Destruction: Lessons from Natural Disasters by Teresa Bondora

I’ve been without power for a week since we were hit by Hurricane Ivan. While we had it good compared to most, being without power wasn’t fun. But as a scientist, I couldn’t help but love the experience. And it got me to thinking about nature’s awesome power and destructive forces and why they’re so necessary and the wonderful benefits of these destructive events.

Just like humans spring clean (well, some of us anyway) Mother Nature cleans out as well. From the microscopic to the global, what seems like destruction is actually a healthy cleaning process necessary for growth and rejuvenation.

So as I drove around looking at the damage and destruction I couldn’t help but see the cleaning work that had been done and the process that was unfolding. The typical hurricane teaching that is done at this time of year is usually plotting hurricanes, learning how they form off the coast of Africa, El Nino, etc. But I wanted to cover the topic of destruction and why it happens. This can be a discussion or you can make worksheets for your kids. I like to do discussions while we are in the car and I can ask questions and we can talk.

So ask your children to name some destructive forces in nature.
I think of forest fires, hurricanes, tornadoes, landslides, avalanches.
Take one of them and ask your child what damage happens.
For that damage ask them what benefits could come of that damage.

Hurricanes

After a hurricane you’ll see large tree limbs down, dead limbs down, whole trees down- As you probably already see, this is necessary to clear out dead limbs that can tax a tree’s energy, remove dead trees from the forest population and remove dying or weak trees. This opens up the forest for more sunlight for smaller new trees, gets the debris to the floor of the forest where bacteria, worms, insects and other decomposers can have more work and food and returns the nutrients to the soil.

Flooding, beach erosion, sand hundreds of feet into the beach and onto the streets is a common aftermath of a hurricane. This helps to renew the beach, move the landscape and create more homes for the sand crabs, sandpiper birds and other animals that depend on the beach for homes and food. It’s not so good for human homeowners on the beach but it’s a fact of nature that our landscape is in constant flux and movement.

Placement of beaches moves, sand dunes are destroyed and rebuilt in other locations, our crust is taken up at earthquake faults and recreated by volcanoes, mountains climb higher, rivers dry up and lakes are created by flood.

Where I live, in Mobile, AL, USA, we had a fresh water lake that sat about half a mile from the beach. The hurricane washed out a channel from the beach and merged the lake with the ocean. Now the lake’s trees and fish are dying and the water will become an inlet of ocean water. New life will flourish here and the fauna will change.

Forest Fires

Many of you are aware of our country’s struggle to learn our lessons about forest fires. Before the 1990’s our National Parks had a policy of watching for and preventing or putting out forest fires. This policy prevented fires and caused a large build-up of forest floor litter (leaves, pine straw, dead trees). When the great Yellowstone Fire of 1988 occurred, it confounded all attempts to control it or stop it. The result was devastating destruction. What we learned from that event resulted in a “let it burn” policy for our national parks and taught us even more about Mother Nature’s reasons for the things she does. We have learned that forest fires help clean out undergrowth and forest floor litter. Lightning is going to cause fires and if they are allowed to burn, they keep the flammable material to a minimum. When not allowed to burn, the buildup causes unrelenting fires that burn for months. We also learned about seeds that need intense heat to open and depend on fires for their population’s survival. Fires also return to the earth, the necessary nutrients the soil supplies for growth. After years of growing seasons, nutrients are depleted. Fires rejuvenate the soil.

Avalanches

While an avalanche may look unnecessary and an accidental slip of too much snow meeting gravity, avalanches are also necessary. The movement of water on our planet may look slow in some areas whereas, in others water comes down as snow, freezes for the winter then moves rapidly down from the mountains as water in the spring. This cycle is well-known to those who live in mountain areas.

When snow seasons begin early, as they are in Utah now, in September, more snow is allowed to accumulate, freeze and be stored up as ice until the spring thaw. This thaw will then cause widespread flooding. Avalanches are nature’s way of removing large amounts of water (as snow) from the higher points and taking them to lower points where they will thaw sooner and reduce the amount of flooding in the spring. It reduces pack ice and thins the snow. Animals who must live in the snow find it much easier to subsist in thinner snow.

I find this fascinating and it’s one of the reasons I know that science isn’t hard. It makes sense. The natural world isn’t much different from us. What works for us, works for nature too. And what works on the microscopic level works on a human level and works on a global level too. From the microscopic to the universal, radiation slowly kills an atom, our immune system kills our own cells when they become weak, hurricanes kill trees, land is destroyed in earthquakes, stars implode and it’s all for the greater good.

I’ve got some links for information in case you’re interested, posted on my site. I’ll also write a follow- up to this about nature’s recycling. She may destroy but she also rebuilds from the atomic level, to the animal level to the global level, Mother Nature destroys then uses the remains to rebuild.

About the author:
Teresa Bondora is an ex-science teacher turned homeschool mom of two. She hosts an on-line workshop on teaching science, is writing a book on the same and has developed educational products to help introduce chemistry to children. You can find her on-line and learn much more practical science at
www.steelcreek.com.