Week 1: Hazards, Disasters, and Catastrophes. What is the difference between Natural Hazards, Disasters, and Catastrophes? Hello everyone! Welcome to my blog about the great country Chile! This will be a weekly blog about my knowledge and understanding of Chile as a country and its geological information such as weather, tectonic plates, possible disasters and that sort of thing. This first post will be all about natural hazards, disasters, and catastrophes and the differences between the three. The main difference between natural Hazards, Disasters, and Catastrophes is the magnitude of these events. A Natural Hazard is defined as a "natural process/event that is a potential threat to human life and property". These are naturally occurring events and their severity is low compared to the other two. If there is no danger to human life or property then it isn't classified as a hazard. A Natural Disaster is a little bigger as the name would suggest. A Natural ...