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Humans like to think that planet Earth belongs to us. But natural disasters remind us that we're really just along for the ride. In every place humans live, the possibility of a natural disaster exists. There are wildfires in hot, dry regions and avalanches in cold, moist ones. On land, earthquakes rattle buildings and topple trees; underwater, they can trigger monster waves capable of erasing entire coastlines. Volcanoes burble up from Earth's molten core, and hurricanes, tornadoes, and lightning come from the sky. Explore these powerful forces of nature.

More About Natural Disasters

Photo: Avalanche in Mt. Rainier National Park, Washington

Avalanches

Cascades of snow, ice, and rock.

Photo: Houses collapsed on each other as a result of the 1995 earthquake in Kobe, Japan

Earthquakes

When the Earth moves.

Photo: Satellite image of hurricane eye

Hurricanes

Monster storms that wreck havoc.

Photo: Lightning fills the night sky near Walton, Nebraska

Lightning

Electric, striking bolts.

Photo: Tornado in gray stormy sky

Tornadoes

Nature's most violent storms.

Photo: This aerial view from an Indian naval helicopter shows the extensive damage inflicted by the tsunami on the vegetation of Great Nicobar Island

Tsunamis

Waves of surging destruction.

Photo: Activity at Cleveland Volcano, Aleutian Islands, Alaska

Volcanoes

Spewing magma, acid waterfalls, and lakes of lava.

Photo: Lines of wildfire snaking through foothills

Wildfires

Unpredictable raging infernos.

Did You Know?

The odds of becoming a lightning victim in the U.S. in any one year is 1 in 700,000. The odds of being struck in your lifetime is 1 in 3,000.

Related Features

Photo: Road sign on top of a bus

Video: High Winds in Mexico

Estimated 60 mph (96.56 km/h) winds cause a large metal sign in Monterey, Mexico to blow down onto a highway and a passenger bus plows right into it before stopping.

Photo: Amman, Jordan, night view with lightning over cityscape

Interactive: Make Lightning Strike

Guaranteed to be safer than Ben Franklin's kite experiment, learn the shocking details and damaging power of lightning first hand by spinning up your own virtual thunderbolts.

Photo: Thin tornado funnel

Video: Tornado Montage

Watch cows flee, buildings roll down streets, and houses rise into the air as tornadoes assert their power.

Earth Topics

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