Countries by Natural Disasters/Hazards and Geography

Natural Hazards

Country

Damaging earthquakes occur in Hindu Kush mountains; flooding; droughts

San Miguel de Tucuman and Mendoza areas in the Andes subject to earthquakes; pamperos are violent windstorms that can strike the pampas and northeast

Cyclones along the coast; severe droughts; bushfires

Droughts; cyclones; much of the country routinely inundated during the summer monsoon season

Violent storms from the Himalayas are the source of the country's name, which translates as Land of the Thunder Dragon; frequent landslides during the rainy season

Volcanic activity with periodic releases of poisonous gases from Lake Nyos and Lake Monoun volcanoes

Continuous permafrost in north is a serious obstacle to development; cyclonic storms form east of the Rocky Mountains, a result of the mixing of air masses from the Arctic, Pacific, and North American interior, and produce most of the country's rain and snow east of the mountains

About five typhoons per year along southern and eastern coasts; damaging floods; tsunamis; earthquakes; droughts; land subsidence

Flooding is a threat in some areas of the country (e.g., parts of the mainland peninsula, along the southern coast of the island of Lolland) that are protected from the sea by a system of dikes

Known as the "Land of Volcanoes"; also extremely susceptible to hurricanes

Geologically active Great Rift Valley susceptible to earthquakes, volcanic eruptions; frequent droughts

Many dormant and some active volcanoes; about 1,500 seismic occurrences (mostly tremors) every year; tsunamis; typhoons

Hot, dry, dust-laden ghibli is a southern wind lasting one to four days in spring and fall; dust storms, sandstorms

Dust-laden harmattan haze common during dry seasons; recurring droughts; occasional Niger River flooding

Tsunamis along the Pacific coast, volcanoes and destructive earthquakes in the center and south, and hurricanes on the Pacific, Gulf, and Caribbean coasts

Astride typhoon belt, usually affected by 15 and struck by five to six cyclonic storms per year; landslides; active volcanoes; destructive earthquakes; tsunamis

Permafrost over much of the vast eastern regions is a major impediment to development; volcanic activity in the Kuril Islands; volcanoes and earthquakes on the Kamchatka Peninsula;

Periodic droughts; the volcanic Virunga mountains are in the northwest along the border with Democratic Republic of the Congo

Ice floes in the surrounding waters, especially in the Gulf of Bothnia, can interfere with maritime traffic

Severe tropical storms are usually rare, but in 1997 there were three cyclones; low level of islands make them sensitive to changes in sea level.

Occasional typhoons (May to January); extensive flooding, especially in the Mekong River delta