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Coastal and Marine Geology Program
Coastal and Marine Geology Program > Natural Disasters—Forecasting Economic and Life Losses

Natural Disasters—Forecasting Economic and Life Losses

USGS Fact Sheet
Comparison of natural disaster fatalities in the United States. Cumulative size-frequency distributions for annual earthquake, flood, hurricane, and tornado fatalities. In addition to demonstrating linear behavior over 2 to 3 orders of magnitude in loss, these data group into two families. Earthquakes and tornadoes are associated with relatively flat slopes (D=0.4 - 0.6); while floods and tornadoes have steeper slopes (D=1.3 - 1.4). Open symbols were not used to calculate slope of lines.
Comparison of natural disaster fatalities in the United States.

Coastal and Marine Geology Program > Natural Disasters—Forecasting Economic and Life Losses


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