Geography & History Notes | KCSE, NECTA, ZIMSEC & GCSE

  Loss of lives. Severe landslides especially those associated with heavy rains and earthquakes result into rock falls and rock slides that destroy settlements and kill people living in s uch settlements like on the lower slopes of mountains like the Bulecheke landslides in 1996 killed about 100 people, in Buhweju many people were killed by the landslide s that occurred in May 2002, 2010 and 2018 on the slopes of mountain Elgon. Loss of property by the falling and sliding of rocks of various sizes. Many houses and settlements are normally destroyed for example in 1996 in Bundibugyo, a land slide occurred and destroyed several homes and properties for example roads, and electric poles connecting Bundibugyo to Fort Portal were destroyed and that from Kabale to Kisoro. Many crops and the would be agricultural land are often destroyed as they are buried by the debris from the upper slopes. Destruction of forest resources. When a slope with forests fails, chances are that those forests ...

  lighting is a visible electrical discharge in form of a flash. Lightning is associated with convectional rainfall and is experienced in regions that are intensely heated during the day, resulting in rapid transport of heat by convection in the atmosphere. Lightning is disastrous, destroys property and lead to loss of life among other things. Hence there is need to provide protection where the likelihood of lightning is greater than normal. Regions prone to lightning in Kenya include the west of Rift Valley (especially Kisii and Nyamira districts), Kakamega and the Lake Victoria region. To control lightning disasters, the government of Kenya has taken the following measures: Establishment of a commission whose duty is to educate the people on dangers of lightning and how they can avoid the disaster. Ministry of education has provided posters designed to educate people on precautionary measures against lightning. Installation of lightning arresters in schools within the lightning p...

  The following are some of the environmental hazards that occur in different parts of the world. Tropical cyclones Powerful winds like Tropical Cyclones cause havoc in the environment over which they prevail. The cyclones are formed by depression (areas of low pressure). they are called hurricanes in Caribbean, typhoons in Far East, Willy Willies in Australia and Tornadoes in North America. Waterspouts these are violent whirling winds that form funnels of water that cause turbulence in the inland water bodies such as lakes. In Kenya, they have destroyed buildings (e.g. carrying away of classroom roofs), capsizing boats and destroying fishermen’s nets in Lake Victoria. Seismic disturbances earthquakes cause a lot of damage to buildings, interfere with transport and communication and cause loss of life. Mild earthquakes are called tremors. Earthquakes may also cause Tsunami like the one that occurred in 2004 in the pacific highlands and felt upto the East African Coast. Volcanic Eru...

  A tsunami is a very large seismic sea wave, generated by an earthquake shock on the ocean floor. Tsunamis travel for considerable distances across the sea as long waves (the wavelength may be over 100 km, the wave height as little as 1 m, and the forward velocity as much as 600 km per hr). As the tsunami approaches the shore, the wave height increases markedly and sometimes exceeds 15 m; it is thus capable of causing immense destruction to coastal settlement and severe loss of life. For example, the great Krakatoa eruption of 1883, associated with seismic disturbances, caused tsunamis that drowned 36,000 people in coastal villages of Java and Sumatra. Effects of the tsunami are: Flooding in coastal areas  Death of people, for example the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami caused the death of quarter million people  Destruction of houses, hotel industries, and other properties. For example, in the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, two million people lost their homes and a lot of propert...