Natural Hazards
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Country
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Damaging earthquakes occur in Hindu Kush mountains; flooding; droughts
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Afghanistan
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San Miguel de Tucuman and Mendoza areas in the Andes subject to earthquakes; pamperos are violent windstorms that can strike the pampas and northeast
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Argentina
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Cyclones along the coast; severe droughts; bushfires
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Australia
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Droughts; cyclones; much of the country routinely inundated during the summer monsoon season
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Bangladesh
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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
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Bhutan
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Volcanic activity with periodic releases of poisonous gases from Lake Nyos and Lake Monoun volcanoes
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Cameroon
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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
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Canada
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About five typhoons per year along southern and eastern coasts; damaging floods; tsunamis; earthquakes; droughts; land subsidence
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China
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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
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Denmark
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Known as the "Land of Volcanoes"; also extremely susceptible to hurricanes
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El Salvador
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Geologically active Great Rift Valley susceptible to earthquakes, volcanic eruptions; frequent droughts
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Ethiopia
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Many dormant and some active volcanoes; about 1,500 seismic occurrences (mostly tremors) every year; tsunamis; typhoons
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Japan
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Hot, dry, dust-laden ghibli is a southern wind lasting one to four days in spring and fall; dust storms, sandstorms
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Libya
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Dust-laden harmattan haze common during dry seasons; recurring droughts; occasional Niger River flooding
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Mali
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Tsunamis along the Pacific coast, volcanoes and destructive earthquakes in the center and south, and hurricanes on the Pacific, Gulf, and Caribbean coasts
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Mexico
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Astride typhoon belt, usually affected by 15 and struck by five to six cyclonic storms per year; landslides; active volcanoes; destructive earthquakes; tsunamis
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Philippines
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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;
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Russia
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Periodic droughts; the volcanic Virunga mountains are in the northwest along the border with Democratic Republic of the Congo
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Rwanda
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Ice floes in the surrounding waters, especially in the Gulf of Bothnia, can interfere with maritime traffic
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Sweden
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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.
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Tuvalu
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Occasional typhoons (May to January); extensive flooding, especially in the Mekong River delta
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Vietnam
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