Natural Disasters of Ireland

Blog Week 13 According to a very recent study (Nov. 14th, 2017) Ireland has one major coastal hazard. Ireland is at major risk for coastal floods, due to the sea levels rising. Ireland has what’s known as isostatic crustal movements, which are sheets of ice that move and cause a surface to sink. These ice sheets have caused coasts to rise in the northern area of the country. The country also has storm surges. These are associated with heavy rainfall, which then causes rivers to break and flood everything around them. There is not much that can be done to stop the ice sheets from forming, which means there isn’t a whole lot that can be done to solve Ireland’s coastal hazards. During my research of Ireland’s coastal problems, I could not find information about what the country does to protect it’s citizens. The only thing the country really does is it has researchers constantly watching and recording all of what happens in the country, weather wise. References https://www.climate...

This week I’m choosing to write about my country, Ireland! The most recent major weather event that happened in Ireland, was in 2014. It was a storm named Storm Darwin, and it crashed through parts of Ireland in February of 2014. This storm consisted of high wind speeds, that got up to 120-160 kilometers per hour. With such high wind speeds, there was a lot of damage, but thankfully there were no casualties involved in this storm. There was mainly damage to buildings and homes. https://www.met.ie/climate-ireland/weather-events/2014StormDarwin.pdf

Week 8 Blog Post Ireland has had many landslides over the last century.  Mudflows are also very common throughout Ireland. These hazards are triggered when the ground soaks up all of the water from a heavy rainfall. One County in particular, Country Fermanagh experiences many landslides at the base of its mountain ranges. In 2003, Ireland had a major disaster. They had a landslide that happened in a town located in County Galway. Dirt and rock came tumbling down, which resulted in severely polluted rivers. Luckily, there were no injuries from this event because the landslide hit mostly forest areas. There is not much information regarding what Ireland is doing to prevent mass wasting. Here is a picture of a rather sad leprechaun that is holding an umbrella in the rain. https://keligeo9.blogspot.com/2017/03/irelands-mass-wastingmovement.htmln https://www.irishtimes.com/news/derrybrien-landslide-killed-up-to-100-000-fish-board-claims-1.388773

Week 5 According to IrishCentral.com volcanoes actually pose no real threat to anyone in the country at all. However, there have been numerous volcanic eruptions throughout the history of Ireland . Ireland is surrounded by volcanoes, but they are all extinct, which is why they don’t actually pose any real danger to society. A lot of hills and towns that are in the country actually were formed from the remains of extinct volcanoes. For example, Croghan Hill and The Hill of Allen were formed from volcanoes that last erupted 200 million years ago. Since Ireland doesn’t really have a volcanic threat pretty much anywhere, there are no measures or warnings on what to do if such things occur. The chances of Ireland getting hit with a volcanic eruption, are slim to none. https://www.irishcentral.com/travel/the-volcanic-island-of-ireland-the-emerald-isles-harmless-craters-125780058-237763971

Ireland’s Earthquakes After doing some research I’ve found that Ireland does not really have earthquakes often. They are almost non existent. In fact, for the past thirty years there have only been about 80 small earthquakes. ( http://www.newstalk.com/Ireland-on-shaky-ground-with-earthquakes-and-tsunamis- ) One of Ireland’s largest earthquake happened in 1984. However, this earthquake was a 5.4 and only caused slight structural damage near the east coast of Ireland. A geologist has previously said that an earthquake of this stature would be highly unlikely. ( http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/irelands-earthquake-explained-29305938.html ) According to our textbook there are quite a few ways that countries can protect themselves against earthquakes. For example, a lot of places have structural protections (ie buildings that are capable of of withstanding a bit of shaking). (Keller/DeVecchio, 92) Places like San Francisco and Los Angeles where earthquakes are common have very...

Ireland as it appears on the map is on the Eurasian Plate. ( http://earthguide.ucsd.edu/eoc/teachers/t_tectonics/p_map_plate_layers_bath.html ) The island of Ireland is right at a convergent plate boundary. There are a few types of convergent boundaries. However, Ireland’s type is what is known as a colliding plate boundary. (Keller/DeVecchio, 36)  Due to the fact that plates collide repeatedly in Ireland, they forced mountains to arise. The chain of mountains most closely relates to the direction of the path of the plates. After repeated collision between varying plates has caused Ireland to have many vast mountain ranges around the island. ( http://www.askaboutireland.ie/reading-room/environment-geography/physical-landscape/Irelands-physical-landsca/the-formation-of-the-phys/ireland-and-plate-tectoni/ ) Quick Facts: Ireland is surrounded by a chain of extinct volcanoes. These volcanoes pose no threat to the people on the island. Ireland’s last volcanic eruption was ov...