The Student Room Group

Natural Disasters

Hi, currently I am 15 years old and going to take my gcses in 2020. I am hoping to study geography and environmental/earth sciences in college. My biggest hope is to study natural disasters (e.g earthquakes, tornadoes), and I was just wondering what is the name of these sorts of people that study them, and what qualifications/degrees would I need? Sorry if this didn't really make sense!
Reply 1
Go on the open uni and look through their geography courses as a rough idea and then get brochures from brick unis
There isn't a single job that studies all natural disasters, typically you'd need to specialise in volcanology, seismology, meteorology etc. It's possible to do a specialised undergraduate degree in natural hazards (e.g. at Chester, Edge Hill, Derby, Coventry), or you could do a degree in geography, earth science or geology (to keep your postgraduate and career options open in case your interests change) and then choose a specialist masters course in a subject like geophysical hazards, flood risk management, earthquake engineering, volcanology or disaster management :smile:
(edited 4 years ago)
I wanted to do the same thing when I was 16 and now I've just finished 3rd year at university for Geology and Physics. The people are called seismologist (earthquakes), volcanologist (volcanoes) and tsunamis (tsunamis). If you want to study natural disasters, Geology/Earth Science would be better than Geography as a degree. It lands you in more technical jobs because the degree is on Physical Geography. Geography would include the Human Geography aspect. I'm still uncertain if I can get a job in the seismology field as the only company British Geological Survey doesn't have many job openings. Going abroad would be better than in Scotland. Unless I decide to pursue the academic route and become a lecturer in the Geophysics field and do research scientist to accompany that. A lot of geophysicists you would find are in academia.
(edited 4 years ago)

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