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Hazard analyses typically develop a fairly predictable list of hazards for a locality, hazards that are reasonably obvious.  But if we are going to identify hazards, we need to think more globally.  First, research on the incidence of disaster events (conducted in the Disaster Database Project) shows that these events can and do occur almost anywhere.  Obviously, some types of events are more frequent in some locations than others.  Plate boundaries spawn more earthquakes than do mid-plate areas.  However, earthquakes do occur mid-plate, tornadoes do occur in mountainous areas and in cities, airplanes drop from the sky almost anywhere, and if there is navigable water, a ship can sink in it.