FSEM 100XX | Escaping Death: Geologic Disasters

THIS COURSE HAS CURRENTLY FILLED FOR FALL 2025.

This class examines earthquakes, volcanoes, tsunamis and related hazards, caused by motion of earth’s tectonic plates. We will explore well-known disasters, and examine why they were so destructive. We will also consider how hazards are predictable, and what steps can be taken to increase our resilience – to avoid death and destruction.  While all this is based in science, we must also reflect on the social and political issues that lead communities to different acceptable levels of risk, and to stronger or weaker mitigation measures. The course relies on reading as well as the study of maps, animations, and videos and some of my favorite bad–disaster movies!  

Photo of Jackie Gallagher, Associate Professor of Geography

Jackie Gallagher, Associate Professor of Geography

I am a physical geographer – I study landscapes and the processes that form them, now and in the recent past. If I’d grown up in the USA, perhaps I would be a geologist – but in Britain, this is geography. Geography involves observing and mapping features to look for a pattern, and trying to explain the pattern; it is not memorizing state capitals or the heights of mountains! Physical geography is the study of earth’s natural processes, and how living organisms (including humans!) interact with them. I also teach classes in weather & climate, natural hazards, biogeography, landform processes, and geographic information science (mapping, analyzing mapped features).

I grew up in Wiltshire, England. I hold degrees in physical geography from the UK, Canada and the USA, and moved to Fredericksburg in 2006. My husband and I have two young-adult children, both in college, and an English Pointer named Anwen; I enjoy camping and hiking, baking and knitting.

Image Credit: Tsunami warning sign by gunnsteinlye, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0.