Natural Disasters

This First Year Seminar will explore natural disasters: the physical processes that cause them, and their effects on human life. Types of natural disasters covered include earthquakes, volcanoes, tsunamis, hurricanes, tornadoes, and floods. We will explore how and why natural disasters disproportionately affect low-income and minority communities. The focus of the course will be case studies of specific disasters, allowing us to discuss both the science of natural hazards and the vulnerability of human populations to those hazards.