type | definition | natural disaster |
---|---|---|
potential | energy stored in a system resulting from a relative position to a reference point (gravitational potential energy; depends on distance to reference body and mass) or from the state of a system (elastic potential energy; depends on deformation and resistance to deformation) | impactors in Earth's gravitational field; unstable masses prone to landslides, volcanic material ejected into the atmosphere, earthquake faults, plate tectonics | kinetic | energy of motion (depends on speed and mass of body) | meteorite impact, landslides, volcanic explosions, lava flows, pyroclastic flows, earth movement resulting from earthquakes, wind storms |
rotational | circular motion (depends on moment of inertia/resistance to change in angular velocity); orbiting (e.g. Moon around Earth); rotating (e.g. Earth) | tornadoes, some types of landslides, rotating storms |
heat | internal: produced by radioactive decay inside Earth or primordial heat; external: sun | internal: volcanoes, plate tectonics external: amtospheric processes; severe weather |
DID YOU KNOW? Assuming a velocity of 10cm/yr, it would take nearly 60 Mio years (million) for a piece of lithosphere to travel from the surface to the core-mantle boundary and back. |
The concept of latent heat is very important as big storms are fueled by the immense amounts of energy stored in water vapor in the form latent heat.
material | heat capacity [cal/cm3°C] |
air | 0.0003 |
quartz sand | 0.31 |
granite | 0.52 |
aluminum at 20°C | 0.58 |
copper at 20°C | 0.82 |
glass at 20°C | 0.5 |
human body(1) | 0.8 |
water | 1.0 |