2. Read the text and translate it into Russian.

Geologic hazards are those geologic features and events that are hazardous or harmful to the extent that they frequently result in injuries or loss of life and property. Natural geologic processes, which have been going on for millions of years, may become geologic hazards when people get in the way. They include such geologic phenomena as earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, floods, landslides, subsidence, tsunamis, soil creep, and avalanches. Throughout history, there are many examples of naturally occurring geologic hazards, which have resulted in disaster and have greatly affected the activities of men.

 Another category of geologic hazards is that of “man-induced hazards”. Some examples of man-induced hazards include land subsidence caused by withdrawal of ground water and petroleum resulting in damage to foundations and other structures, and landslides resulting from highway construction, which modifies stable slopes.

Both naturally occurring and man-induced geologic hazards are merely normal geologic processes or events until men get in the way, then these processes or events become hazards. Earthquake are hazards when men live too close to the active fault area, volcanic eruptions become so when men live in close proximity to the volcano, and floods become hazards when men inhabit the flood plain.

Earthquakes. Seismic phenomena, or earthquakes, are the most terrible catastrophes occurring in nature. A strong earthquake may destroy whole towns in the course of several minutes and even seconds.

The typical large earthquake starts with fracturing within the earth where rocks are subjected to increasing strain until they break. The sudden fracturing is violent enough to vibrate the surrounding solid rocks. These vibrations, called seismic waves, pass through the earth like waves through water: they compress and expand materials in their path or shift it from side to side. Seismic waves travel over the whole surface of the earth and penetrate to its very center.

Landslides. A landslide is a process of movement of earth’s materials down slopes. This movement either slow or fast occurs when the strength of the material is exceeded by the force of gravity. Other factors causing landslides are erosion, rainfalls and earthquakes. Landslides are found at elevations ranging from high mountain peaks to the sea floor and occur in every climate from arctic to tropic. This process produces a lot of debris, which are later carried away by streams and rivers to be deposited as sediments.

What can the geologist do about geologic hazards? Working with adequate knowledge, he can conduct proper geologic investigations that can be used to prevent a geologic hazard from becoming a disaster. Recognition or identification of a geologic hazard at a certain locality must first be made. Once clearly identified and defined, there are several approaches to solving the problem, depending on the type of a hazard. One solution is to avoid the problem by changing the proposed location of a structure such as a reservoir, nuclear power plant or highway. This solution is often necessary in the case of naturally occurring hazards. Other alternatives are to eliminate the hazard. Normally, the latter approach is more costly than avoiding the problem.

What hope do we have for eliminating disasters caused by geologic hazards? There is little hope that they can be eliminated completely, but they could be greatly reduced with an understanding of the geologic aspects of the environment. Hopefully, prediction and control of many geologic hazards will become a reality in the near future.