Hazards and Disasters MCQ Quiz - Objective Question with Answer for Hazards and Disasters - Download Free PDF

The correct answer is Grassland.

Key Points

• A grassland is an example of a natural terrestrial ecosystem characterized by vast open spaces dominated by grasses, shrubs, and few scattered trees.
• Terrestrial ecosystems are those that occur on land and include natural ecosystems like forests, deserts, and grasslands.
• Grasslands serve as habitats for a variety of flora and fauna, such as herbivores (e.g., deer, bison) and predators (e.g., lions, wolves).
• These ecosystems play a critical role in maintaining ecological balance, including carbon sequestration, soil fertility, and biodiversity preservation.
• Grasslands are found globally and are classified into types such as tropical savannas, temperate grasslands, and steppes, depending on their geographical location and climate.

Additional Information

• Natural Ecosystems:
  • Natural ecosystems develop without human intervention and are self-sustaining, such as forests, grasslands, deserts, rivers, and oceans.
  • They are categorized into terrestrial (land-based) and aquatic (water-based) ecosystems.
• Terrestrial Ecosystems:
  • These ecosystems occur on land and include forests, deserts, grasslands, tundras, and mountainous regions.
  • They are influenced by abiotic factors like soil, temperature, and precipitation.
• Aquatic Ecosystems:
  • Aquatic ecosystems are water-based and include freshwater ecosystems (rivers, lakes, ponds) and marine ecosystems (oceans, coral reefs).
  • Unlike terrestrial ecosystems, aquatic ecosystems are influenced by water chemistry, salinity, and depth.
• Human-Made Ecosystems:
  • Examples include aquariums, agricultural fields, and urban parks, which are artificially created and maintained by humans.
  • These systems require external inputs like fertilizers, irrigation, or maintenance to sustain themselves.
• Importance of Grasslands:
  • Grasslands help prevent soil erosion and serve as grazing grounds for livestock.
  • They act as carbon sinks and play a role in combating climate change.
  • They are vital for supporting both local communities and wildlife species.

Key Points

• The Malpa Landslide disaster occurred in the year 1998.
• This tragic event took place near the village of Malpa in the Pithoragarh district of Uttarakhand, India.
• It happened in the month of August.
• The landslide resulted in the loss of over 200 lives, including several pilgrims on the Kailash Mansarovar Yatra.

Additional Information

• Landslide:
  • A landslide is the movement of rock, earth, or debris down a sloped section of land.
  • They can be caused by several factors including natural events like earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, and prolonged heavy rainfall, or human activities such as deforestation, mining, and construction.
  • Landslides can lead to significant loss of life and property, and they pose a major threat in mountainous regions.
• Kailash Mansarovar Yatra:
  • The Kailash Mansarovar Yatra is a pilgrimage to Mount Kailash and Lake Mansarovar in Tibet.
  • It is considered highly sacred in Hinduism, Jainism, Buddhism, and Bon religions.
  • The Yatra is known for its challenging route and difficult terrain, making it a test of faith and endurance for the pilgrims.
• Pithoragarh District:
  • Pithoragarh is a district located in the Kumaon region of Uttarakhand, India.
  • It is known for its scenic landscapes, high mountain passes, and rich cultural heritage.
  • The district is also a gateway to several pilgrimage sites, including the Kailash Mansarovar Yatra.

Key Points

• Mud slides are a type of natural disaster, not man-made.
• They occur due to the rapid movement of a large mass of mud and debris down a slope, usually triggered by intense rainfall or volcanic activity.
• Unlike man-made disasters, mud slides are primarily caused by natural processes such as weather conditions and geological activities.
• Common areas prone to mud slides include mountainous regions, areas with loose soil, or regions recently affected by wildfires.

Additional Information

• Food poisoning
  • It is a man-made disaster typically caused by consuming contaminated food or beverages.
  • Common causes include bacteria, viruses, and parasites that can contaminate food during processing, handling, or storage.
  • Symptoms usually include nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, and abdominal pain.
• Epidemics
  • An epidemic is the rapid spread of infectious disease to a large number of people in a given population within a short period of time.
  • While they may be triggered by natural events, human activities such as poor sanitation, lack of vaccination, and globalization can exacerbate their spread.
  • Examples include the Ebola outbreak and the COVID-19 pandemic.
• Deforestation
  • It is the large-scale removal of forest, leading to damage to the quality of the land.
  • Human activities such as logging, agriculture, and urbanization are primary causes.
  • Deforestation can lead to loss of biodiversity, disruption of water cycles, and increased greenhouse gases.

Key Points

• Urban Flood
  • Urban flooding occurs when heavy rainfall overwhelms the drainage capacity of urban areas.
  • This is usually a result of factors like poor drainage systems, overpopulation, and unplanned urbanization.
  • While urban floods can be exacerbated by human activities.

Additional Information

• Biological disasters are caused by the exposure to living organisms or their toxic products.
• These can include diseases, epidemics, pandemics, and infestations.
• Examples include the spread of viruses like COVID-19, bioterrorism, and the introduction of invasive species.

• Heat Wave
  • A heat wave is a period of excessively hot weather, which may be accompanied by high humidity.
  • Heat waves are natural weather phenomena.
  • They pose significant health risks, particularly to vulnerable populations like the elderly and children.
• Tsunamis
  • Tsunamis are large sea waves caused by underwater earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, or landslides.
  • They are entirely natural phenomena and can cause widespread destruction along coastlines.
  • Tsunamis can lead to loss of life, property damage, and long-term environmental impacts.

The correct answer is - C, A, D, B

Key Points

• Hazard Identification
  • The first step in Risk Assessment is to identify the potential hazards that could cause harm.
  • This involves understanding what could cause harm and how.
• Exposure Assessment
  • The second step is to assess the extent of exposure to the identified hazards.
  • This includes determining who might be exposed, and under what conditions.
• Risk Characterization
  • The third step involves characterizing the risk by combining the information from the hazard identification and exposure assessment steps.
  • This helps to estimate the likelihood and severity of adverse effects occurring.
• Risk Management
  • The final step is to decide on and implement measures to manage and mitigate the identified risks.
  • This involves selecting the most appropriate interventions to reduce risk to an acceptable level.

Additional Information

• Hazard Identification
  • This step also includes reviewing historical data and scientific literature.
  • It is crucial to understand both the nature and the magnitude of potential hazards.
• Exposure Assessment
  • This step often involves measuring or estimating the intensity, frequency, and duration of human exposures to the identified hazards.
  • It may involve modeling or using existing data to predict exposures.
• Risk Characterization
  • Risk characterization provides a comprehensive picture of the risks, including uncertainties.
  • It integrates information from hazard identification and exposure assessment to evaluate the potential health effects.
• Risk Management
  • This step involves developing, evaluating, and implementing strategies to mitigate identified risks.
  • Risk management decisions are often influenced by regulatory requirements, economic factors, and stakeholder concerns.

The correct answer is 1 to 12.

Key Points

• An Earthquake is also called a quake, tremor, or temblor.
• It is the phenomenon of shaking of the surface of the earth that also create seismic wave.
  •  Seismic waves are the waves that travel through the earth's layer.
  • These waves are the result of earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, magma moment, landslides, and man-made explosion.​
• The earthquake produce different types of seismic waves such as P wave, S wave, and Surface waves.
•  Seismic activity also increases due to global warming.

Important Points

• The instruments used to measure the intensity of the earthquake are Seismograph, Ritcher scale, and Seismograph.

Tsunami:

•  A tsunami is a large ocean wave that is caused by sudden motion on the ocean floor.
• This sudden motion could be an earthquake, a powerful volcanic eruption, or an underwater landslide.
• The impact of a large meteorite could also cause a tsunami.
• Tsunamis travel across the open ocean at great speeds and build into large deadly waves in the shallow water of a shoreline.

Subduction Zones are Potential Tsunami Locations:

• Most tsunamis are caused by earthquakes generated in a subduction zone, an area where an oceanic plate is being forced down into the mantle by plate tectonic forces.
• The friction between the subducting plate and the overriding plate is enormous.
• This friction prevents a slow and steady rate of subduction and instead the two plates become "stuck."

Accumulated Seismic Energy

• As the stuck plate continues to descend into the mantle, the motion causes a slow distortion of the overriding plate.
• The result is an accumulation of energy very similar to the energy stored in a compressed spring.
• Energy can accumulate in the overriding plate over a long period - decades or even centuries.

Earthquake Causes Tsunami

• Energy accumulates in the overriding plate until it exceeds the frictional forces between the two stuck plates.
• When this happens, the overriding plate snaps back into an unrestrained position.
• This sudden motion is the cause of the tsunami - because it gives an enormous shove to the overlying water. 

Therefore, from the above explanation, “Tsunami” occurs due to Earthquakes generated in a subduction zone.

The correct answer is Reduction in the vegetation cover to arrest landslides.

Key Points

• Decreasing vegetation cover to arrest landslides is NOT correct among the mechanisms of landslides mitigation.
• Landslides Mitigation Mechanisms:
  • Hazard mapping to identify areas prone to landslides.
  • Construction of retention walls to stop land slippage.
  • Increasing vegetation cover to arrest landslides.
  • Ensuring surface drainage control works to restrict the movement of landslides.
  • Formation of any header niche and perforation.

Additional Information

• A landslide:
  • It is defined as the movement of a mass of rock, debris, or earth down a slope.
  • Landslides are a type of "mass wasting," which denotes any down-slope movement of soil and rock under the direct influence of gravity.

Concept:

• Earthquake: It is a sudden violent shaking of the ground, it causes great destruction over the ground surface.
• It is mainly due to the movement of tectonic plates of earth crust or volcanic action.

Explanation:

• Earthquakes are able to initiate landslides over mountainous regions or wet regions.
• If the earthquakes are under the sea bed, this sudden shake can create extreme pressure outwards and might take a shape of a Tsunami.
• Sometimes the earthquakes can break the dams and overflows of water can create the situation of floods.

The earthquake has no direct effect on Lightning & thunder as these processes are happening in the atmosphere and the earthquake mostly covers the ground impact.

Hence, landslides, Tsunami, and Floods can be caused by earthquakes.

The correct answer is ​Cyclones.

• Coastal Andhra Pradesh and Orissa often face natural disasters due to Cyclones.
• India is highly vulnerable to natural hazards, especially earthquakes, floods, drought, cyclones, and landslides.

Key Points

• Four States: Andhra Pradesh, Odisha, Tamil Nadu, and West Bengal and one UT, Pondicherry on the East Coast, and One State Gujarat on the West Coast are more vulnerable to cyclone disasters.
• In meteorology, a cyclone is a large scale air mass that rotates around a strong center of low atmospheric pressure.
• Cyclones are characterized by inward spiralling winds that rotate about a zone of low pressure.

Key Points

Earthquake:

• An earthquake is a form of energy of wave motion transmitted through the surface layer of the earth. 
• The instrument used for recording earthquakes is known as a seismograph. 
• The network of seismographic stations all over the world records dozens of earthquakes every day. 
• The point within the earth’s crust where an earthquake originates is called the focus.
• It is also referred to as seismic focus. 
• It generally lies within the depth of 60 kilometres in the earth crust. 
• The point vertically above the focus on the earth’s surface is known as ‘epicentre’. 
• These earthquake waves originating from the focus travel in all directions.
• But their intensity is the highest at the epicentre.
• That is why the maximum destruction occurs at and around the epicentre. 
• The intensity of vibrations decreases as one moves away.

Thus, the instrument to record the intensity of the Earthquake is a seismograph.

Additional Information

To measure the speed of cyclone:  Anemometer 

To measure rainfall: Rain Gauge

All listed states, Bihar, West Bengal, and Assam, experience floods frequently. So the answer is More than one of the above.

Key Points 

While each state faces its specific conditions and frequency of flooding, they all share a vulnerability due to:

• Location: They are in the fertile plains of Eastern India, traversed by major rivers like the Brahmaputra, Ganga, and their tributaries. These rivers tend to overflow their banks during the monsoon season.
• Topography: The flat nature of the land allows water to stagnate and spread easily, causing more widespread flooding.
• Deforestation: Loss of tree cover leads to increased soil erosion, which contributes to sedimentation in rivers and reduces their carrying capacity. This further exacerbates flooding.
• Human interventions: Construction of embankments and dams can alter natural drainage patterns and contribute to backwater flooding.
• Therefore, it's important to acknowledge that all these three states grapple with frequent floods, necessitating comprehensive flood management strategies and disaster preparedness measures.

Important Points

Hence, the correct answer is (A) - (III), (B) - (I), (C) - (IV), (D) - (II)

Natural and human-caused disasters affect thousands of people each year. Major adverse events such as these have the potential to cause catastrophic loss of life and physical destruction.

Nuclear Disasters: The main drawback of nuclear energy is the possibility of nuclear disasters. These occur in nuclear power plants. The consequences of such disasters can be extremely serious. A few of these nuclear disasters include:

• The Fukushima Disaster: It took place in 2011 at the Fukushima Daiichi plant in northern Japan. It is the second-worst nuclear accident in the history of nuclear power generation. It is also known as the Fukushima nuclear accident or Fukushima Daiichi nuclear accident.
• The Chernobyl Disaster: The 1986 accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Ukraine, then part of the former Soviet Union, is the only accident in the history of commercial nuclear power to cause fatalities from radiation. It was the result of a severely flawed reactor design, combined with human error.
• Three-mile Island Incident: The Three Mile Island accident, that took place on March 28, 1979, was a meltdown at a nuclear power plant in Middletown, Pennsylvania. This was the most serious accident in U.S. commercial nuclear power plant operating history. It resulted from a combination of equipment malfunctions, design-related problems and human errors.

NOTE: The Love Canal Disaster: Love Canal is one of the most shocking environmental man-made disasters in American history. It was the first US state of emergency to be declared over a human-made disaster, and it was a thoughtful lesson about the harmful effects of toxic pollution.

Hence, it can be concluded from the given points that the Fukushima, the Chernobyl and the three-mile island incident belong to the category of nuclear disasters.

The correct answer is Mass wasting.

Key Points

• Mass wasting is the enormous downward movement of rock, soil, and debris caused by gravity. Mass wasting includes events like debris flows, slumps, and rock falls.
• Rocks fall:
  • Rock falls happen when chunks of rock fall down a cliff. Large bricks may eventually get loosened as a result of frost wedging, falling.
  • Talus is the term for the buildup of rock fragments at the bottom of a steep slope.
• Slump:
  • The term "slump" refers to the rotating slip of a large amount of bed rock off a high cliff. The most frequent cause of slumping is erosion at the slope's base, which lessens the support provided for underlying sediments.
• Debris avalanche:
  • The debris avalanche is the worst kind of debris flow. It flows down steep slopes in a quickly churning mass of dirt, water, rock debris, and air. By serving as a cushion between the debris and the underlying surface, the trapped air may quicken the avalanche.

Additional Information

• Mass wasting also includes rockslides, landslides, mudflow, creep etc.
  • Rockslides: Typically, a zone of weakness is followed by a rockslide. Slippage is exacerbated by water presence. Rockslides typically originate from collisions down the slope shattering the boulder mass into debris.
  • Landslides: Large rocks that break off and roll downhill cause landslides. Both really heavy rain and earthquakes frequently start it.
  • Mudflow: A mudflow is a swiftly moving liquid mass made up of soil, rock fragments, and water. They are especially frequent in semiarid highland areas.
  • Creep: Creep is the gradual and slow descent of soil. Usually, its velocity is less than one centimeter each year. The gradual movement of soil particles down the hill caused by freezing and thawing contributes to soil creep.
• Hydraulic action:
  • The physical weathering and mechanical reaction of earth elements to flowing water in rivers and streams, breaking waves, and storm surge along shorelines is referred to as hydraulic action.
• Solifluction:
  • It a combination of creep and flow, creates distinct sheets, terraces, and lobes of rock and debris.
  • On steeper slopes where the process has pushed loosening boulders and dirt downslope, solifluction sheets and lobes can be seen.