All of these solutions would mitigate the effect of an earthquake on residents in areas that are prone to natural disasters. But, they would NOT be beneficial to a large population. Creating building codes that require all new construction and existing buildings to be built to a high safety standard will help save lives and reduce damage. These building codes have regulations that companies must follow to ensure they are stable and safe. The safety features should not just be in new homes or homes that cost over $1 million; this eliminates those who are living in less expensive homes or homes that were built previously. Only evacuating people over 80 years of age also narrows down the group of people receiving help drastically and leaves out a large piece of the population. None of these choices would be the best option to help large groups of people.

Volcanoes are a deadly natural hazard and can be unpredictable. If a volcano erupts, having better footage of the lava, smoke, and ash will do nothing at the moment to protect residents or their property. Lava would run right through, and under a fence, so it would not protect anyone from the volcano. Understanding the aftermath of a volcanic eruption is very important, but it does not address the issues with the explosion itself. Improving the monitoring systems would give people more time to evacuate or prepare, find a safe place, and would let scientists know the signs to look for future eruptions.

Many communities face similar problems with different types of severe natural hazards: hurricanes, volcanoes, and earthquakes. To keep the community safe and help the residents make positive changes, new safety ideas and measures need to be taken to strengthen the structures and land. Adding new construction that is closer to the water would NOT help reduce the impact of storms, but could increase damage to the buildings. Floodwaters rise and swell near the shore, so moving houses, further inland would be a better idea.

Natural hazards are events that are not human-made and harm communities. The events have to be naturally occurring and not influenced by humans. Earthquakes, floods, tsunamis, and volcanic eruptions are all examples of events that are generated by nature, and there are no influences by humans.

The natural process of weathering and erosion happens very slowly. Over time the wind, ice, vegetation, and water wear away small bits and pieces of sediment, rock, and other natural materials. Erosion takes these bits of material and moves them to a new location. In this example, erosion due to the ocean waves crashing onto the beach is washing away sand, causing it to be slowly moved out to sea, and the beach becomes shorter in width.

Meredith can use this data table to look for a pattern or connection between the slope of the cliffside and the average erosion rate. Based on the measurements recorded, the lower the slope, the longer it takes for the cliff to erode. Meredith could suggest building the cliffside up to reduce the slope so that scientists could increase the amount of time it would take to erode. The steep slope allows the force of gravity to move more rock faster, so by reducing the slope, the rock will not move as quickly.

Maps are a tool used to not only find locations and directions to a specific place but also a way to find patterns about Earth's landforms. When looking at this legend, we can see that the red triangles represent the most hazardous volcanoes in the state. Most of the high to very high hazard level volcanoes are located in Northern California. This pattern can be recognized based on the information from this map.

This is a graphic of a canyon, which is a type of rock formation. Changes can be noticed in the formation as it progresses upwards. The colors are light, almost gray color towards the bottom of the canyon closest to the water. The canyon is darker and burnt orange as it moves upwards. As the canyon changes in age, it also changes in colors. A canyon like the one pictured is an obvious way to see how the Earth has changed over the years. Scientists look for these changes and study how the Earth has changed over time.

This is a graphic of a canyon, which is a type of rock formation. Changes can be noticed in the formation as it progresses upwards. The colors are light, almost gray color towards the bottom of the canyon closest to the water. The canyon is darker and burnt orange as it moves upwards. As the canyon changes in age, it also changes in colors. A canyon like the one pictured is an obvious way to see how the Earth has changed over the years.

The section of rock that is the oldest is at the bottom of the formation. The graphic shown has a change in color as the rock formation changes in age. The darkest portion at the bottom is the oldest; then it gets lighter as the rock gets newer; the newest part is the orange/tan section at the top. Each layer of rock has been exposed, weathered, and eroded over time. The statement in the question is false; this rock formation depicts changes over time.