Difference between natural disaster and catastrophe

Posted By: Sm Adminon: November 23, 2015In: Miscellaneous

Natural disaster:
Natural disaster is the consequence of the combination of the natural hazard and human activities. For example: flood, landslide, volcano eruption, earthquake, tsunami etc. A natural disaster can cause a loss of life as well as the properties.
Catastrophe:
A catastrophe is an extremely large-scale disaster, a horrible event. Catastrophe comes from the Greek word.
Differences:

Basis	Natural disaster	Catastrophe
Definition (www.oxforddictionaries.com)	A natural event such as a flood, earthquake, or hurricane that causes great damage or loss of life	An event causing great and usually sudden damage or suffering; a disaster
Synonyms	Accident, hurricane, tornado, freak accident	Devastation, trouble, stroke, emergency, wreck
Antonyms		Miracle, benefit, success, gain, happiness
Types	The types of natural disaster are: floods tornadoes extreme temperatures avalanches droughts wildfire tsunami volcano eruption hurricanes earthquake
Word origin	The word disaster is derived from Middle French désastre and that from Old Italian disastro, which in turn comes from the Ancient Greek pejorative prefix δυσ-, (dus-) “bad” and ἀστήρ (aster), “star”. The root of the word disaster (“bad star” in Greek) comes from an astrological sense of a calamity blamed on the position of planets.	It was originated in Mid-16th century (in the sense ‘denouement’): from Latin catastropha
Pronunciation	Eng (UK): /ˈnatʃ(ə)r(ə)l / /dɪˈzɑːstə/ Eng (US): /ˈnaCH(ə)rəl / /dəˈzastər/	Eng (UK): / kəˈtastrəfi/ Eng (US): /kəˈtastrəfē /
Advantages/Benefits	Its advantages are: For farmers and those in the agricultural sector, flood helps them in the long run by providing nutrients to the soil that were lacking. After a volcanic eruption, the soil becomes rich due to the nutrients from the volcano. Hurricanes help to bring people together as they help each other in the aftermath. Hurricanes lowers the temperature.
Disadvantages	Its disadvantages are: The loss of lives, vegetation, and infrastructure. There will be mass dislocation of people, many of whom may be left homeless and jobless. The country may seek assistance from foreign countries to supply food and materials to clean and replace infrastructure.
Example in Sentence	The natural disaster can destroy the whole world in a minute. The flood was the greatest disaster they ever had.	Insurance can prevent a minor catastrophe from becoming a major one. The catastrophe hit Indonesia in the form of earthquake.