January 20, 2011
Otterstorm, Samuel M
GEOG 120H
Section 001
#2 – CLIMATE/NATURAL HAZARDS
Many world events and hazards are directly related to climate. Find an article/event that directly relates to climate and discuss it terms of the physical geography and climatic elements that combined to help create the condition or event. How will this event affect the region and people in which it occurred? Did/do economic conditions in the country or region in which the even occurred affect the severity of the event? Explain.
Gregory, Holly. Earth’s Magnetic Shift Impacts Tampa International Airport. New 9. Web 6 January 2011.
Shifts in the earth’s magnetic pull caused hundreds of airplanes to stay grounded. The runaways in an airport are aligned to the points on the Earth’s magnetic North Pole, but the first week of 2011 the Tampa Florida International Airport’s main runaways were closed for repairs due to dramatic shifts in the earth’s magnetic pull. According to the article scientists believe that the North Pole’s is shifting towards Russia, about 40 miles a year. After the shift in the magnetic fields the Tampa runways were six degrees off, which is a drastic enough change to can cause a pilot to land a plan in the middle of the ocean.
This natural hazard effected all of the people planning to fly in and out of the Tampa International Airport for the end of the holidays. The runways were closed, and thousands of passengers were delayed. I can only imagine the amount of lost baggage and missed appointments.
I would say that the economic conditions of the airport affected the severity of this event. Besides the time lost, the affects of the natural hazard could be paid for. Although the airplane companies could have suffered slightly economically, the pilots had to adjust their magnetic fields, and the passengers probably felt stressed after reading this article I believe that most companies anticipate natural disasters such as this into their yearly budgets, and management.
Unlike other natural hazards the shift in the earth’s magnitude effected a very limited population. The people who with enough money for air travel, and who planed to travel. Although the people were stranded in the airport there was access to clean water, food, and shelter. Not to mention there were lots of things that did not happen; no one died, no one lost their house, there were no refugees because of the delayed airplanes, or at least the article did not mention any deaths. The affects of the shift in the Tampa airport affected the runways who were closed for repairs, and delayed the travels of the passages.
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