Factors include:

• An increase in the number of people vulnerable to the natural hazard (e.g. population growth & increased population density close to hazard-prone areas)
• An increase in the frequency and magnitude of the natural hazard
• A decrease in the number of people capable of coping with the natural hazard

• Tectonic hazards
• Atmospheric hazards
• Geomorphological hazards
• Biological hazards

A long, narrow valley lying between two normal geologic faults. Rift valleys usually form where the Earth’s lithosphere has become thin through extension associated with plate-tectonic processes.