How does nature restore itself from natural disaster?

Question

In particular, how does the earth "use" volcanoes, earthquakes, and avalanches to restore itself? This was in my daughter's THIRD GRADE curriculum, but never discussed. The only one discussed was forest fire. The answer was grass and flowers grow again, and trees produce more seeds.

Answer 1

Volcanoes erode by natural methods, but this can take millions of years. When Mt. Saint Helen's erupted, the forest covering the mountain was destroyed; but it grew back just as if the eruption was a forest fire.

Earthquakes can occur when one tectonic plate spreads due to volcanic activity and the plate rubs against another. When this happens, one plate's edge is usually forced downwards towards the earth's core which replaces the magma that erupted from the volcanic activity.

Avalanches and landslides are not really restored, they just function due to gravity. However, the snow in avalanches does melt and returns to water cycle (eventually becoming snow and possibly returned to the mountains where it formed the avalanche.