Radar, Buoys and Models: teacher key

Natural Disasters, grade 10 edition, written for 10th grade. Forecasters read radar patterns, ocean buoys and computer models to warn people before a storm, a wave or a rising sea arrives. Here is how those tools work.

Read the book. Print this page for the key.

Questions and answers

1. What do DART systems do?
   • Rate tornadoes
   • Detect and report tsunamis in the open ocean (answer)
   • Measure magnitude
2. Why does the San Andreas Fault sometimes produce great earthquakes?
   • Where creep is not constant, strain can build up for hundreds of years (answer)
   • It never moves
   • It creeps all the time
3. How big is a mesocyclone compared with a tornado?
   • Much smaller
   • The same
   • Much larger (answer)
4. What does the SLOSH model help forecasters do?
   • Rate tornadoes
   • Customize storm surge predictions for particular storms and coasts (answer)
   • Measure shaking waves
5. What does a wide, gently sloping continental shelf allow?
   • A higher storm surge (answer)
   • A lower storm surge
   • No surge
6. What is the best tornado protection?
   • A highway overpass
   • An open window
   • A safe room or storm shelter built to standards (answer)

Words

• magnitude: earthquake size
• subduction: plate sinking
• mesocyclone: rotating updraft
• supercell: rotating thunderstorm
• latitude: distance from equator
• levees: flood walls