C#: Getting a new instance of an existing object then passing it through a method

I'm not quite sure how to word my question (which may be why I can't effectively search for an answer). I have a method:

public void spawnDisaster(new disaster) 
{
    //code for starting a new disaster
}

It uses a custom class called disaster, which I have extended like this:

public class di_flood : disaster 
{
    desc = "Oh no, a flood!";
}

public class di_tsunami : disaster 
{
    desc = "It's a tsunami, run!";
}

I want a disaster to be able to create a copy of itself. Like this:

public class disaster 
{
   public void makeANewOneOfThese() 
   {
      spawnDisaster(new this.getType() );
   }
}

But, of course, this doesn't work: getType() returns a Type, rather than the actual class, so I can't make a new instance from it.

I've been googling around for the last 2 hours trying to get this to work, and I know it has something to do with Reflection and might involve Generics, but now I'm just confused. It feels like there's probably a simple(ish) way to do this but I just can't figure it out.