Volcanoes, tornadoes, tsunamis.
Today's topic is natural disasters.
I'm Oliver and welcome back to the Easy English Podcast, the number one show for listening to English, with slow and clear speech, teaching you vocabulary along the way.
So today's topic really reminds us about the Earth's intense power.
So how strong nature can be.
We're looking at these extreme natural events that can cause a lot of damage and affect many lives.
It's a very serious topic, but we're going to discuss it in a clear and easy to understand way, focusing on what these events are and how our planet creates them.
Understanding these forces can help us to be able to talk about them, to talk about weather and extreme weather, and to understand information about this too.
So, as always, we have key vocabulary, five pieces of key vocabulary which I want to teach you to listen out for in the podcast.
And, as always, I always have the link in the description below for the vocabulary list and study companion for the episode.
It's free and on my website.
But first, before we start today's episode, I have some exciting news.
Yes, some very exciting news.
My book, my brand new book phrasal verbs are easy has launched.
It is available on my website, so it's available to purchase and to buy on my website.
This book teaches you 50 of what i think are the most useful and interesting phrasal verbs, and it teaches it in an interesting way.
It introduces the verb.
It then gives you a short story which uses the phrasal verb to reinforce this idea.
And then it has some practice questions to put the verb in the correct form.
But what makes this book even more interesting is that with each page, there is a new short story.
And as you continue through the book, it will continue to use some of the older phrasal verbs that you have learned.
So it continues to reinforce and give you those verbs again.
There are also some exercises throughout and, of course, all of the answers at the end of the book too.
So if you're interested and you want to support the show and get my new book, check out the link in the description below and you can purchase it direct from my website.
And also, if you don't want to buy from the website, it is available on Patreon as well, on the Patreon shop.
And also, you can buy a physical copy in most markets, most countries, on Amazon.
So you can Google phrasal verbs are easy on Amazon and get a physical copy if you want.
But the e-book, the digital version, is much cheaper.
Okay, let's go to our vocabulary list for today.
So, listen out for these five words.
The first one is phenomenon. phenomenon.
It is a noun and quite a difficult word to start with today.
It means a fact or a situation that is observed to happen or exist, but especially one whose cause or explanation is in question.
So we're not entirely sure how they happen, but they do happen. so for example earthquakes and volcanoes are natural phenomenons so they exist and they happen but why they happen we are still understanding why these things happen why they happen in nature we know mostly but we're still understanding the second word today is magnitude magnitude.
This is also a noun and for earthquakes, this is a measure of its strength or size.
For example, a high magnitude earthquake is very powerful.
It's very powerful.
And our third word is impact, impact.
So this can be a noun or a verb.
The noun is the powerful effect that something has on a situation or a person.
And the verb, of course, then is to have a strong effect on something.
So natural disasters have a huge or a big impact on communities and people.
Our fourth word today is protect.
Protect.
That is a verb and it means to keep someone or something safe from harm or injury.
We try to protect ourselves and our homes from disasters.
Fifth one is prepare prepare, and that is to make ready for something, to get ready for something that is going to happen.
It's important to prepare for a natural disaster before it happens.
Okay, listen for those words.
You can always come back and listen again, but don't worry, you will hear them in context within this episode.
So, buckle up, get ready, and let's have a look at this interesting topic.
Let's start with one of the most sudden, so very fast and powerful natural events earthquakes.
An earthquake is the shaking of the earth's surface, and it's caused by a sudden release of energy in the earth's crust.
Our planet's outer layer is made up of large pieces, and these are called tectonic plates.
So don't worry too much about these scientific terms.
These are just big plates and they're pieces of the earth that are moving.
So they're always moving very slowly.
When these plates or pieces of the earth come together, they push together or slide past one another.
Tension and energy builds up.
It is created.
And when this is released, it causes the ground to shake and it releases that energy.
The strength of an earthquake is measured by what we call its magnitude.
Magnitude.
Remember that word?
And we measure this using something called the Richter scale.
A low magnitude earthquake. might not even be felt.
In fact, they happen almost all the time.
Every day, we have little tiny earthquakes in many parts of the world.
Even at places you would not expect, like the UK, in Western Europe, the US, there's little tiny earthquakes that happen from time to time, but we don't feel them.
But a high magnitude earthquake can cause buildings to collapse.
It can cause roads and the ground to crack.
And they really are a powerful natural phenomenon. that can change landscapes in seconds.
It can change countries and areas in minutes, in seconds, and have a devastating, so a very bad, impact on cities, a very serious impact on cities.
Okay, so another, that brings us to the end of earthquakes.
And this is, I guess that's a topic, it does come up, you know, every year or two, there seems to be a major earthquake, a serious earthquake somewhere in the world.
But this leads us to our next phenomenon, and that is volcanoes and their eruptions.
And this is a really another awe-inspiring natural phenomenon.
One which is so impressive to show the power of our planet, volcanoes.
Volcanoes are basically their openings in the Earth's surface.
And they allow that hot rock and ash and gases to escape from deep below the surface in the Earth.
Think of the earth like a giant ball with a very hot center, full of fire and heat and hot stuff.
And sometimes this heat and pressure from inside, it finds a way to escape, to get out from the surface of the earth, from the crust, through weaknesses in the Earth's shell, in its outside.
And when a volcano erupts, it can send a lot of this ash and, like lava which is molten melted rock out and down its side.
It's almost like in many cases like a mountain, and it can come down the sides and these volcanic eruptions can be very destructive.
They damage a lot of the environment and the area around the volcano and they have a really severe impact, a very serious impact on the surrounding areas.
We try to protect people by warning them a volcano, that a volcano is active, so that it is still possible for that volcano to erupt to give off this dangerous stuff.
And while they are dangerous, they also do contribute in the environment to creating new land and fertile soil.
So good soil or ground for farming.
But they're definitely not a power or not something to be underestimated, right?
Okay, so...
The next part we're going to go to is looking at water.
So water.
It is essential for life, but it can also be a devastating and dangerous source of natural disasters.
And two common water-related disasters are floods and tsunamis.
Floods can really happen almost anywhere in the world.
They're on every continent and every part there are floods in areas.
And they happen when a large amount of water overflows its usual body.
It can be a river, it can be the sea, somewhere else.
And when this happens, it covers land that is normally dry.
And this can be caused by very heavy rainfall, melting snow or even rivers overflowing their banks or their boundaries, like I mentioned.
And floods can develop slowly, so it could be over days or weeks, or they can happen very quickly, in a matter of seconds or minutes.
And these are called flash floods.
They can damage homes, roads and crops and have a significant impact on communities and people's houses and property.
And they can also, of course, cause death issues, with people drowning, not being able to swim or escape.
But we often prepare for floods by building defences.
So we try to protect our areas, protect our communities and houses in areas where there is a high risk of flood.
But however, tsunamis are very different.
These are giant ocean waves that are caused by powerful disturbances.
Most commonly, these earthquakes that we talked about before that happen underwater.
They can create tsunamis. but they can also be caused by landslides or even volcanic eruptions.
So they're almost a disaster that is caused by another natural disaster or natural phenomenon.
So, unlike regular ocean waves which are caused by wind, tsunamis involve the movement of an entire section of water from the ocean floor to the surface.
And in the deep ocean, a tsunami might only be a very small wave.
But as it approaches the sort of shallow coastal areas it can grow very, very tall and gain so much energy as it is flowing into the coast.
And then it hits the land with a very powerful force and they can have a really catastrophic, so a very intense, serious impact on coastal regions of a country.
So in these situations, it is vital to prepare to move to higher ground quickly to protect lives.
It's a very dangerous natural disaster and one that happens very quickly.
It's very hard in many cases to prepare for.
Okay, so before we move on to how communities prepare for natural disasters, I wanted to share some fantastic insights from you, our listeners.
And in a previous episode, I asked, so what is one of your favorite hobbies and why do you enjoy it?
And I received some very creative and thoughtful answers that I would love to share.
So first up, I had Lena from Germany.
And Lena says, my favorite hobby is baking.
I love it because it's very precise, almost like a science.
And at the end, I have something delicious or tasty to share.
Wow, that's a wonderful way to combine that creativity and science together.
It's a great hobby.
Next I had Diego from Mexico and he wrote that he enjoys learning new songs on my guitar.
It's relaxing and seeing my progress with new chords and melodies is very fascinating.
Fantastic, Diego.
That sense of progress is a huge motivator.
And finally, I had a comment from Anya from Ukraine.
She said, I love hiking in nature.
It helps me clear my mind and I get to see beautiful places.
It's my time for quiet thinking.
Thank you, Anya.
That's a wonderful, peaceful insight.
Well, thank you very much to everyone that wrote in and to Lena, Diego and Anya for next week or the next episode.
Well, one of the future episodes.
Sometimes I make a few at a time, so maybe a week.
The question that I want to ask for you to answer in the comments or, if it's on YouTube, in the comments you can email me.
If there's nowhere to comment where you're listening.
But my next question for you is, what is your favorite time of the year and why?
What is your favorite time of the year and why?
Okay, let's get back to today's topic.
And now we're going to look at preparing for natural disasters.
So, while natural disasters are powerful and they're also in many cases unpredictable, there are many things that communities and individuals can do to prepare and reduce their impact.
But being prepared means having a plan for what to do before, during and even after a disaster happens.
This might include knowing emergency numbers, so what to call having an emergency kit with food and water, and knowing safe places in your area where you live that you can go.
Governments and local authorities often work to prepare communities that are in these high risk areas through early warning systems and also public education, teaching children and making sure people in their areas know what to do.
We also try to protect ourselves and our communities by building stronger buildings in areas with earthquakes or by creating flood barriers in areas that often flood.
And these actions help to lessen the impact of a disaster.
And it makes then it's safer and reduces damage to homes and infrastructure.
The goal is always to protect lives and property as much as possible.
So that brings us to the end of the natural disasters that we will look at today and maybe how people prepare.
In terms of where i live, there are really not very many natural disasters.
There's not really big risk of natural disasters and I think in all of my life there hasn't really been any in Northern Ireland, the part of the UK that I live.
Occasionally, some areas will have flooding if they are too close to a river and maybe there's a really really fast and excessive rain.
But it has never been too serious.
I know that in England, sometimes in certain areas, they get quite bad flooding, quite bad floods.
But here...
Not so much.
You can also let me know in the comments, do you have a risk of natural disasters in your country?
And if so, what risks and what disasters are they?
So today we've explored some of the Earth's most powerful natural phenomena earthquakes volcanoes, floods and even tsunamis.
And while they can remind us of the planet's incredible strength, we've also learned about the human ability to prepare for them and protect ourselves.
And this can make their impact less serious.
But understanding these events and the words related to them helps us to better understand news, history and even just our own planet.
Thank you so much for joining today, listening to this episode, and just a reminder if you are new, make sure that you follow or subscribe for more and if you haven't already, rate the podcast five stars.
It really helps us to grow and it's totally free for you to do.
If you would like to pick up a copy of my new ebook Frizzle Verbs Are Easy, you can buy it from the link to my website in the description below.
And, as always, if you want to support, you can join the Patreon as well for bonus content and episodes every week.
All the links are in the description, including our vocabulary list for today.
Thank you so much for listening and I will see you in the next episode of Easy English.
Have a wonderful rest of your day.
Goodbye.
