesson Plan: Here is a great lesson plan on learning about hurricane safety. In this activity, Owlie teaches kids about hurricanes and quizzes them about what they learned. Note: This is a PDF file, so you need to have Adobe Acrobat Reader.

Lesson Plan: Here is a great lesson plan on understanding hurricanes. Students will learn how wind speed increases the height and why higher waves occur in shallower water. This activity is for grades 6-8.

Lesson Plan: Here is a great lesson plan on elementary reading comprehension. This lesson contains a broader vocabulary, more hurricane facts, and more thought-provoking writing prompts. It works well for grades 3-5. Note: This is a PDF file, so you need to have Adobe Acrobat Reader.

Lesson Plan: Here is a great interactive lesson plan on allowing kids to create their very own hurricane. It lets you try to create ideal hurricane conditions by changing the winds, latitude, moisture, and sea temperature. It even keeps score! This is a great activity for 5-8th graders.

Lesson Plan: Here is a great interactive lesson plan that lets kids aim a hurricane. It lets you move the hurricane symbol, high pressure symbol and low pressure symbol to track your very own hurricane. Sometimes your hurricane will make landfall, other times it misses the U.S. all together. It lets kid understand how important the setup of weather impacts where hurricanes go.

Suck An Egg Into A Bottle Experiment: Here is an experiment that shows how pressure is created in our atmosphere by sucking an egg in a bottle. This is a very cool experiment!

Make Your Own Barometer I Experiment: Here is an experiment that allows the kids to make a barometer.

Make Your Own Barometer II Experiment: Here is an experiment that allows the kids to make a barometer.

Create Evaporation Experiment: Here is an experiment that shows kids how evaporation takes place.

Science Fair Project Ideas: Here is a complete list of science fair project ideas. Discover the science behind the weather that impacts us every day.

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What is a hurricane? A hurricane is a huge storm! It can be up to 600 miles across and have strong winds spiraling inward and upward at speeds of 75 to 200 mph. Each hurricane usually lasts for over a week, moving 10-20 miles per hour over the open ocean.

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Kids learn about tsunamis including what causes them such as earthquakes, where they occur, why they are dangerous, and what happens during a tsunami event.

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A tsunami is a series of enormous ocean waves caused by earthquakes, underwater landslides, volcanic eruptions or asteroids. A tsunami can kill or injure people and damage or destroy buildings and infrastructure as waves come in and go out. Tsunamis can:

IF YOU ARE UNDER A TSUNAMI WARNING:

If caused by an earthquake, Drop, Cover, then Hold On to protect yourself from the earthquake first.

Get to high ground as far inland as possible

Be alert to signs of a tsunami, such as a sudden rise or draining of ocean waters.

Listen to emergency information and alerts. Always follow the instructions from local emergency managers.

Evacuate: DO NOT wait! Leave as soon as you see any natural signs of a tsunami or receive an official tsunami warning.

If you are in a boat, go out to sea.

Prepare NOW

Survive DURING

Be Safe AFTER

Related Content

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Learn what to do if you are under a tsunami warning and how to stay safe when a tsunami threatens. Prepare Now Survive During Be Safe After Related Content A tsunami is a series of enormous ocean waves caused by earthquakes, underwater landslides, volcanic eruptions or asteroids.

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What is a tsunami?
A tsunami is a large ocean wave usually caused by an underwater earthquake or a volcanic explosion. Tsunamis are NOT tidal waves. Tidal waves are caused by the forces of the moon, sun, and planets upon the tides, as well as the wind as it moves over the water. With typical waves, water flows in circles, but with a tsunami, water flows straight. This is why tsunamis cause so much damage!

How are tsunamis generated?
Tsunamis are generated by any large, impulsive displacement of the sea level. The most common cause of a tsunami is sea floor uplift associated with an earthquake. Tsunamis are also triggered by landslides into or under the water surface, and can be generated by volcanic activity and meteorite impacts.

How often do tsunamis occur?
On the average, two tsunamis occur per year throughout the world which inflict damage near the source. Approximately every 15 years a destructive, ocean-wide tsunami occurs.

Can strike-slip (horizontal motion) earthquakes trigger tsunamis?
Yes, approximately 10-15% of damaging tsunamis are triggered by strike-slip earthquakes. This type of earthquake is less likely to trigger a tsunami than one with vertical motion. The waves are likely generated by associated landslides or motion of a sloping bathymetric feature. Tsunamis generated by strike-slip earthquakes normally affect regions near the source only.

What does the word "tsunami" mean?
Tsunami (soo-NAH-mee) is a Japanese word meaning harbor wave.

How fast do tsunamis travel?
Tsunami velocity depends on the depth of water through which it travels. Velocity equals the square root of the product of the water depth times the acceleration of gravity. Tsunamis travel approximately 475 mph in 15,000 feet of water. In 100 feet of water the velocity drops to about 40 mph.

Did you know...A tsunami travels from the central Aleutian Islands to Hawaii in about 5 hours and to California in about 6 hours, or from the Portugal coast to North Carolina in about 8.5 hours.

How big is a tsunami?
Tsunamis range in size from inches to over a hundred feet. In deep water (greater than 600 feet), tsunamis are rarely over 3 feet and are not normally noticed by ships due to their long period or time between crests. As tsunamis propagate into shallow water, the wave height can increase by over 10 times. Tsunami heights vary greatly along a coast. The waves can be amplified by shoreline and sea floor features. A large tsunami can flood low-lying coastal land over a mile from the coast.

What does a tsunami look like when it reaches shore?
Normally, a tsunami appears as a rapidly advancing or receding tide. In some cases, a wall of water or series of breaking waves may form.

How is a tsunami different from a wind-generated wave?
Wind-generated waves usually have periods or time between crests between 5 and 15 seconds. Tsunami periods normally range from 5 to 60 minutes. Also, wind-generated waves break as they shoal and lose energy offshore. Tsunamis act more like a flooding wave. A twenty foot tsunami is a twenty foot rise in sea level.

What are nature's signs that a tsunami may be imminent?
There are a few signs like hard ground shaking for 20+ seconds near the coast or a sudden sea level withdrawal. Tsunamis may be accompanied by loud, booming noises.

Can earthquakes and tsunamis be predicted?
No, earthquakes cannot be predicted. Once an earthquake has occurred, the arrival time of a tsunami, if generated, can be determined accurately. There is not normally enough time to accurately predict tsunami heights near the source. Away from the source, tsunami wave heights can be estimated based on mathematical tsunami models and observed wave heights.

Aerial video of the tsunami that devastated Japan on March 11, 2011.

Click Here to see an animation of an earthquake and the resulting tsunami. It's great for kids, because they get to see how it actually happens!
What are some of the most damaging tsunamis?

Japan: Major tsunami in 2011 generated in the Pacific Ocean.

Asia: Asian tsunami in 2004 generated in the Indian Ocean.

Alaska: Major tsunamis were generated along the Alaskan coast in 1946, 1957, 1958, 1964, and 1965. Many other locally generated tsunamis occurred prior to those dates.

US/Canada West Coast: Tsunamis were generated locally in 1812, 1873, 1878, 1927, 1930, 1946 and 1949. The west coast was also impacted by tsunamis generated in other regions in 1877, 1946, 1952, 1957, 1960, 1964, 1975, 2006, and 2010.

US/Canada Atlantic Coast: Tsunamis were recorded in 1755, 1884, 1886, and 1929.

Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands experienced damaging tsunamis in 1867 and 1918.

Click Here for the NOAA/National Geophysical Data Center tsunami catalog.

TSUNAMI WARNING- A tsunami warning indicates that a tsunami may be imminent and that coastal locations in the warned area should prepare for flooding. The initial warning is typically based solely on seismic information. After the tsunami is recorded on sea level gages, the warning will be cancelled, restricted, expanded, or downgraded to an advisory. Warnings indicate that flooding up to the maximum expected limit is possible and residents should follow their local emergency management instructions. Warnings are issued when the earthquake information or tsunami forecasts indicate that a wave over 1 meter in amplitude is expected, possible, or ongoing.

TSUNAMI ADVISORY- A tsunami advisory indicates a tsunami which may produce strong currents and is dangerous to those in or very near the water is expected. Large inundations are not expected in areas under advisory status. Advisories will be cancelled, extended, or upgraded to a warning depending on the event severity. Advisories are issued when the tsunami forecast is in the range of 0.3 to 1 meter, or an observed tsunami is in the range of 0.5 to 1.0 meters.

TSUNAMI WATCH- A tsunami watch is an early alert issued to areas which may later be impacted by a tsunami. Tsunami impact is normally at least three hours away for regions within a tsunami watch. The watch will either be upgraded to a warning or advisory in subsequent messages or cancelled depending on the severity of the tsunami. People within a watch area should stay alert for further information regarding tsunami threat.

CREST - The top of a wave.

FJORD - A narrow sea inlet between cliffs or steep slopes.

SURGE - A large wave or billow.

TROUGH - The lowest point between waves.

Click Here to get the latest tsunami warning information from the NWS.

PLAN FOR A TSUNAMI: Have a disaster plan. Know whether you're at risk for danger. Plan an evacuation route. Prepare a disaster supplies kit for your home and car. Include a first aid kit, canned food and a can opener, bottled water, battery-operated radio, flashlight, protective clothing and written instructions on how to turn off electricity, gas, and water.

DURING A TSUNAMI: Follow the instructions issued by local authorities. You will probably want to evacuate immediately. Get to higher ground and as far inland as you can.

AFTER A TSUNAMI: Help injured or trapped people. Stay out of a building if water remains around it. Tsunami waters can cause buildings to sink, floors to crack, or walls to collapse. When re-entering homes, use extreme caution. Check for gas leaks. Open windows and doors to help dry things out. Look for fire hazards.

Lesson Plan: Here is a great lesson plan on learning about tsunamis. Note: This is a PDF file, so you need to have Adobe Acrobat Reader.

Lesson Plan: Here is a great lesson plan on tracking a tsunami.

Lesson Plan: Here is a great lesson plan on tsunamis and how they devastating effects they may cause in the world.

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What is a tsunami? A tsunami is a large ocean wave usually caused by an underwater earthquake or a volcanic explosion. Tsunamis are NOT tidal waves. Tidal waves are caused by the forces of the moon, sun, and planets upon the tides, as well as the wind as it moves over the water.

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Kid's learn about the science of earthquakes. What causes them and where they happen.

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In Alaska in 1964, a magnitude 9.2 earthquake jarred the earth so strongly it caused fishing boats to sink in Louisiana. What causes the ground tremble like that? The answer is simple. The Earth's surface is on the move.

The surface of the earth, called the "crust," is not one solid piece. It's more like a 20 piece puzzle. Each puzzle piece is called a "plate." The plates constantly move. Fortunately for us, they don't move fast. Geologists estimate the fastest plate might shift 6 inches a year (15 centimeters). That's about as fast as your hair grows.

Earthquakes happen when a plate scrapes, bumps, or drags along another plate. When does this happen? Constantly. About a half-million quakes rock the Earth every day. That's millions a year. People don't feel most of them because the quake is too small, too far below the surface, or deep in the sea. Some, however, are so powerful they can be felt thousands of miles away.

A powerful earthquake can cause landslides, tsunamis, flooding, and other catastrophic events. Most damage and deaths happen in populated areas. That's because the shaking can cause windows to break, structures to collapse, fire, and other dangers.

Geologists cannot predict earthquakes. They hope they will in the future through continued research and improved technology.

Earthquakes can happen anytime or anywhere. But you can prepare for the unpredictable with a family safety plan, emergency kit, and supplies.

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In Alaska in 1964, a magnitude 9.2 earthquake jarred the earth so strongly it caused fishing boats to sink in Louisiana. What causes the ground tremble like that? The answer is simple. The Earth's surface is on the move. The surface of the earth, called the "crust," is not one solid piece.

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Prepare Before

Stay Safe During

Stay Safe After

Additional Resources

If you are a disaster survivor, please visit FEMA.gov for up-to-date information on current disaster declarations. If you have questions about your disaster assistance application, you can call (800) 621-3362, visit disasterassistance.gov or use the FEMA mobile app.

An earthquake is a sudden, rapid shaking of the ground caused by the shifting of rocks deep underneath the earth's surface. Earthquakes can cause fires, tsunamis, landslides or avalanches. While they can happen anywhere without warning, areas at higher risk for earthquakes include Alaska, California, Hawaii, Oregon, Puerto Rico, Washington and the entire Mississippi River Valley.

Prepare Before an Earthquake

The best time to prepare for any disaster is before it happens.

Practice Drop, Cover, and Hold On with family and coworkers.

Make an Emergency Plan: Create a family emergency communications plan that has an out-of-state contact. Plan where to meet if you get separated. Make a supply kit that includes enough food and water for several days, a flashlight, a fire extinguisher and a whistle.

Being prepared allows you to avoid unnecessary excursions and to address minor medical issues at home, alleviating the burden on urgent care centers and hospitals.

Remember that not everyone can afford to respond by stocking up on necessities. For those who can afford it, make essential purchases and slowly build up supplies.

Protect Your Home: Secure heavy items in your home like bookcases, refrigerators, water heaters, televisions and objects that hang on walls. Store heavy and breakable objects on low shelves.

Consider making improvements to your building to fix structural issues that could cause your building to collapse during an earthquake.

Consider obtaining an earthquake insurance policy. A standard homeowner's insurance policy does not cover earthquake damage.

Stay Safe During

If an earthquake happens, protect yourself right away:

If you are in a car, pull over and stop. Set your parking brake.

If you are in bed, turn face down and cover your head and neck with a pillow.

If you are outdoors, stay outdoors away from buildings.

If you are inside, stay and do not run outside and avoid doorways.

Protect Yourself During Earthquakes

1. Drop (or Lock)

Wherever you are, drop down to your hands and knees and hold onto something sturdy. If you're using a wheelchair or walker with a seat, make sure your wheels are locked and remain seated until the shaking stops.

2. Cover

Cover your head and neck with your arms. If a sturdy table or desk is nearby, crawl underneath it for shelter. If no shelter is nearby, crawl next to an interior wall (away from windows). Crawl only if you can reach better cover without going through an area with more debris. Stay on your knees or bent over to protect vital organs.

3. Hold On

If you are under a table or desk, hold on with one hand and be ready to move with it if it moves. If seated and unable to drop to the floor, bend forward, cover your head with your arms and hold on to your neck with both hands.

Using a Cane?

Using a Walker?

Using a Wheelchair?

Stay Safe After

There can be serious hazards after an earthquake, such as damage to the building, leaking gas and water lines, or downed power lines.

Expect aftershocks to follow the main shock of an earthquake. Be ready to Drop, Cover, and Hold On if you feel an aftershock.

If you are in a damaged building, go outside and quickly move away from the building. Do not enter damaged buildings.

If you are trapped, send a text or bang on a pipe or wall. Cover your mouth with your shirt for protection and instead of shouting, use a whistle.

If you are in an area that may experience tsunamis, go inland or to higher ground immediately after the shaking stops. Avoid contact with floodwaters as they can contain chemicals, sewage, and debris.

Check yourself to see if you are hurt and help others if you have training. Learn how to be the help until help arrives.
If you are sick or injured and need medical attention, contact your healthcare provider for instructions. If you are experiencing a medical emergency, call 9-1-1.

Once you are safe, pay attention to local news reports for emergency information and instructions via battery-operated radio, TV, social media or from cell phone text alerts.

Register on the American Red Cross "Safe and Well" website so people will know you are okay.

Use text messages to communicate, which may be more reliable than phone calls.

Be careful when cleaning up. Wear protective clothing, including a long-sleeved shirt, long pants, work gloves and sturdy thick-soled shoes. Do not try to remove heavy debris by yourself. Use an appropriate mask if cleaning mold or other debris. People with asthma and other lung conditions and/or immune suppression should not enter buildings with indoor water leaks or mold growth that can be seen or smelled. Children should not take part in disaster cleanup work.

Additional Resources

Videos

Social Media and Graphics

Tip Sheets

More Information

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Learn how to stay safe before, during, and after an earthquake. Prepare Before Stay Safe During Stay Safe After Additional Resources

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What is an earthquake?
Earthquakes are the shaking, rolling or sudden shock of the earth's surface. They are the Earth's natural means of releasing stress. More than a million earthquakes rattle the world each year. The West Coast is most at risk of having an earthquake, but earthquakes can happen in the Midwest and along the East Coast. Earthquakes can be felt over large areas although they usually last less than one minute. Earthquakes cannot be predicted - although scientists are working on it!

Click Here to learn more about earthquakes from USGS.

What causes an earthquake?
There are about 20 plates along the surface of the earth that move continuously and slowly past each other. When the plates squeeze or stretch, huge rocks form at their edges and the rocks shift with great force, causing an earthquake. Think of it this way: Imagine holding a pencil horizontally. If you were to apply a force to both ends of the pencil by pushing down on them, you would see the pencil bend. After enough force was applied, the pencil would break in the middle, releasing the stress you have put on it. The Earth's crust acts in the same way. As the plates move they put forces on themselves and each other. When the force is large enough, the crust is forced to break. When the break occurs, the stress is released as energy which moves through the Earth in the form of waves, which we feel and call an earthquake.

Click Here to see an animation of an earthquake. It's great for kids, because they get to see how it actually happens!

What is a fault?
A fault is an area of stress in the earth where broken rocks slide past each other, causing a crack in the Earth's surface. There are the major types of faults: dip-slip normal, dip-slip reverse, strike-slip, and oblique-slip.

What are plate tectonics?
The theory of plate tectonics is a interesting story of continents drifting from place to place breaking apart, colliding, and grinding against each other. The plate tectonic theory is supported by a wide range of evidence that considers the earth's crust and upper mantle to be composed of several large, thin, relatively rigid plates that move relative to one another. (See plate tectonic graphic above.) The plates are all moving in different directions and at different speeds. Sometimes the plates crash together, pull apart or sideswipe each other. When this happens, it commonly results in earthquakes.

Continental Drift: To see this animation again, click on the picture! This animation shows you what our planet looked like millions of years ago and what it looks like now! Graphic Credit: Geology Department at University of California, Berkeley

Click Here to learn more about plate tectonics and the drifting of our continents.

What is a seismograph?
A seismograph is an instrument used for recording the intensity and duration of an earthquake.

Click Here to calculate the strength of earthquakes!

What is a tsunami?
A tsunami is a large ocean wave usually caused by an underwater earthquake or a volcanic explosion. Tsunamis are NOT tidal waves. Tidal waves are caused by the forces of the moon, sun, and planets upon the tides, as well as the wind as it moves over the water. With typical waves, water flows in circles, but with a tsunami, water flows straight. This is why tsunamis cause so much damage!

Aerial video of the tsunami that devastated Japan on March 11, 2011.

Click Here to see an animation of an earthquake and the resulting tsunami. It's great for kids, because they get to see how it actually happens!

Click Here to get the latest tsunami warning information from the NWS.

Click Here for tsunami safety information.

EPICENTER - The point on the earth's surface directly above the source of the earthquake.

SEISMIC WAVES - The energy created by the quake travels in waves from the epicenter, where they are the strongest. The waves shake buildings, structures and the earth vertically, causing them to move horizontally!

RICHTER SCALE - A measurement of an earthquake's intensity. Each one-point increase on the scale indicates ten times the amount of shaking and 33 times the amount of energy. The energy released by a large earthquake may be equal to 10,000 times the energy of the first atomic bomb.

Click Here to see if there has been any recent earthquake activity across the U.S.

Earthquakes are measured by their intensity on the Richter Scale. Each one-point increase on the scale indicates ten times the amount of shaking and 33 times the amount of energy.

Click Here to learn about cool earthquake facts!

BEFORE AN EARTHQUAKE: Have a disaster plan. Emergency preparedness can save lives. Choose a safe place in every room. It's best to get under a sturdy piece of furniture like a table or a desk where nothing can fall on you. Practice DROP, COVER AND HOLD ON! Drop under something sturdy, hold on, and protect your eyes by pressing your face against your arm. If you live in an earthquake prone area, bolt tall furniture to the wall and install strong latches to cupboards. Prepare a first aid kit for your home. By taking special precautions and checking for hazards before a disaster strikes, you will be much more likely to stay safe.

DURING AN EARTHQUAKE: DROP, COVER AND HOLD ON! Stay indoors until the shaking stops. Stay away from windows. If you're in bed, hold on and stay there, protecting your head with a pillow. If you're outdoors, find a clear spot away from buildings, trees and power lines. Then, drop to the ground. If you're in a car, slow down and drive to a safe place. Stay in the car until the shaking stops.

AFTER THE SHAKING STOPS: Check for injuries. Inspect your home for damage. Eliminate fire hazards, so turn off the gas if you think its leaking. Expect aftershocks. Each time you feel one, DROP, COVER AND HOLD ON.

Lesson Plan: Here is a great lesson plan on learning about how thrust faults are responsible for the uplift of many mountain ranges across the world, including the Los Angeles Basin. This is a great lesson plan for middle and high school students.

Lesson Plan: Here is a great lesson plan keeping track of earthquakes around the world. In this activity, kids keep a record of the location of earthquakes for a week and learn about plate tectonics.

Earthquake Experiment: Here is a great experiment that explains how to prepare for an earthquake.

Science Fair Project Ideas: Here is a list of science fair project ideas that deal with earthquakes.

Science Fair Project Ideas: Here is a complete list of science fair project ideas. Discover the science behind the weather that impacts us every day.

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What is an earthquake? Earthquakes are the shaking, rolling or sudden shock of the earth's surface. They are the Earth's natural means of releasing stress. More than a million earthquakes rattle the world each year. The West Coast is most at risk of having an earthquake, but earthquakes can happen in the Midwest and along the East Coast.

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Javascript must be enabled to view our earthquake maps. To access USGS earthquake information without using javascript, use our Magnitude 2.5+ Earthquakes, Past Day ATOM Feed or our other earthquake feeds.

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Javascript must be enabled to view our earthquake maps. To access USGS earthquake information without using javascript, use our Magnitude 2.5+ Earthquakes, Past Day ATOM Feed or our other earthquake feeds.

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A student doing an experiment in the rock physics lab.

A trench dug across a fault to learn about past earthquakes.

A GPS instrument measures slow movements of the ground.

A scientist stands in front of a fault scarp in southern California.

Damage to badly-constructed buildings after an earthquake.

Scientists doing field work and looking at their notes.

Children's Privacy Policy

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USGS Earthquake Hazards Program, responsible for monitoring, reporting, and researching earthquakes and earthquake hazards

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Enjoy our awesome range of Earth facts for kids. Check out the cool trivia and have fun learning about some of our planet's most amazing features.

Fun Volcano Facts

Check out these fun volcano facts for kids. Learn about hot magma, famous eruptions, volcanoes on other planets, volcanic gases, flowing lava and more. Enjoy our wide range of strange and interesting facts about volcanoes.

Volcanoes are openings in the Earth's surface. When they are active they can let ash, gas and hot magma escape in sometimes violent and spectacular eruptions.

The word volcano originally comes from the name of the Roman god of fire, Vulcan.

Volcanoes are usually located where tectonic plates meet. This is especially true for the Pacific Ring of Fire, an area around the Pacific Ocean where over 75% of the volcanoes on Earth are found.

While most volcanoes form near tectonic boundaries, they can also form in areas that contain abnormally hot rock inside the Earth. Known as mantle plumes, these hotspots are found at a number of locations around the globe with the most notable being in Hawaii.

Hot liquid rock under the Earth's surface is known as magma, it is called lava after it comes out of a volcano.

Some famous volcanic eruptions of modern times include Mount Krakatoa in 1883, Novarupta in 1912, Mount St Helens in 1980 and Mt Pinatubo in 1991.

While we certainly have some big volcanoes here on Earth, the biggest known volcano in our solar system is actually on Mars. Its name is Olympus Mons and it measures a whooping 600km (373 miles) wide and 21km (13 miles) high.

The object with the most volcanic activity in our solar system is Io, one of Jupiter's moons. Covered in volcanoes, its surface is constantly changing to the large amount of volcanic activity.

Most people think of volcanoes as large cone shaped mountains but that is just one type, others feature wide plateaus, fissure vents (cracks were lava emerges) and bulging dome shapes.

There are also volcanoes found on the ocean floor and even under icecaps, such as those found in Iceland.

Volcanoes can be active (regular activity), dormant (recent historical activity but now quiet) or extinct (no activity in historical times and unlikely to erupt again). While these terms are useful, scientists are more likely to describe volcanoes by characteristics such a how they formed, how they erupt and what their shape is.

Common volcanic gases include water vapor, carbon dioxide, sulfur dioxide, hydrogen chloride, hydrogen fluoride and hydrogen sulfide.

Volcanic eruptions can send ash high into the air, over 30km (17 miles) above the Earth's surface.

Large volcanic eruptions can reflect radiation from the Sun and drop average temperatures on Earth by around half a degree. There have been several examples of this over the last century.

Pumice is a unique volcanic rock ( igneous) that can float in water. It can also be used as an abrasive and is sometimes used in beauty salons for removing dry skin.

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Fun Volcano Facts for Kids - Interesting Facts about Volcanoes

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Enjoy our awesome range of Earth facts for kids. Check out the cool trivia and have fun learning about some of our planet's most amazing features. Fun Volcano Facts Check out these fun volcano facts for kids. Learn about hot magma, famous eruptions, volcanoes on other planets, volcanic gases, flowing lava and more.

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Biggest recorded

The biggest volcanic eruption ever recorded by humans was the explosion of Mount Tambora on Sumbawa Island, Indonesia, in 1815. It ranked a 7 (or "super-colossal") on the Volcanic Explosivity Index, the second-highest rating in the index.

Long-lasting effects

The gas and other particles spewed high into the atmosphere during the 1991 eruption of Mount Pinatubo reduced global temperatures by about 0.9 degrees Fahrenheit (0.5 degrees Celsius) during the following year.

Lots of ash

The 1991 eruption of Mount Pinatubo ejected more than 1 cubic mile (5 cubic kilometers) of material into the air and created a column of ash that rose 22 miles (35 km) in the atmosphere.

Big blast

The largest volcanic blast of the 20th century was the eruption of Novarupta one of a chain of volcanoes on the Alaska Peninsula, part of the Pacific Ring of Fire in 1912. It was a 6 (out of a possible 8) on the Volcanic Explosivity Index.

Continuous erupting

Hawaii's Kilauea volcano, one of the most active on Earth, has been erupting continuously for more than 29 years, beginning Jan. 3, 1983.

Deadly eruption

Kilauea erupted 200 years ago, sending speeding lava flows down its peaks and killing more than 400 people, including Hawaiian warriors. It was the deadliest volcanic eruption on record in what is now the United States.

Far-reaching effect

Kilauea means "spewing" or "much spreading" in Hawaiian.

New activity

More than 90 percent of Kilauea's surface is covered by lava less than 1,100 years old.

Stratovolcanoes

Stratovolcanoes are tall, steep, conical structures that periodically erupt explosively and are commonly found where one of Earth's plates is subducting below another, producing magma along a particular zone.

Large mountains

The Hawaiian shield volcanoes are the largest mountains on Earth. The total height of Mauna Kea, below and above sea level, is 33,500 feet (10,210 meters), making it taller than even Mount Everest.

Largest volcanoes

The largest volcanoes on Earth are shield volcanoes, which have broad, gentle slopes built by fluid basalt lavas.

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The biggest volcanic eruption ever recorded by humans was the explosion of Mount Tambora on Sumbawa Island, Indonesia, in 1815. It ranked a 7 (or "super-colossal") on the Volcanic Explosivity Index, the second-highest rating in the index.

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Volcanoes are Earth's geologic architects. They've created more than 80 percent of our planet's surface, laying the foundation that has allowed life to thrive. Their explosive force crafts mountains as well as craters. Lava rivers spread into bleak landscapes. But as time ticks by, the elements break down these volcanic rocks, liberating nutrients from their stony prisons and creating remarkably fertile soils that have allowed civilizations to flourish.

There are volcanoes on every continent, even Antarctica. Some 1,500 volcanoes are still considered potentially active around the world today; 161 of those-over 10 percent-sit within the boundaries of the United States.

But each volcano is different. Some burst to life in explosive eruptions, like the 1991 eruption of Mount Pinatubo, and others burp rivers of lava in what's known as an effusive eruption, like the 2018 activity of Hawaii's Kilauea volcano. These differences are all thanks to the chemistry driving the molten activity. Effusive eruptions are more common when the magma is less viscous, or runny, which allows gas to escape and the magma to flow down the volcano's slopes. Explosive eruptions, however, happen when viscous molten rock traps the gasses, building pressure until it violently breaks free.

How do volcanoes form?

The majority of volcanoes in the world form along the boundaries of Earth's tectonic plates-massive expanses of our planet's lithosphere that continually shift, bumping into one another. When tectonic plates collide, one often plunges deep below the other in what's known as a subduction zone.

As the descending landmass sinks deep into the Earth, temperatures and pressures climb, releasing water from the rocks. The water slightly reduces the melting point of the overlying rock, forming magma that can work its way to the surface-the spark of life to reawaken a slumbering volcano.

Not all volcanoes are related to subduction, however. Another way volcanoes can form is what's known as hotspot volcanism. In this situation, a zone of magmatic activity-or a hotspot-in the middle of a tectonic plate can push up through the crust to form a volcano. Although the hotspot itself is thought to be largely stationary, the tectonic plates continue their slow march, building a line of volcanoes or islands on the surface. This mechanism is thought to be behind the Hawaii volcanic chain.

Where are all these volcanoes?

Some 75 percent of the world's active volcanoes are positioned around the ring of fire, a 25,000-mile long, horseshoe-shaped zone that stretches from the southern tip of South America across the West Coast of North America, through the Bering Sea to Japan, and on to New Zealand.

This region is where the edges of the Pacific and Nazca plates butt up against an array of other tectonic plates. Importantly, however, the volcanoes of the ring aren't geologically connected. In other words, a volcanic eruption in Indonesia is not related to one in Alaska, and it could not stir the infamous Yellowstone supervolcano.

What are some of the dangers from a volcano?

Volcanic eruptions pose many dangers aside from lava flows. It's important to heed local authorities' advice during active eruptions and evacuate regions when necessary.

One particular danger is pyroclastic flows, avalanches of hot rocks, ash, and toxic gas that race down slopes at speeds as high as 450 miles an hour. Such an event was responsible for wiping out the people of Pompeii and Herculaneum after Mount Vesuvius erupted in A.D. 79.

Similarly, volcanic mudflows called lahars can be very destructive. These fast-flowing waves of mud and debris can race down a volcano's flanks, burying entire towns.

Ash is another volcanic danger. Unlike the soft, fluffy bits of charred wood left after a campfire, volcanic ash is made of sharp fragments of rocks and volcanic glass each less than two millimeters across. The ash forms as the gasses within rising magma expand, shattering the cooling rocks as they burst from the volcano's mouth. It's not only dangerous to inhale, it's heavy and builds up quickly. Volcanic ash can collapse weak structures, cause power outages, and is a challenge to shovel away post-eruption.

Can we predict volcanic eruptions?

Volcanoes give some warning of pending eruption, making it vital for scientists to closely monitor any volcanoes near large population centers. Warning signs include small earthquakes, swelling or bulging of the volcano's sides, and increased emission of gasses from its vents. None of those signs necessarily mean an eruption is imminent, but they can help scientists evaluate the state of the volcano when magma is building.

However, it's impossible to say exactly when, or even if, any given volcano will erupt. Volcanoes don't run on a timetable like a train. This means it's impossible for one to be "overdue" for eruption -no matter what news headlines say.

What is the largest eruption in history?

The deadliest eruption in recorded history was the 1815 explosion of Mount Tabora in Indonesia. The blast was one of the most powerful ever documented and created a caldera -essentially a crater-4 miles across and more than 3,600 feet deep. A superheated plume of hot ash and gas shot 28 miles into the sky, producing numerous pyroclastic flows when it collapsed.

The eruption and its immediate dangers killed around 10,000 people. But that wasn't its only impact. The volcanic ash and gas injected into the atmosphere obscured the sun and increased the reflectivity of Earth, cooling its surface and causing what's known as the year without a summer. Starvation and disease during this time killed some 82,000 more people, and the gloomy conditions are often credited as the inspiration for gothic horror tales, such as Mary Shelley's Frankenstein.

Although there have been several big eruptions in recorded history, volcanic eruptions today are no more frequent than there were a decade or even a century ago. At least a dozen volcanoes erupt on any given day. As monitoring capacity for-and interest in-volcanic eruptions increases, coverage of the activity more frequently appears in the news and on social media. As Erik Klemetti, associate professor of geosciences at Denison University, writes in The Washington Post: "The world is not more volcanically active, we're just more volcanically aware."

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Volcanoes are Earth's geologic architects. They've created more than 80 percent of our planet's surface, laying the foundation that has allowed life to thrive. Their explosive force crafts mountains as well as craters. Lava rivers spread into bleak landscapes.

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Your chances of being involved in a volcanic eruption are pretty low compared to other natural disasters, such as flooding or earthquakes. Still, it's good to know what to watch for and what to do. Volcanoes are like giant vents for the Earth.

Imagine a pot of chili bubbling on the stove. If it has a lid on it, steam can't escape. The chili might just bubble up and erupt over the sides of the pan. Take the lid off, though, and the heat can escape.

Deep under the earth's crust is magma - rock that is so hot that it is a liquid. Along with this rock are explosive gases. The earth's crust is not one solid piece, but many pieces that fit together like a puzzle.

When these pieces rub up against each other, they create pressure. Magma and gases build up. Finally, they explode through holes or vents in the earth's surface. As the magma, or lava, cools and hardens, it forms mountains over millions of years. These mountains are known as volcanoes.

Volcanoes are fascinating and terrifying. They spew lava, rock, poisonous gases and ash with great power. Lava is much, much hotter than any oven -over 2000 degrees Fahrenheit. As it pours out of the Earth, it can burn anything in its path. Poisonous gases and ash can cause serious illness or death.

Volcanoes F acts for Kids

There are about 1,900 active volcanoes on the earth. This means they have erupted recently or they might erupt. Some volcanoes are extinct. Over 80 volcanoes have been found in the ocean.

Most volcanoes happen on fault lines, or cracks in the Earth's surface.

There are three different types of volcanoes - Strato (Composite), Shield (these are the largest volcanoes) and Dome.

A volcano has three categories to fall under: Extinct (was a volcano but will never erupt again or is not expected), Dormant (has not erupted in thousands of years but is likely to erupt again), Active (has the potential to erupt at any stage or has erupted since the last ice age).

Most of the earth's volcanoes are in the Pacific Ocean, in an area called the Ring of Fire.

The word "volcano" comes from Vulcan, the Roman god of fire.

Lava from volcanoes can reach temperatures of 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit.

Volcanoes spew out ash and toxic gases, as well as lava and lava boulders.

Pompeii was an ancient city that was completely buried in ash and lava.

Mauna Loa in Hawaii (Pacific Ocean) is the world's largest active shield volcano standing at 4,170 m high. Mauna Kea also in Hawaii is a taller volcano with a height of 4,207 m but currently is dormant. Mauna has not erupted since 2460 BC.

Mount Etna in Sicily (Italy) is Europe's largest active volcano at 3,329 m high.

Mount Damavand a stratovolcano in Iran is the largest volcano in Asia standing at 5,610 m.

Mount Erebus is the largest active volcano in Antarctica with its peak reaching 3,794.

Indonesia has the most active volcanoes in the world and remains one of the most dangerous areas.

10% of the earth's active volcanoes can be found in Japan.

Over 20% of the earth's active volcanoes are underwater.

The volcanic pumice rock is the only known rock that can float in water.

Volcano Vocabulary

Cool Video for Kids on Volcanoes

Watch this Science Video to Learn More All About Volcanoes:

This is a video explaining about volcanic eruptions.

Question: Are there any benefits to volcanoes?

Answer: Volcanoes relieve pressure inside the earth, similar to when you lift the lid on a pot of simmering food. Soils around old lava fields are often fertile and grow good crops.

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Question: Are all volcanoes mountains?

Answer: Sometimes volcanoes can be plateaus or even cracks in the ground.

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Question: How serious are volcanoes to people?

Answer: Most volcanoes occur where few people live, but when a volcano actively erupts, it can be very dangerous to anyone living nearby. Over 260,000 people have died in volcanoes in the last 300 years. Many people live in the valley beneath Mt. Rainier, the most dangerous volcano in America. The volcano isn't likely to erupt, but dangerous mudslides called Iahars roar down its peaks.

Enjoyed the Natural Science for Kids website all about Volcanoes info? Take the FREE & fun all about Volcanoes quiz and download FREE Volcanoes worksheet for kids. For lengthy info click here.

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Your chances of being involved in a volcanic eruption are pretty low compared to other natural disasters, such as flooding or earthquakes. Still, it's good to know what to watch for and what to do. Volcanoes are like giant vents for the Earth. Imagine a pot of chili bubbling on the stove.

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What is a Volcano?

A volcano is a landform (usually a mountain) where molten rock erupts through the surface of the planet.

In simple terms a volcano is a mountain that opens downward to a pool of molten rock ( magma) below the surface of the earth. It is a hole in the Earth from which molten rock and gas erupt.

Did you know?

What is the difference between lava and Magma?

Magma is liquid rock inside a volcano.

Lava is liquid rock (magma) that flows out of a volcano. Fresh lava ranges from 1,300° to 2,200° F (700° to 1,200° C) in temperature and glows red hot to white hot as it flows.

How many volcanoes are there in the world?

There are around 1,510 active volcanoes in the world.

We currently know of 80 or more which are under the oceans.

What are the three layers the Earth is made of?

1. Crust
The crust is the outer layer of Earth. It is about 18 miles thick. It is the part we live on.

2. Mantle
The second layer is called the mantle. It is about 1,800 miles thick.

3. Core
The inner layer is called the core.

What causes volcanoes to erupt?

The Earth's crust is made up of huge slabs called plates, which fit together like a jigsaw puzzle. These plates sometimes move.

Between the Earth's crust and the mantle is a substance called magma which is made of rock and gases.

When two plates collide, one section slides on top of the other, the one beneath is pushed down. Magma is squeezed up between two plates.

Did you know?

When magma erupts, what is it called?

When magma erupts through the earth's surface it is called lava

What is the Ring of Fire?

Over half of the world's volcanoes arise in a belt around the Pacific Ocean called the Ring of Fire.

Volcano Eruptions
Largest active volcano Websites
Volcanoes around the World
Each triangle on the map represents a volcano.

Volcano FAQ's -- Learn About Volcanoes
What is a volcano? ... Why do volcanoes erupt? ... Where do volcanoes erupt? ... How hot is a volcano?

Information on Volcanoes including volcanoes and climate

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Facts and information on Mountains for kids, including the five different types of mountains that exist.

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Kids learn about the science of volcanoes including how they form mountains, lava, and magma; types such as cinder cone, composite, and shield; watch a video about volcanoes.

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When magma finds a way to escape from beneath the earth’s surface, it creates a volcano.

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A volcano is an opening in the Earth's crust that allows molten rock, gases and debris to escape to the surface. During a volcanic eruption, lava and other debris can flow at speeds of up to 100 mph, destroying everything in their path. Volcanic ash can travel hundreds of miles and cause severe health problems.

A volcanic eruption can:

Contaminate water supplies.

Damage machinery.

Reduce visibility through smog and harmful gases that may threaten low-lying areas.

Make it hard to breathe and irritate the skin, eyes, nose and throat.

IF YOU ARE UNDER A VOLCANO WARNING:

Listen for emergency information and alerts.

Follow evacuation or shelter orders. If advised to evacuate, do so early.

Reduce your ash exposure by doing the following:

Limit your time outdoors and use a dust mask or cloth mask as a last resort if you must be outside.

Avoid areas downwind and river valleys downstream of the volcano.

Take temporary shelter from volcanic ash in the location where you are.

Cover ventilation openings and seal doors and windows.

Avoid driving in heavy ash. If you must drive, keep the windows up and do not use the air conditioning system.

Do not get on your roof to remove ash.

Stay indoors until authorities say it is safe to go outside.

Prepare NOW

Survive DURING

Be Safe AFTER

Related Content

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Learn what to do if you are under a volcano warning and how to stay safe when a volcano threatens. Prepare Now Survive During Be Safe After Related Content A volcano is an opening in the Earth's crust that allows molten rock, gases and debris to escape to the surface.

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What is a volcano?
A volcano is a mountain that opens downward to a pool of molten rock below the surface of the earth. When pressure builds up, eruptions occur. Gases and rock shoot up through the opening and spill over or fill the air with lava fragments. Eruptions can cause lateral blasts, lava flows, hot ash flows, mudslides, avalanches, falling ash and floods. Volcano eruptions have been known to knock down entire forests. An erupting volcano can trigger tsunamis, flash floods, earthquakes, mudflows and rockfalls.

Click Here to learn more about volcanoes from USGS.

How are volcanoes formed?
Volcanoes are formed when magma from within the Earth's upper mantle works its way to the surface. At the surface, it erupts to form lava flows and ash deposits. Over time as the volcano continues to erupt, it will get bigger and bigger.

What are the different stages of volcanoes?
Scientists have categorized volcanoes into three main categories: active, dormant, and extinct. An active volcano is one which has recently erupted and there is a possibility that it may erupt soon. A dormant volcano is one which has not erupted in a long time but there is a possibility it can erupt in the future. An extinct volcano is one which has erupted thousands of years ago and there's no possibility of eruption.

Why do volcanoes erupt?
The Earth's crust is made up of huge slabs called plates, which fit together like a jigsaw puzzle. These plates sometimes move. The friction causes earthquakes and volcanic eruptions near the edges of the plates. The theory that explains this process is called plate tectonics.

What are plate tectonics?
The theory of plate tectonics is a interesting story of continents drifting from place to place breaking apart, colliding, and grinding against each other. The plate tectonic theory is supported by a wide range of evidence that considers the earth's crust and upper mantle to be composed of several large, thin, relatively rigid plates that move relative to one another. The plates are all moving in different directions and at different speeds. Sometimes the plates crash together, pull apart or sideswipe each other. When this happens, it commonly results in earthquakes.
Click Here to learn more about plate tectonics and the drifting of our continents.

How many volcanoes are there?
There are more than 1500 active volcanoes on the Earth. We currently know of 80 or more which are under the oceans. Active volcanoes in the U.S. are found mainly in Hawaii, Alaska, California, Oregon and Washington.

What is the difference between lava and magma?
Magma is liquid rock inside a volcano. Lava is liquid rock (magma) that flows out of a volcano. Fresh lava glows red hot to white hot as it flows.

Why does lava take a long time to cool down?
Lava cools slowly because lava is a poor conductor of heat. Lava flows slow down and thicken as they harden.

What is a pyroclastic flow?
A pyroclastic flow is a fluidized mixture of solid to semi-solid fragments and hot, expanding gases that flows down the sides of a volcano. These awesome features are heavier-than-air emulsions that move much like a snow avalanche, except that they are fiercely hot, contain toxic gases, and move at phenomenal, hurricane-force speeds. They are the most deadly of all volcanic phenomena.

What is lahar?
A lahar is a type of mudflow or debris flow composed of pyroclastic material, rocky debris, and water. The material flows down from a volcano, typically along a river valley. It is very dangerous because it's consistency and the way it acts is very much like cement. It is liquid when it's moving, but when it stops, it solidifies. This can cause just as much devastation as lava itself.

What is pumice?
Pumice is a light, porous volcanic rock that forms during explosive eruptions. It resembles a sponge because it consists of a network of gas bubbles frozen amidst fragile volcanic glass and minerals. All types of magma (basalt, andesite, dacite, and rhyolite) will form pumice.

What is the largest active volcano?
The world's largest, active volcano is Mauna Loa in Hawaii, where famous coffee is grown in the rich volcanic soils. Mauna Loa is 13,677 feet above sea level. From its base below sea level to its summit, Mauna Loa is taller than Mount Everest.

What is the Ring of Fire?
The Pacific Ring of Fire is an area of frequent earthquakes and volcanic eruptions encircling the basin of the Pacific Ocean. The Ring of Fire has 452 volcanoes and is home to over 50% of the world's active and dormant volcanoes. Ninety percent of the world's earthquakes and 81% of the world's largest earthquakes occur along the Ring of Fire.

What is volcanic lightning?
Volcanic lightning, also known as dirty thunderstorms, is capable of producing some of the most powerful and visually striking lightning storms on Earth. Not all volcanic eruptions produce lightning. When it does occur, a single eruption can create multiple, separate lightning storms. The lightning seems to be set off by explosions during the eruption, although not all explosions cause lightning. During recent eruptions that displayed lightning, scientists observed the most intense lightning occurred at the beginning of the eruption and gradually decreased as the eruption continued, sometimes over a period of weeks.

When is a volcano considered active?
Surprisingly, there is no consensus among volcanologists on how to define an active volcano. The lifespan of a volcano can vary from months to several million years, making such a distinction sometimes meaningless when compared to the lifespans of humans or even civilizations. For example, many of Earth's volcanoes have erupted dozens of times in the past few thousand years but are not currently showing signs of activity. Given the long lifespan of such volcanoes, they are very active. By our lifespans, however, they are not.

What is a Vulcanian Eruption?
A vulcanian eruption is a type of explosive eruption that ejects new lava fragments that do not take on a rounded shape during their flight through the air. This may be because the lava is too viscous or already solidified. These moderate-sized explosive eruptions commonly eject a large proportion of volcanic ash and also breadcrust bombs and blocks.

What is a mud volcano?
In volcanic regions, mud volcanoes are usually small volcano-shaped cones of mud. They are built as mud erupts from a vent, either as a flowing liquid or ejected into the air. The mud is formed as acid gases rise through the crust, react with rock and turn it into clay. The mud is a mixture of clay and groundwater. The mud volcanoes erupt following pressurization from geothermal steam and gases.

What is a tsunami?
A tsunami is a large ocean wave usually caused by an underwater earthquake or a volcanic explosion. Tsunamis are NOT tidal waves. Tidal waves are caused by the forces of the moon, sun, and planets upon the tides, as well as the wind as it moves over the water. With typical waves, water flows in circles, but with a tsunami, water flows straight. This is why tsunamis cause so much damage!

Click Here to see an animation of an earthquake and the resulting tsunami. It's great for kids, because they get to see how it actually happens!
Click Here to get the latest tsunami warning information from the NWS.

What is the difference between active, dormant and extinct volcanoes?

Active volcanoes - Scientists usually consider a volcano active if it is currently erupting or showing signs of unrest, such as unusual earthquake activity or significant new gas emissions. Many scientists also consider a volcano active if it has erupted in historic time. It's important to note that the span of recorded history differs from region to region; in the Mediterranean, recorded history reaches back more than 3,000 years but in the Pacific Northwest of the United States, it reaches back less than 300 years, and in Hawaii, little more than 200 years.

Dormant volcanoes - Dormant volcanoes are those that are not currently active (as defined above), but could become restless or erupt again.

Extinct volcanoes - Extinct volcanoes are those that scientists consider unlikely to erupt again. Whether a volcano is truly extinct is often difficult to determine. For example, since calderas have lifespans sometimes measured in millions of years, a caldera that hasn't produced an eruption in tens of thousands of years is likely to be considered dormant instead of extinct. Yellowstone caldera in Yellowstone National Park is at least 2 million years old and hasn't erupted for 70,000 years, yet scientists do not consider Yellowstone as extinct. In fact, because the caldera has frequent earthquakes, a very active geothermal system, and rapid rates of ground uplift, many scientists consider it to be a very active volcano.

What are the different types of volcanoes?
Volcanoes are grouped into four types: cinder cones, composite volcanoes, and shield volcanoes.

Cinder cones are circular or oval cones made up of small fragments of lava from a single vent that have been blown into the air, cooled and fallen around the vent.

Composite volcanoes which are also called 'stratovolcanoes' are steep-sided volcanoes composed of many layers of volcanic rocks, usually made from high-viscosity lava, ash and rock debris. Mt. Rainier and Mount St. Helens are examples of this type of volcano.

Shield volcanoes are volcanoes shaped like a bowl or shield in the middle with long gentle slopes made by basaltic lava flows. Basalt lava flows from these volcanoes are called flood basalts. The volcanoes that formed the basalt of the Columbia Plateau were shield volcanoes.

When did Mount St. Helens erupt?
On May 18, 1980, Mount St. Helens erupted. It's located in southwestern Washington State in the Cascade Range. The blast was heard as far away as Montana, Idaho, Canada and California. Fifty-seven people died and the eruption caused $1.2 billion in damage.

Click Here for more info on Mount St. Helens.

What are some other notable volcano eruptions?
Krakatoa was a dormant volcano in Indonesia, which awakened and produced one of the biggest volcanic eruptions in 1883. So massive was the eruption that the sound of it was heard as far away as Australia. It's widely reported as the loudest sound heard in recorded history. The Krakatoa eruption created a huge amount of ash cloud which covered the Earth and reduced global temperatures for 5 years! A total of 40,000 people died in that explosion and an entire chain of the volcanic island was destroyed. For more info: Click Here!

Mount Pelee was a dormant volcano situated in the Caribbean island of Martinique. In 1902, it erupted in a massive horizontal explosion sending huge clouds of ash released towards the nearby town of Saint-Pierre. The side of the volcano exploded and lava flowed straight into the town, killing 30,000 people in a matter of minutes. It is regarded as one of the biggest and most devastating volcanic eruptions of the 20th century, a benchmark for future eruptions.

Mount Fujiyama, also popularly known as Mount Fuji, is an active volcano which last erupted in 1708. It is incidentally the tallest mountain in Japan. If you are visiting Tokyo, the capital of Japan, look in the west on a clear day and you will be able to see Mount Fuji. It is an iconic volcano. Mount Fuji is 3,776 meters high and it is snow clad throughout the year, with five lakes surrounding it. Currently in a state of dormancy, there has not been any eruption reported for more than 300 years. The last known eruption lasted for about 3 weeks during which it covered the surrounding villages with ash and cinders. Mount Fuji is now a popular tourist location with a large number of climbers actively scaling the mountain top.

MAGMA - Magma is the liquid rock inside a volcano.

LAVA - Lava is the liquid rock (magma) that flows out of a volcano. Lava glows red hot to white hot as it flows.

ACTIVE VOLCANO - An active volcano is one that erupts regularly.

DORMANT VOLCANO - A dormant volcano is one that has not erupted for many years, although there is still some activity deep inside.

EXTINCT VOLCANO - An extinct volcano is a volcano that is no longer active.

GEYSERS - Geysers are springs that throw boiling water high in the air. They are caused by volcanic heat warming trapped ground water.

ASH - Ash are very small fragments of lava or rock blasted into the air by volcanic explosions.

PUMICE - It is a light-colored volcanic rock containing lots of bubbles from trapped gases.

BASALT - Basalt is a hard, black volcanic rock.

CALDERA - A caldera is a large, usually circular depression at the summit of a volcano formed when magma is withdrawn or erupted from a shallow underground magma reservoir.

ERUPTION CLOUD - A cloud of tephra and gases that forms downwind of an erupting volcano is called an eruption cloud.

FAULT - Faults are fractures or fracture zones in the Earth's crust along which one side moves with respect to the other. A fault scarp is a cliff or steep slope that sometimes forms along the fault at the surface.

FISSURE - On volcanoes, a fissure is an elongate fracture or crack at the surface from which lava erupts.

PILLOW LAVA - When basalts erupt underwater, they commonly form pillow lavas, which are mounds of elongate lava "pillows" formed by repeated oozing and quenching of the hot basalt.

PRYOCLASTIC FLOW - A pyroclastic flow is a ground-hugging avalanche of hot ash, pumice, rock fragments, and volcanic gas that rushes down the side of a volcano.

TEPHRA - Tephra is a general term for fragments of volcanic rock and lava regardless of size that are blasted into the air by explosions or carried upward by hot gases in eruption columns or lava fountains.

VENT - Vents are openings in the Earth's crust from which molten rock and volcanic gases escape onto the ground or into the atmosphere.

OBSIDIAN - Obsidian is dense volcanic glass, usually rhyolite in composition and typically black in color.

Click Here to see if there has been any recent volcanic activity across the U.S.

PLAN FOR A VOLCANO: First of all, have a disaster plan and know whether or not you are at risk for danger. Be prepared for mudslides, flash floods, earthquakes, ash falling, acid rain and tsunamis. Prepare a disaster supplies kit for your home and car. Include a first aid kit, canned food and a can opener, bottled water, battery-operated radio, flashlight, protective clothing, dust mask, goggles and sturdy shoes. Don't forget, know all of your evacuation routes.

DURING A VOLCANO: Follow the evacuation order issued by authorities. Avoid areas downwind and river valleys downstream of the volcano. If your caught indoors, close all windows and doors, put machinery inside a barn, and bring animals inside. If you're trapped outdoors, seek shelter indoors. If you're caught in falling rocks, roll into a ball and protect your head. If you're caught near a stream, be aware of mudflows and move to higher ground. Protect yourself when ash falls by wearing long-sleeved shirts and long pants. Use goggles to protect your eyes. Wear a dust mask and keep car engines off.

AFTER A VOLCANO: Cover you mouth and nose. Volcanic ash can irritate your respiratory system. Wear goggles and protect your eyes. Keep your skin covered. Clear roofs of ash, because the ash is very heavy and can cause the building to collapse.

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What is a volcano? A volcano is a mountain that opens downward to a pool of molten rock below the surface of the earth. When pressure builds up, eruptions occur. Gases and rock shoot up through the opening and spill over or fill the air with lava fragments.

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Words to Know Am I at Risk? What Can I Do? Learn More

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Hurricanes are severe tropical storms that form in the southern Atlantic Ocean, Caribbean Sea, Gulf of Mexico, and in the eastern Pacific Ocean. They collect heat and energy through contact with warm ocean waters and then move toward land. Evaporation from the ocean water increases their power. Hurricanes rotate in a counter-clockwise direction around an "eye," which is the center of the hurricane.

Hurricanes have winds at least 74 miles per hour. When hurricanes come onto land, their heavy rain, strong winds, and large waves can damage buildings, trees, and cars. Storm surge is when rising water moves inland, or away from the coastline. It's very dangerous.

Words to Know

Inland - Away from the coastline.

Am I at Risk?

What Can I Do?

Before

During

After

Learn More

Did you know?

Hurricanes can also affect areas greater than 100 miles away from the coastline. People who live inland are also at risk for wind, thunderstorms, tornadoes, and flooding.

Helpful Links

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Words to Know Am I at Risk? What Can I Do? Learn More

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Words to Know Am I at Risk? What Can I Do? Learn More

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A volcano is an opening in the Earth's crust that allows molten rock, gases, and debris to escape to the surface.

A volcanic eruption may release acid, gases, rocks, and ash into the air. Lava and debris can flow at up to 100 miles per hour, destroying everything in their path. About 11 percent of the world's active volcanoes are located in the U.S., which has approximately 170 volcanoes. These volcanoes are both active and dormant. Earthquakes, flash floods, landslides, debris and mudflow (lahar), or acid rain may happen at the same time as a volcanic eruption.

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Kids can learn volcano facts, as well as if they’re at risk of experiencing a volcano and what they can do to prepare.

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A wildfire is a fire that burns out of control in a natural area, like a forest, grassland, or prairie. Wildfires can start from natural causes, such as lightning, but they are usually caused by humans, such as campers or hikers who did not put out their campfire properly. Wildfires spread quickly, burning brush, trees, and homes in its path. They can also affect natural resources (such as soil, animals, forests), destroy homes, and put people's lives in danger.

Words to know!

Am I at Risk?

What Can I Do?

Before

During

After

Learn More

Did you know?

The three elements needed to create and keep a fire burning are heat, fuel, and oxygen, also known as the fire triangle.

Incident Meteorologists (IMETs) are a group of around 70 specially-trained weather experts with the National Weather Service. They work closely with wildfire responders at wildfire sites to monitor, analyze, and report fire and weather conditions. Their forecasts help firefighters plan operations when dealing with the unpredictable nature of fire. This helps keep emergency responders safe.

Learn more with:

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Words to Know Am I at Risk? What Can I do? Learn More

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Kids learn about forest fires including major human and natural causes, how they spread, firefighters, campfire safety, fun facts, and good wildfires.

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Wildfires are unplanned fires that burn in natural areas like forests, grasslands or prairies. These dangerous fires spread quickly and can devastate not only wildlife and natural areas, but also communities.

Prepare for Wildfires

Stay Safe During

Returning Home After a Wildfire

Additional Resources

Videos

Social Media & Graphics

More Info

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How to prepare for a wildfire, stay safe during a wildfire, and return home safely after a wildfire. Prepare for Wildfires Stay Safe During After a Wildfire Additional Resources Wildfires are unplanned fires that burn in natural areas like forests, grasslands or prairies.

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Have you ever heard of a fire triangle? Wildfires need three things to thrive and firefighters call these three things the fire triangle. They include a fuel source, such as dry wood and plants; oxygen, which is delivered by wind and air; and a heat source, such as a cigarette, a spark from a campfire, a lightning strike or even the sun.

Every year in the U.S., wildfires burn more than 5 million acres. Wildfires can start in a second and move at about 14 miles per hour.

Facts about Wildfires for Kids

Most wildfires are caused by humans, but some fires are caused by nature.

Wildfires can destroy homes and buildings and even kill people.

In some ways, wildfires are good, though. They clear dead and diseased plants so new plants can grow.

Firefighters sometimes fight wildfires from planes or helicopters. They drop water or fire-retardant chemicals on or near the fire.

Firefighters also fight wildfires by cutting back brush and grass.

In August 2018 California suffered the largest wildfire in the history of the state.

In the event of a wildfire it is important to be prepared. Call 911 and take the advice of the authorities. If an order is made to leave the area, do so immediately. Leave all personnel belongings, you can replace them.

Fill bathtubs and sinks with water and stay indoors with windows and doors closed but unlocked.

Keep away from windows.

If you happen to be caught outside in a wildfire keep low, try find a ditch and lie face down in it, covering your body. Try find an area clear from vegetation like trees and bushes.

If you happen to be in your vehicle, close the vents and windows. Lie on the floor again covering your body. If you can find an area free from vegetation its safer, stay there, do not panic. It is very easy to become disorientated in a wildfire, so driving around unsure where you are going will only put you in more danger.

Visit this government website and be prepared https://www.ready.gov/wildfires

Wildfires Vocabulary

Learn More All About Wildfires

This is the best video we found for kids to learn about Wildfires:

This is a video animation about preventing wildfires.

Wildfires Q&A

Question : What can I do to prevent wildfires?

Answer: Most wildfires happen during the heat of summer in dry, western states, such as Utah, Idaho, California and Colorado. If you live in one of these states, follow local rules about fires and fireworks. Be extra careful with campfires.

Enjoyed the Free Geography Kids online resources all about Wildfires info? Take the FREE & fun all about Wildfires quiz and download FREE all about Wildfires worksheet for kids. For lengthy info click here.

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Have you ever heard of a fire triangle? Wildfires need three things to thrive and firefighters call these three things the fire triangle. They include a fuel source, such as dry wood and plants; oxygen, which is delivered by wind and air; and a heat source, such as a cigarette, a spark from a campfire, a lightning strike or even the sun.

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Wildfires

What is a wildfire?
A wildfire also known as a wildland fire, forest fire, vegetation fire, grass fire, peat fire, bushfire (in Australia), or hill fire is an uncontrolled fire often occurring in wildland areas, but which can also consume houses or agricultural resources. Wildfires often begin unnoticed, but they spread quickly igniting brush, trees and homes.

What causes a wildfire?

Common causes of wildfires include lightning, human carelessness, arson, volcano eruption, and pyroclastic cloud from active volcano. Heat waves, droughts, and cyclical climate changes such as El Niño can also have a dramatic effect on the risk of wildfires. Although, more than four out of every five wildfires are caused by people.

Where can wildfires occur?
Wildfires can occur anywhere, but are common in the forested areas of the United States and Canada. They are also susceptible in many places around the world, including much of the vegetated areas of Australia as well as in the Western Cape of South Africa. The climates are sufficiently moist to allow the growth of trees, but feature extended dry, hot periods. Fires are particularly prevalent in the summer and fall, and during droughts when fallen branches, leaves, and other material can dry out and become highly flammable. Wildfires are also common in grasslands and scrublands.
What are the Santa Ana winds?

The Santa Ana winds are hot, dry winds that aggravate the fire danger in forests and bush lands. These winds characteristically appear in Southern California and Northern Baja California weather during autumn and early winter. In southern California, under the influence of Santa Ana winds, wildfires can move at tremendous speeds, up to 40 miles in a single day, consuming up to 1,000 acres per hour. Dense clouds of burning embers push ahead of the flames crossing firebreaks without a problem.

What is a fire tornado?

A fire tornado or fire whirl is just a tornado made of fire. It happens when certain conditions (depending on air temperature and currents), acquires a vertical vorticity and forms a whirl, or a tornado-like effect. Fire tornadoes may be whirlwinds separated from the flames, either within the burn area or outside it. A fire tornado can make fires more dangerous.

How do firefighters put out the wildfires?
Firefighters use a tool known as a pulaski. Its a combination of an ax and hoe used to dig a fireline. A fireline is a strip of land from which all brush and debris have been cleared to rob a wildfire of its fuel. Firefighters also use hotshots and smoke jumpers to clear a large path in a big circle around the fire so the blaze is contained in a ring of dirt. When the fire reaches this area, it runs out of fuel and starves to death. If the fire is too large, however, planes and helicopters fly overhead, dropping water and special chemicals that smother the flames. This pink, fire-retardant chemical is called sky jell-o.

Click Here to get the latest wildfire information.

Click Here for to get more wildfire information.

Click Here to see if there has been any recent wildfire activity across the U.S.

Know the Lingo

SURFACE FIRES - The most common type of wildfires, surface fires move slowly and burn along the forest floor, killing and damaging vegetation.

GROUND FIRES - These are usually started by lightning, ground fires burn on or below the forest floor through the root system.

CROWN FIRES - These fires spread by wind moving quickly along the tops of trees.

SANTA ANA WINDS - "Santa Ana" is the name given to the gusty northeast or east wind that occurs in Southern California during the fall and winter months. Santa Ana winds are often hot and very dry, greatly aggravating the fire danger in forests and bush lands.

CONFLAGRATION - A large and destructive fire, typically aggravated by strong winds that carry firebrands over natural or artificial barriers.

Click Here to learn about more wildfire facts!

Wildfire Safety Tips
BEFORE A WILDFIRE: Have a disaster plan. Know whether you're in a wildfire prone area. Plant fire resistant shrubs and trees around your home. Have a garden hose that is long enough to reach around your home. Prepare a disaster supplies kit for your home and car. Include a first aid kit, canned food and a can opener, bottled water, battery-operated radio, flashlight, protective clothing and written instructions on how to turn off electricity, gas, and water. Always listen to the radio and television for the latest information and instructions for your area.
DURING A WILDFIRE: If you're advised to evacuate then do so immediately. Wear protective clothing and lock your home. Tell someone you left and where you are going. Choose a safe route away from fire hazards. Watch for changes in the speed and direction of fire and smoke.

AFTER A WILDFIRE: Stay away from wildfire areas until it is safe.
Wildfire Activities
Lesson Plan: Here is a great lesson plan on teaching students to have an escape plan if a fire threatens their home.

Science Fair Project Ideas: Here is a complete list of science fair project ideas. Discover the science behind the weather that impacts us every day.

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Weather Wiz Kids weather information for kids

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Weather Wiz Kids is a fun and safe website for kids about all the weather info they need to know. It contains tools for weather education, including weather games, activities, experiments, photos, a glossary and educational teaching materials for the classroom.

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Weather Wiz Kids weather information for kids

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Weather Wiz Kids is a fun and safe website for kids about all the weather info they need to know. It contains tools for weather education, including weather games, activities, experiments, photos, a glossary and educational teaching materials for the classroom.

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Find out what causes these deadly twisters—and how to stay safe.

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How many tornadoes hit the United States each year? Do tornadoes hit large cities or only in open areas? Meteorologists Barbara McNaught Watson and Al Peterlin answer stu

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Tornadoes are violently rotating columns of air that extend from a thunderstorm to the ground. Tornadoes can destroy buildings, flip cars, and create deadly flying debris.

A tornado can:

Happen anytime and anywhere.

Bring intense winds, over 200 miles per hour.

Look like funnels.

If you are under a tornado or severe weather warning:

Go to NOAA Weather Radio and your local news or official social media accounts for updated emergency information. Follow the instructions of state, local and tribal officials.

Go to a safe shelter immediately, such as a safe room, basement, storm cellar or a small interior room on the lowest level of a sturdy building.

Stay away from windows, doors, and outside walls.

Do not go under an overpass or bridge. You're safer in a low, flat location.

Watch out for flying debris that can cause injury or death.

Use your arms to protect your head and neck.

If you can't stay at home, make plans to go to a public shelter.

Preparing for a Tornado

Staying Safe During a Tornado

Staying Safe After a Tornado

Associated Content

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Learn what to do if you are under a tornado warning and how to stay safe when a tornado threatens. Prepare for Tornadoes Stay Safe During Stay Safe After Associated Content Tornadoes are violently rotating columns of air that extend from a thunderstorm to the ground.

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Tornadoes are one of the most violent and powerful types of weather. They consist of a very fast rotating column of air that usually forms a funnel shape. They can be very dangerous as their high speed winds can break apart buildings, knock down trees, and even toss cars into the air.

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Kids learn about tornadoes including how they form, characteristics, types including supercell and waterspout, categories, and fun facts.

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Take shelter, gang - because here at National Geographic Kids, we're entering the eye of the storm with ten tornado facts!

Check out our ten top facts about tornadoes...

1) Tornadoes - also known as "twisters" - are violently rotating columns of air that reach from a storm cloud to the earth's surface.

2) The winds of a tornado can reach speeds of up to 480km per hour - that's strong enough to peel the roofs off houses, uproot trees and hurl heavy objects, such as cars, hundreds of metres!

3) Tornadoes come in different shapes and sizes. Some may appear as wide funnel-shaped clouds, others as thin rope-like swirls stretching from the ground to the sky.

4) The duration of tornadoes, and the distance they travel, varies. Most last less than ten minutes and travel five to ten kilometres before disappearing. In extreme cases, however, they can last several hours and cross distances over 150km!

5) Tornadoes are measured using the Fujita Scale (or F-scale), ranging from F0 to F5, with F5 being the strongest and most destructive.

6) The deadliest tornado ever recorded was in Bangladesh in 1989. As it travelled through the Dhaka region of the country, more than 20 villages were destroyed and around 1,300 people were killed.

7) Most of the world's tornadoes occur in the United States in what's known as Tornado Alley. Stretching from west Texas to North Dakota, this area can see more than 200 tornadoes each year!

8) If a tornado occurs over water, it's called a waterspout.

9) Not all tornadoes are easy to see. In fact, they can be invisible until they pick up dust and debris, or a cloud forms within the spinning funnel.

10) The formation of a tornado is so complex that scientists still don't completely understand it. And what's more, the unpredictability of tornadoes makes them difficult - and dangerous - to study. A tornado will demolish everything in its path, including measuring equipment. And so, the secrets behind this incredible force of nature are yet to be discovered...

Photos: Getty Images UK

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Tornado Facts! - National Geographic Kids

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Take shelter, gang - because here at National Geographic Kids, we're entering the eye of the storm with ten tornado facts! Check out our ten top facts about tornadoes... 1) Tornadoes - also known as "twisters" - are violently rotating columns of air that reach from a storm cloud to the earth's surface.

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Forests are amazing places covering almost a third of the Earth's land, including over 700 million acres in the United States (that's about 529 million football fields!). Forests are home to a huge variety of plants and animals, providing them with food, water and shelter. Our forests are very valuable. Not only are they places of beauty and outdoor fun, we also rely on trees for fuel, food, raw materials and medicine. Even more importantly, trees and plants in the forest make sure that the Earth's temperature is livable and that we have enough oxygen to breathe.

Wildfires are unplanned and unwanted fires that are very dangerous to people who use the forests and outdoor areas or live in nearby homes and communities. Wildfires can also cause a lot of damage to some plants and animals and their homes.

In some cases fire is good for a forest, but unplanned fires that burn too hot can make it hard for the forest to recover. Can a forest ever recover from wildfire? The answer is yes, but unfortunately, it can take a very long time. An average forest is about 70-100 years old, and the trees in some forests can be 4,000-5,000 years old!

To help protect these amazing places, remember Smokey's Five Rules of Wildfire Prevention:

1. Only you can prevent wildfires

2. Always be careful with fire

3. Never play with matches or lighters

4. Always watch your campfire

5. Make sure your campfire is completely out before leaving it

To learn more about our nation's forests and other outdoor areas, check out DiscoverTheForest.org. You'll find games and activities to enjoy indoors and out. And, best of all, you can use a search tool to find the forest closest to you.

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Hey, kids! Learn how to help Smokey Bear prevent wildfires.

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They can speed across the ocean as fast as a jet plane, swallow up islands and wipe out villages.

But what causes tsuamis...? Join National Geographic Kids and dive into our tsunami facts to find out!

What causes a tsunami?

Meaning " great harbour wave" in Japanese, tsunamis are sometimes called "tidal waves" but their strength has nothing to do with the tides. About four out of five tsunamis happen within the Ring Of Fire, a zone in the Pacific Ocean where earthquakes and volcanic eruptions frequently take place.

Giant slabs of the Earth's crust, called tectonic plates, grind together. Sometimes, though, the plates get stuck, the pressure builds up and they suddenly slam into a new position. This causes an earthquake. If an earthquake lifts or drops part of the ocean floor, the water above rises and starts spreading across the ocean, causing a tsunami. Underwater landslides or volcanic eruptions can also displace water (cause water to spread across the ocean) and may lead to a tsunami.

How big is a tsunami?

Out in the open ocean, tsunami waves are only about one-metre high because the water is deep. However, as the water becomes shallow, the waves slow down and begin to grow. They can rise 35m or higher - that's the same as a 10-floor block of flats! However, the scariest thing about a tsunami is its wavelength, as this determines how far inland it can travel. Whereas a large wave caused by a storm might have a wavelength of up to 150m, a tsunami could reach up to a fearsome 1,000km!

How fast is a tsunami?

A normal wind wave travels at about 90kmh, but a tsunami can race across the ocean at an incredible 970kmh! Sometimes, before a tsunami hits, there is a huge vacuum effect, sucking water from harbours and beaches. People can see the ocean floor littered with flopping fish and other sea animals. Then a wave blasts onto the shore minutes later, then another and another for two hours or more. There may also be up to one hour between each wave.

Can you predict when a tsunami is coming?

To save lives, scientists established the Pacific Tsunami Warning System, based in Hawaii, in the USA. Its network of detectors can track quakes that may cause a tsunami. These waves can race from one side of the Pacific Ocean to the other in less than a day, so people need to be warned in time to head for higher ground!

What do you think of these tsunami facts? Let us know by leaving a comment, below!

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Tsunami facts: check out the mighty wave! - National Geographic Kids

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They can speed across the ocean as fast as a jet plane, swallow up islands and wipe out villages. But what causes tsuamis...? Join National Geographic Kids and dive into our tsunami facts to find out! Meaning " great harbour wave" in Japanese, tsunamis are sometimes called "tidal waves" but their strength has nothing to do with the tides.

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Living on Shaky Ground: How to survive earthquakes and tsunamis in Oregon

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Living on Shaky Ground: How to survive earthquakes and tsunamis in Oregon

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Living on Shaky Ground: How to survive earthquakes and tsunamis in Oregon

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Living on Shaky Ground: How to survive earthquakes and tsunamis in Oregon

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National Park Service- Wildfire Causes and Evaluations

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National Park Service- Wildfire Causes and Evaluations

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If a fire is located in a remote area and poses no threat to people or property, it may be monitored from the air.
NPS

Evaluation of Wildland Fires

Wildland fire managers must constantly assess the threat of human-caused fire to wildlands and the threat of wildland fires to humans.

When wildfires begin, two major questions are asked:

Does the wildfire threaten people and/or their personal property?

Where is the wildfire located-in a forest or grassland, or in a human-dominated landscape?

Where people and property are threatened, all efforts are made to extinguish the fire. In some locations, such as large national parks and forests and where the wildfire is started by lightning, a natural fire may be permitted to burn its course to benefit the ecosystem. In these cases, natural barriers may contain a fire to within a specific area.

By more fully understanding wildfire, managers can better plan for potential desirable and undesirable effects of wildfires. Although managers can be prepared, they cannot predict when or where fires are going to occur.

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Wildfire Causes and Evaluations (U.S. National Park Service)

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Wildland fire managers must constantly assess the threat of human-caused fire to wildlands and the threat of wildland fires to humans. When wildfires begin, two major questions are asked: Does the wildfire threaten people and/or their personal property? Where is the wildfire located-in a forest or grassland, or in a human-dominated landscape?

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Wildfires in California aren't what they used to be.

there's a new urgency to find better ways to fight and prevent fires.

discover how CSU faculty and students are doing just that.

why are CALIFORNIA FIRES SO EXTREME?

1. FOREST "FUEL LOADS" ARE HIGH.

The forest floor grows dense with flammable dead branches and brush when it's not cleared out, either manually or when burned. In many parts of California's wildlands, these forest "fuels" have not burned or been cleared for decades, due in part to fire suppression policies by state and federal agencies.

"One of the reasons we're observing more fires is because of 100 years of poor Forest Service policy where we didn't allow prescribed fire or wildfires to burn," says Craig Clements, Ph.D., director of the San José State University's Fire Weather Research Laboratory and associate professor of meteorology and climate science.

To understand the history and context of wildfire suppression in the U.S., you have to go back to the Great Fires of 1910. After these enormous wildfires ravaged three million acres across Idaho, Montana and Washington, the then-young U.S. Forest Service made it their singular policy to stop fires whenever possible.

It wasn't until the 1970s that policy shifted from fire control to fire management, with the recognition that some fire-including prescribed burns-is a necessary part of the wildland ecosystem. But decades of still-unburned forest means today's wildlands are dense with vegetation that's ready to spark. Drought conditions have only intensified the impending threat in many parts of the state. (See below for more on this.)

In a 2009 report, Chris Dicus, Ph.D., professor of wildland fire and fuels management at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, wrote that before the Gold Rush, there were approximately 50 to 70 trees per acre in California's forestlands. Today, there are more than 400 trees per acre.

Another contributing factor to the growing forest fuel load is the increasing number of dead or dying trees caused by bark beetle infestations. These insects, along with the drought, are responsible for killing 129 million trees across California since 2010, quite literally adding fuel to the fire.

2. CLIMATE CHANGE IS DRYING THE FUEL FIRES NEED.

Studies show that climate change contributes to our droughts, Dr. Clements says. Less water means drier, more combustible vegetation. Add to that record-breaking heat waves, and you've got even drier fuels.

Warmer climates may also increase bark beetle activity and population growth, which creates more dead trees that are ready to burn.

California's Fourth Climate Change Assessment found that, if greenhouse gas emissions continue to rise, the frequency of extreme wildfires will increase, and the average area burned statewide would grow by 77 percent by 2100.

3. MORE PEOPLE ARE LIVING IN FIRE-PRONE WILDLAND.

Where there are people, there is fire. Ninety-five percent of wildfires in California are caused by humans, whether by accident or deliberately.

What makes matters perhaps worse in California than many other Western states is the ever-growing number of people and homes encroaching on the wildland-urban interface (WUI), a technical name for the transition between wildlands and established municipal areas. Homes in these fire-prone areas are more vulnerable to fire, and fire agencies have to spend more to protect them.

Between 1990 and 2000, 60 percent of all new housing units built in the U.S. were located in the WUI, with major development along the West Coast.

Jacquelyn Chase, Ph.D., a professor in geography and planning at California State University, Chico and a Butte County planning commissioner, believes we shouldn't build new homes in these areas.

"It seems like we're really out-of-step with what we know about the risk of fire now compared to flooding, for example," Dr. Chase says. "Some people are saying we should just treat fire like we treat floods. You wouldn't build on a floodplain. But people build all the time in high-risk [fire] areas."

She points to several subdivision communities in California's WUI that were destroyed by wildfires in the last decade: Keswick Estates (Redding), The Trails (San Diego County) and Coffey Park (Santa Rosa). Fires likely spread to these communities through burning embers carried by the wind-a phenomenon known as spotting. ​Santa Rosa residents affected by the Tubbs Fire, which destroyed 5,000 homes, "were deep inside a suburb, but they were burned by embers coming from the hills not too far away," Chase explains, adding that she hopes future city planners and developers will stop building in the WUI.

Wade Martin, Ph.D., professor of economics at California State University, Long Beach and co-author of the book, " Wildfire Risk: Human Perceptions and Natural Implications," asks, "When people are moving into these areas, do they have information on the risk they're buying into?"

"Generally, we find that people [overestimate] being in nature as a positive and undervalue the risk from wildfire. The risk of having your home destroyed is really pretty small, but it is catastrophic when it happens," says Dr. Martin, who is currently conducting research in Australia on homes in at-risk fire areas to better understand how homeowners weigh the benefits and risks of living close to nature.

Homeowners who already reside in the WUI should do everything they can to make their home more resilient to the threat of wildfire, Chase says. One of the most important steps is to remove all the vegetation or dried fuels at least 30 feet around the house-what's called creating a defensible space. But Chase cautions that sometimes even "firewise" landscaping like this isn't enough, as shown by the destruction of buildings in Santa Rosa and Redding.

THE 21ST-CENTURY FIRE: WHAT WE'RE LEARNING

When humans learned to control fire, we changed the course of evolution forever. But that definitely doesn't mean we understand everything about this unbelievably powerful natural phenomenon. Here are three things we're getting smarter about:

WE'RE LEARNING MORE ABOUT THE FIRE-WEATHER CONNECTION.

Weather is the least predictable part of fire management, so understanding weather conditions can go a long way in helping firefighters determine exactly how a fire will spread.

THE FIRE BEHAVIOR TRIANGLE

It's not just external weather conditions that affect a fire's behavior. Fires actually create their own weather patterns, too. One example is a fire whirl, or fire "tornado," like the one seen at the Carr Fire in Redding during the summer of 2018. San José State's Dr. Craig Clements explains that, while fire whirls are not rare, the sheer size of the Carr tornado-1,000 feet wide-was unusual. And devastating.

So how do fires create their own weather? To explain, Clements compares wildfires to a typical campfire: A thermal column of hot gasses rises from the top of the fire. At the fire's base, air rushes in, providing oxygen so the fire can continue to burn. As the fire continues to suck in air, it modifies the wind and thereby creates its own weather pattern.

It's these fire-created winds that leading researchers like Clements are currently working to learn more about. "We don't know exactly how far they extend out, or how they affect the fire behavior in terms of pushing the fire in different directions," he says.

"Fires can also produce their own clouds-we call those pyrocumulus clouds," and they're not just smoke plumes but actual clouds made up of water droplets. "And if they're really deep, they're called pyrocumulonimbus, because they're almost like a thunderstorm," Clements explains. Some fires even create their own thunderstorms and lightning.

WE'RE LEARNING WHAT REALLY HAPPENS INSIDE A FIRE.

Simply put, Craig Clements at San José State has transformed wildfire research. His meteorological techniques to study fire behavior, such as using special instruments to measure wind turbulence during a fire, have been pioneering.

"Nobody had done this before," Clements says, adding that data from his initial doctoral research at the University of Houston are now used as the international standard for fire simulation models using atmospheric data.

At SJSU, Clements's Fire Weather Research Lab also broke new ground in its use of mobile atmospheric measuring systems to study wildfire winds. One of the lab's trucks is equipped with a Doppler LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging), which uses a pulsed laser to measure distances and collect smoke data from within fire plumes. A second truck will soon have a mobile Doppler radar unit, allowing the scientists to collect data on clouds created by fire.

Clements's research team currently includes six graduate and four undergraduate students, all of whom get hands-on field experience measuring wildland fuel and weather data. Three students also serve on the mobile fire deployment team that goes to active wildfires to collect data on fire spread, smoke plumes and other weather-related fire behaviors.

"We are the only team that has made these kind of observations of active wildfires," he notes. In fact, they are t he only meteorological team in the U.S. trained as firefighters and listed as a national resource so they can be requested to any fire incident. "And that's not easy to do," says Clements, explaining that he and his students can be requested by a fire agency's incident management team and assigned to a fire. (His mobile deployment team members become trained firefighters and are issued an incident qualification card-aka "red card"-so they are permitted access to fire locations.)

With the combination of LiDAR and radar tools, Clements and his team hope to be able to detect the rotation of a fire column in real time at a distance and to detect downdrafts that could change the direction of the fire spread. He also hopes the new radar tool will help shed some light on the process of spotting, or how volatile embers travel and start new fires, a perplexing problem. Currently, he says, "we have no idea how to forecast ember transport and spot fires."

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WE'RE STUDYING WHAT HAPPENS AFTER A DEVASTATING FIRE.

At California State University Channel Islands, Sean Anderson, Ph.D., and his team of mostly undergraduates at the PIRatE Lab (short for the Pacific Institute for Restoration Ecology) use drones to monitor and manage land affected by wildfire and other disasters.

Dr. Anderson, who is chair and professor at the Environmental Science and Resources Management (ESRM) program, loves giving students hands-on experience in collecting environmental data, such as aerial drone maps of burn areas after a wildfire, pollutants in the ocean after an oil spill, or measuring ecosystem impacts after a hurricane

By moving in immediately after a disaster, Anderson and his students learn about the large-scale impact of these events on the environment.

"When disasters strike, we strike right back," says Anderson. "Our students are capable field professionals who know how to work with fire, police, incident command, and bring with them the technological tools to collect time-critical environmental data."

And thanks to the flexibility and applied-research focus of the CSU and the Channel Islands campus, his team can deploy quickly to collect data before it disappears. So, when the Thomas Fire broke out in Santa Barbara and Ventura counties in December 2017, they were ideally positioned to respond with drones that mapped burn areas, for example.

Anderson and his ESRM students then shared that information immediately with the community. During and after a fire, the first thing evacuated residents want to know, of course, is whether their home is okay. Local agencies often aren't able to answer those questions quickly, says Anderson, because they're busy fighting the fire. During the Thomas Fire, his students responded by creating a popup website to provide real-time information about where the fire had and had not traveled.

Anderson's students also used drones and GIS (geographical information systems) to create a detailed 3D map of the burned Ventura Botanical Gardens. The map revealed previously undiscovered 100-year-old rock walls that had been covered with vegetation prior to the Thomas Fire. His next drone project will be a mapping initiative to reveal naturally occurring oil seeps that are still burning underground with the help of new thermal imaging-equipped drones that can detect harmful fumes.

Further south, students at California State University San Marcos recently partnered with a local drone manufacturer and local fire agencies to research how the machines could help first responders to deliver supplies such as hoses and other firefighting gear.

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The Holy Fire shot from Lake Elsinore in August 2018.

FORECASTING FIRE

There's still much to be learned about fire-induced weather and how to better predict wildfire behavior.

With ongoing research, Dr. Clements sees a future where we'll be able to forecast a fire's direction and spread, like meteorologists already do with severe weather patterns.

"You see hurricanes coming for days ... measuring storms with the radar network around the U.S. So we can forecast or 'now-cast' severe weather, but we're not really doing that on wildfires," Clements notes.

Imagine a near-future in which a wildland firefighter gets the call to head to a fire. Before she's even suited up, the detection tools on her truck are automatically collecting smoke plume and cloud data from hundreds of miles away and sending it to a satellite that feeds information to a mobile app for fire management and forecasting. The firefighter can then predict the fire spread via her mobile phone.

Next-generation firefighting tools like these aren't so far off, thanks in part to Clements and his modeling data research, and other researchers at the CSU and beyond.

"I want to see this technology placed on all the fire suppression vehicles," says Clements. "So when the vehicles are out in the field, they're collecting wind profiles and firefighters don't have to worry about it because it's all automated. It's just a little laser beam coming out of the truck.

"Hopefully those models can be put into the hands of fire managers," he continues. "Then you can really get a handle on what a fire is doing, where it's going and you can forecast it better."

This article is the first in a series on theC alifornia State University's role in understanding, preventing and fighting California's devastating wildfires. Ourcontinuing coverage features a dedicated wildland firefighting crew made up of mostly CSU students and alumni who are working hard to stop wildfires throughout the state.

Story: Hazel Kelly

photoGRAPHY: PATRICK RECORD, nasa, San José State University, CSU Channel Islands

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Understanding Wildfire in California: What the CSU is Learning | CSU

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why are CALIFORNIA FIRES SO EXTREME? The forest floor grows dense with flammable dead branches and brush when it's not cleared out, either manually or when burned. In many parts of California's wildlands, these forest "fuels" have not burned or been cleared for decades, due in part to fire suppression policies by state and federal agencies.

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How Do Hurricanes Form? | NASA Space Place – NASA Science for Kids

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What would you consider the worst tornadoes in U.S. history?

Severe Weather Expert at The Weather Channel, Dr. Greg Forbes, combed through damage costs (adjusted for inflation through 2011) and fatality statistics in order to rank the nation's worst single tornadoes, using a 100-point scale.

Of course, there are many ways one can combine and scale this data, so, this is just one possibility. The higher the index, the "worse" or more impactful the tornado.

You may be surprised to find that the April 3, 1974 "Superoutbreak" did not have a single tornado on the list.

"None of the 1974 Superoutbreak tornadoes individually were exceptionally deadly, which kept them off the list," says Dr. Forbes.

#10 (tie): Waco (1953) and Wichita Falls, Texas (1979)

These tornadoes are just two examples debunking the myth that tornadoes don't strike the heart of larger cities.

Waco: Deadliest tornado on record in Texas (114 deaths)

At the time, Wichita Falls tornado: Costliest in U.S. ($400m in 1979 dollars)

Forbes index (100-point scale): 27.3

The Waco tornado carved a path up to 1/3 mile wide through the heart of the city's downtown, reaching F5 intensity the day after Mother's Day, 1953.

Over 600 businesses, 850 homes and 2,000 cars were either destroyed or damaged. Some survivors had to wait up to 14 hours to be rescued from the rubble.

The Wichita Falls tornado of April 10, 1979 was one of thirteen tornadoes which rampaged across parts of north Texas and Oklahoma that "Terrible Tuesday."

This over one mile-wide beast carved through the heart of this city of roughly 100,000. Almost 3100 homes were destroyed.

Despite the issuance of severe warnings, coverage by local television stations, and multiple soundings of sirens, 42 were killed, many of which tried to flee in their vehicles.

#9: Natchez, Mississippi (May 7, 1840)

While the "Great Natchez Tornado" tied both Waco (1953) and Wichita Falls (1979) in Dr. Forbes' calculations, we place Natchez ahead of the Texas tornadoes based on the death toll.

First consider what wasn't in place in 1840. Electricity wouldn't be invented for another 39 years. No television, radio, internet, or sirens, either.

Then, picture Natchez as a bustling river port city, with flatboats galore. Now, picture a massive wedge tornado, most likely of F5 intensity, bearing down on the city.

The tornado first touched down about 20 miles southwest of Natchez, then hugged the river, hit Natchez Landing, then came ashore tearing through the city itself.

Of the 317 official deaths, reliable reports suggest 269 of those perished as flatboats were sunk. This death toll may be forever underestimated, as fatalities from slaves were not counted in that era. Reportedly a fragment of a steamboat's window was carried 30 miles away.

#8: Hackleburg, Alabama (Apr. 27, 2011)

One of two billion-dollar tornadoes from the April 27, 2011 "Superoutbreak" took aim on the town of Hackleburg, Alabama (population: 1430).

This tornado, packing peak winds over 200 mph, tossed vehicles 150-200 yards and leveled a well-built four-sided brick home, tossing its debris 40 yards downwind, according to the official damage survey from the National Weather Service in Birmingham, Alabama.

On its 132-mile rampage from Marion County, Ala. to Franklin County, Tennessee, 72 were killed, and 145 were injured.

This would have easily been the costliest tornado in Alabama history, if it wasn't for another tornado about 80 miles to the south that same day. More on that later.

#7: Worcester, Massachusetts (Jun. 9, 1953)

Deadly, destructive tornadoes are not simply confined to the Midwest and South. Our #7 tornado was, arguably, the worst tornado of record in New England.

Just one day after 115 were killed in a Flint, Michigan, F5 tornado, the same weather system spawned this deadly tornado which raked through the north side of the city of Worcester, among other locations in Massachusetts.

Assumption College's (now Quinsigamond Community College) signature tower lost 3 stories. Two and three-story tenements were leveled, particularly in the upper Burncoat area of town.

In all, 4,000 buildings were damaged or destroyed. Six of the eight Massachusetts towns impacted reported F4 damage.

Some debris was swept miles away, including a frozen mattress found near Weymouth in Massachusetts Bay as well as books and clothing found at both Blue Hill and on outer Cape Cod.

#6: Gainesville, Georgia (Apr. 6, 1936)

Amazingly, there was another instance of single tornadoes claiming over 100 lives occurring on back-to-back days.

As if the "Dust Bowl" and "Great Depression" weren't enough to worry about, a two-day Southern tornado outbreak culminated in a destructive tornado event in Gainesville, northeast of Atlanta on Apr. 6, 1936.

We say "event" since there were actually two tornadoes, one coming from the west, the other from the southwest, which merged over the city that awful April morning, leaving a four-block wide path of destruction.

Buildings collapsed as the central business district was almost entirely leveled, including the county courthouse. The collapse and fire of the Cooper Pants factory killed dozens. Forty people were never found, and are officially deemed as missing.

This disaster occurred just one day after the Tupelo, Mississippi, tornado claimed 216 lives. The total death toll from the Apr. 5-6, 1936 two-day tornado outbreak was 454.

#5: St. Louis, Missouri (Sep. 29, 1927)

The "Gateway to the West" has an infamous tornadic history.

The Sep. 29, 1927 tornado carved a twelve mile-long swath of destruction through the heart of St. Louis. A story written by the Associated Press (AP) the day after described it as "four terrible minutes of a ripping and roaring tornado."

According to the National Weather Service, some non-residential buildings were "completely blown away" while a "few multi-story dwellings were destroyed and partly swept away." The same AP story cited above mentioned "some of the city's finest homes along Lindell Boulevard...were laid waste."

If it wasn't for 2011, this 1927 St. Louis tornado, when adjusted for inflation, would rank as the nation's second costliest tornado.

#4: Tuscaloosa, Alabama (Apr. 27, 2011)

Arguably the most destructive single tornado of a record-setting day during which 200 tornadoes spun across the Southeast was a massive tornado which churned through Tuscaloosa, Alabama, on April 27, 2011.

Among the numerous buildings destroyed by the EF4 tornado were the Tuscaloosa County Emergency Operations Center and Alberta Elementary School.

According to the National Weather Service damage survey, "One home on a foundation was swept clean, with only floor joists remaining attached to the foundation."

The tornado also produced EF4 damage in the Concord and Pleasant Grove communities west of Birmingham, Alabama. Some cinder block homes were completely swept away, leaving only vacant slabs.

Incredibly, tornado warnings were posted for this single supercell in central Alabama for over 4 hours! In fact, the parent supercell was tracked for over 7 hours from its formation in Newton County, Mississippi, to its final demise in Macon County, North Carolina, a distance of around 380 miles.

#3: Joplin, Missouri (May 22, 2011)

Just when we all thought the spring of 2011 couldn't be more violent, one single, mammoth tornado left Joplin, Missouri, staggered.

A mile-wide, EF5 tornado with peak winds over 200 mph, tore a six-mile long gash through the heart of the city of about 50,000 the afternoon of May 22, 2011.

The sheer scope of the damage was beyond belief. Neighborhoods were left unrecognizable, including the destruction at St. John's Mercy Hospital and Joplin High School. The tornado generated roughly 4.1 million cubic yards of residential and commercial debris!

In addition to the residential dwellings mentioned above in "fast facts", more than 500 businesses were affected, impacting between 4,500 and 5,000 employees. Over 15,000 vehicles including buses, vans, and semis were tossed up to several blocks away, either crushed, rolled into balls, or wrapped around trees beyond recognition. Some owners never found their vehicles!

Even when correcting past U.S. tornadoes for inflation, the Joplin tornado became the costliest single tornado in U.S. history ($2.8 billion).

What tornado could possibly be "worse" than what Joplin endured in 2011?

#2: St. Louis, Missouri (May 27, 1896)

Yes, another St. Louis tornado made our top 10 worst tornado list!

This massive tornado moved from Tower Grove Park into Downtown St. Louis, then crossed the Mississippi River and carved through E. St. Louis, on May 27, 1896.

Prior to the Joplin tornado in 2011, when adjusting for inflation, this late 19th century tornado qualified as the costliest in U.S. history.

Over 8,800 buildings were either damaged or destroyed. The Eads Bridge lost about 300 feet of its eastern approach, but otherwise survived. After an 1871 tornado damaged its superstructure on its eastern abutment, the bridge was rebuilt to be "tornado-proof".

The 255 official fatalities make this the third deadliest single tornado in U.S. history, behind only the Natchez, Mississippi, 1840 tornado and our #1 worst U.S. tornado.

Incidentally, the nation's costliest thunderstorm also occurred in St. Louis.

On April 10, 2001, a supercell thunderstorm unleashed a hailstorm in the city, with up to 3" diameter hail (larger than baseballs).

Insured losses alone were $2.3 billion, including at least 40,000 auto insurance claims and tens of thousands of property insurance claims. Vehicles were damaged at a Ford Motor plant, and both commercial and military aircraft were damaged at airports.

#1: "Tri-State Tornado" (Mar. 18, 1925)

Given the more recent devastation we've witnessed in Joplin, Missouri, and Tuscaloosa, Alabama, it's hard to fathom anything worse.

That said, according to our statistics, the infamous "Tri-State Tornado" of 1925 takes the top spot by a wide margin.

First, the death toll was double that of the next deadliest U.S. tornado (Natchez, Mississippi, in 1840).

Of the 695 total fatalities, 234 of those were in the town of Murphysboro, Illinois, the single greatest tornado death toll in any U.S. city.

Tragically, 33 other deaths occurred at a school in De Soto, Illinois. There were at least 9 total tornadoes on this March day, claiming a total of 747 lives in 7 states (Kansas, Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, Alabama, Tennessee, Kentucky).

Then, there's the incredible path. Due to data quality issues in the 1920s, it hardly seems possible a tornado could churn over a 219-mile long path.

An exhaustive 2013 reanalysis by retired National Severe Storms Laboratory researchers such as Bob Maddox, Chuck Doswell and Don Burgess, as well as retired and current Storm Prediction Center and National Weather Service meteorologists concluded the tornado path was likely continuous for at least 174 miles, from Madison County, Missouri to Pike County, Indiana.

The culprit appears to have been a single classic, then high-precipitation long-track supercell possibly near a warm-front/dryline intersection, according to the study.

Remaining in a favorable environment, the Tri-State tornado continued for over three hours, with an average width of 0.75 mile, and an average forward speed of 59 mph.

"The main tornado contained multiple vortices, at times, and appeared to have had at least two satellite tornadoes in Illinois," says severe weather expert, Dr. Greg Forbes.

In an era without television, watches or warnings, news traveled by word of mouth or from the local newspaper, an especially frightening thought given the speed of movement of this tornado.

At least 19 separate communities were affected. Gorham, Illinois, and Griffin, Indiana, were totally destroyed. Ninety percent of Annapolis, Missouri, and Parrish, Illinois, were destroyed. Parrish was never rebuilt, becoming, in essence, a tornadic "ghost town." An estimated 15,000 homes were demolished.

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The 10 Worst Tornadoes in the U.S. | The Weather Channel

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What would you consider the worst tornadoes in U.S. history? Severe Weather Expert at The Weather Channel, Dr. Greg Forbes, combed through damage costs (adjusted for inflation through 2011) and fatality statistics in order to rank the nation's worst single tornadoes, using a 100-point scale.