For centuries, natural disasters have haunted humanity. Some happened so long ago that scientists cannot estimate the scale of the destruction. For example, the Mediterranean island of Stroggli is believed to have been wiped off the map by a volcanic eruption around 1500 BC. The tsunami caused destroyed the entire Minoan civilization, but no one knows even the approximate number of deaths. However, the 10 worst known disasters, mostly earthquakes and floods, killed an estimated 10 million people.
10. Aleppo earthquake - 1138, Syria (Victims: 230,000)
One of the most powerful earthquakes known to mankind, and fourth in terms of the number of victims (approximately over 230 thousand dead). The city of Aleppo, a large and populous urban center since antiquity, is geologically located along the northern part of a system of major geological faults, which also includes the Dead Sea Trench, and which separate the Arabian and African tectonic plates, which are in constant interaction. The Damascus chronicler Ibn al-Qalanisi recorded the date of the earthquake - Wednesday, October 11, 1138, and also indicated the number of victims - over 230 thousand people. Such a number of casualties and destruction shocked contemporaries, especially the Western crusader knights, since at that time in northwestern Europe, where most of them were from, there was a rare city with a population of 10 thousand inhabitants. After the earthquake, the population of Aleppo recovered only to early XIX century, when the city again recorded a population of 200 thousand inhabitants.
9. Indian Ocean Earthquake - 2004, Indian Ocean (Victims: 230,000+)
The third, and according to some estimates the second most powerful, is the underwater earthquake in the Indian Ocean that took place on December 26, 2004. It caused a tsunami, which caused most of the damage. Scientists estimate the earthquake's magnitude to be between 9.1 and 9.3. The epicenter was underwater, north of the island of Simeulue, northwest of Indonesian Sumatra. Huge waves reached the shores of Thailand, southern India and Indonesia. Then the wave height reached 15 meters. Many areas suffered enormous destruction and casualties, including Port Elizabeth, South Africa, which is 6,900 km from the epicenter. The exact number of victims is unknown, but it is estimated from 225 to 300 thousand people. The true figure can no longer be calculated, since many bodies were simply carried away into the sea. It’s curious, but a few hours before the arrival of the tsunami, many animals reacted sensitively to the impending disaster - they left coastal zones, having moved to higher ground.
8. Banqiao Dam Failure - 1975, China (Victims: 231,000)
There are different estimates of the number of victims of the disaster. The official figure, about 26,000 people, only takes into account those directly drowned in the flood itself; Taking into account those who died from epidemics and famine that spread as a result of the disaster, the total number of victims is, according to various estimates, 171,000 or even 230,000. The dam was designed in such a way as to survive the largest floods that occur once every thousand years (306 mm of precipitation per day). However, in August 1975, the largest flooding in 2,000 years occurred as a consequence of the powerful Typhoon Nina and several days of record storms. The flood caused a huge wave of water 10 kilometers wide, 3-7 meters high. The tide moved 50 kilometers from the coast in an hour and reached the plains, creating artificial lakes there with a total area of 12,000 sq. km. Seven provinces were flooded, including thousands of square kilometers of countryside and countless communications lines.
7. Tangshan earthquake - 1976, China (Victims: 242,000)
The second most powerful earthquake also occurred in China. On July 28, 1976, the Tangshan earthquake occurred in Hebei province. Its magnitude was 8.2, which allows us to consider the event the largest natural disaster of the century. The official death toll was 242,419. However, most likely the figure was underestimated by the PRC authorities by 3-4 times. This suspicion is based on the fact that according to Chinese documents, the strength of the earthquake is indicated as only 7.8 points. Tangshan was almost immediately destroyed by powerful tremors, the epicenter of which was located at a depth of 22 km below the city. Even Tianjin and Beijing, which are located 140 kilometers from the epicenter, were destroyed. The consequences of the disaster were terrible - 5.3 million houses were destroyed and damaged to such an extent that they were uninhabitable. The number of victims increased due to the subsequent series of tremors to 7.1. Today in the center of Tangshan there is a stele that reminds of the terrible disaster, and there is an information center dedicated to those events. It is a unique museum on this topic, the only one in China.
6. Kaifeng Flood - 1642, China (Victims: 300,000)
Long-suffering China again. Formally, this disaster can be considered natural, but it was caused by human hands. In 1642, a peasant uprising took place in China, led by Li Zicheng. The rebels approached the city of Kaifeng. In order to prevent the rebels from capturing the city, the command of the Ming Dynasty troops gave the order to flood the city and surrounding area with the waters of the Yellow River. When the water receded and the famine caused by the artificial flood ended, it turned out that of the 600,000 people in the city and surrounding area, only half survived. At that time it was one of the bloodiest punitive actions in history.
5. Indian Cyclone - 1839, India (Victims: 300,000+)
Although the photograph of the cyclone does not date back to 1839, it can be used to appreciate the full power of this natural phenomenon. The Indian cyclone of 1839 was not destructive in itself, but it produced powerful tidal waves that killed 300,000 people. Tidal waves completely destroyed the city of Coringa and sank 20,000 ships that were in the city's bay.
4. Great Chinese Earthquake - 1556 (Victims: 830,000)
In 1556, the most destructive earthquake in human history took place, called the Great Chinese Earthquake. It happened on January 23, 1556 in Shaanxi province. Historians believe the disaster killed about 830,000 people, more than any other similar event. Some areas of Shaanxi were completely depopulated, and in the rest more than half the people died. Such a huge number of victims was explained by the fact that most of the inhabitants lived in loess caves, which immediately collapsed during the first shocks or were subsequently flooded by mudflows. According to modern estimates, this earthquake was assigned a category of 11 points. One of the eyewitnesses warned his descendants that when a disaster begins, they should not rush headlong into the street: “When a bird’s nest falls from a tree, the eggs often remain unharmed.” Such words are evidence that many people died while trying to leave their homes. The destructiveness of the earthquake is evidenced by the ancient steles of Xi'an, collected in the local Beilin Museum. Many of them were crumbling or cracked. During the cataclysm, the Wild Goose Pagoda located here survived, but its foundation sank by 1.6 meters.
3. Bhola Cyclone - 1970 (Casualties: 500,000 - 1,000,000)
A destructive tropical cyclone that struck the territories of East Pakistan and Indian West Bengal on November 12, 1970. The deadliest tropical cyclone and one of the deadliest natural disasters in modern history. About half a million people lost their lives when the storm surge flooded many of the low-lying islands of the Ganges delta. It was the sixth storm cyclone of the 1970 North Indian Ocean hurricane season and the strongest of the year.
The cyclone formed over the central part of the Bay of Bengal on November 8, after which it began to move northward, gaining strength. It reached its peak power on the evening of November 12, and made contact with the East Pakistan coastline that same night. The storm surge devastated numerous offshore islands, sweeping away entire villages and destroying the region's farmland in its wake. In the worst-affected area of the country, Tazumuddin upazila, more than 45% of the 167,000 population died.
Political consequences
The unwieldy pace of rescue efforts only increased anger and resentment in East Pakistan and contributed to the local resistance movement. Subsidies were slow to arrive, and transport was slow to deliver desperately needed supplies to storm-ravaged areas. In March 1971, tensions steadily increased; foreign specialists began to leave the province, fearing outbreaks of violence. Subsequently, the situation continued to deteriorate and escalated into the War of Independence, which began on March 26. Later, in December of the same year, this conflict expanded into the Third Indo-Pakistani War, which culminated in the creation of the state of Bangladesh. The events that took place can be considered one of the first cases in which a natural phenomenon provoked a civil war, subsequent external intervention by a third power and the disintegration of one country into two independent states.
2. Yellow River Valley Flood - 1887, China (Victims: 900,000 - 2,000,000)
One of the worst floods in modern times human history, which, according to different sources, claimed from 1.5 to 7 million human lives, happened in the late spring of 1887 in the northern provinces of China, in the Yellow River Valley. Heavy rains throughout almost all of Hunan that spring caused the river to flood. The first flood occurred at a sharp bend, in the vicinity of the city of Zhangzhou.
Day after day, bubbling waters invaded the cities, destroying and devastating them. In total, 600 cities along the river's banks were affected by the flood, including the walled city of Hunan. The rapid flow continued to wash away fields, animals, cities and people, flooding an area 70 km wide with water that reached a depth of 15 meters.
The water, often against the wind and tide, slowly flooded terrace after terrace, on each of which 12 to 100 families accumulated. Of the 10 houses, only one or two survived. Half of the buildings were hidden under water. People lay on the roofs of houses, and old people who did not die of hunger died of cold.
The tops of the poplars that once stood along the roads stuck out of the water like algae. Here and there they held onto old trees with thick branches strong men and called for help. In one place, a box containing dead child, who was placed there for safety by his parents. The box contained food and a note with a name. Elsewhere, a family was discovered, all the members of which had died, the child was placed in the most high place...well covered with clothing.”
The destruction and devastation left after the waters subsided was simply terrible. Statistics have never been able to cope with the task of counting. By 1889, when the Yellow River finally returned to its course, disease was added to the misfortunes of the flood. It is estimated that half a million people died from cholera.
1. Great Flood - 1931, China (Victims: 1,000,000 - 4,000,000)
The summer monsoon period of 1931 was unusually stormy. Heavy rains and tropical cyclones raged across river basins. The dams withstood intense rain and storms for weeks, but they eventually gave way and collapsed in hundreds of places. Approximately 333,000 hectares of land were flooded, at least 40,000,000 people lost their homes, and crop losses were enormous. On large areas The water did not go away for three to six months. Diseases, food shortages, and lack of shelter led to the death of a total of 3.7 million people.
One of the epicenters of the tragedy was the city of Gaoyou in the northern province of Jiangsu. A powerful typhoon struck China's fifth largest lake, Gaoyou, on August 26, 1931. Its water level has already risen to record heights as a result of heavy rains in previous weeks. A squally wind raised high waves that crashed against the dams. After midnight the battle was lost. The dams were broken in six places, and the largest gap reached almost 700 m. A stormy stream swept through the city and the province. In one morning alone, about 10,000 people died in Gaoyou.
Today, the world's attention is drawn to Chile, where a large-scale eruption of the Calbuco volcano began. It's time to remember 7 biggest natural disasters recent years to know what the future may hold. Nature is attacking people, just as people used to attack nature.
Eruption of Calbuco volcano. Chile
Mount Calbuco in Chile is a fairly active volcano. However, its last eruption took place more than forty years ago - in 1972, and even then it lasted only one hour. But on April 22, 2015, everything changed in the worst side. Calbuco literally exploded, releasing volcanic ash to a height of several kilometers.
On the Internet you can find a huge number of videos about this amazingly beautiful spectacle. However, it is pleasant to enjoy the view only through a computer, being thousands of kilometers away from the scene. In reality, being near Calbuco is scary and deadly.
The Chilean government decided to resettle all people within a radius of 20 kilometers from the volcano. And this is only the first measure. It is not yet known how long the eruption will last and what actual damage it will cause. But this will definitely be an amount of several billion dollars.
Earthquake in Haiti
On January 12, 2010, Haiti suffered a disaster of unprecedented scale. Several tremors occurred, the main one of magnitude 7. As a result, almost the entire country was in ruins. Even the presidential palace, one of the most majestic and capital buildings in Haiti, was destroyed.
According to official data, more than 222 thousand people died during the earthquake and after it, and 311 thousand suffered varying degrees of damage. At the same time, millions of Haitians were left homeless.
This is not to say that magnitude 7 is something unprecedented in the history of seismic observations. The scale of destruction turned out to be so enormous due to the high deterioration of the infrastructure in Haiti, as well as due to the extremely low quality of absolutely all buildings. In addition, the local population itself was in no hurry to provide first aid to the victims, as well as to participate in clearing the rubble and restoring the country.
As a result, an international military contingent was sent to Haiti, which took over control of the state in the first time after the earthquake, when the traditional authorities were paralyzed and extremely corrupt.
Tsunami in the Pacific Ocean
Until December 26, 2004, the vast majority of the world's inhabitants knew about tsunamis exclusively from textbooks and disaster films. However, that day will forever remain in the memory of Humanity because huge wave, which covered the coasts of dozens of states in the Indian Ocean.
It all started with a major earthquake with a magnitude of 9.1-9.3 that occurred just north of the island of Sumatra. It caused a gigantic wave up to 15 meters high, which spread in all directions of the ocean and wiped out hundreds of settlements, as well as world-famous seaside resorts.
The tsunami covered coastal areas in Indonesia, India, Sri Lanka, Australia, Myanmar, South Africa, Madagascar, Kenya, Maldives, Seychelles, Oman and other countries on the Indian Ocean. Statisticians counted more than 300 thousand dead in this disaster. At the same time, the bodies of many could not be found - the wave carried them into the open ocean.
The consequences of this disaster are colossal. In many places, infrastructure was never fully rebuilt after the 2004 tsunami.
Eyjafjallajökull volcano eruption
The difficult-to-pronounce Icelandic name Eyjafjallajökull became one of the most popular words in 2010. And all thanks to the eruption of a volcano in the mountain range with this name.Paradoxically, not a single person died during this eruption. But this natural disaster seriously disrupted business life around the world, primarily in Europe. After all, a huge amount of volcanic ash thrown into the sky from the mouth of Eyjafjallajökull completely paralyzed air traffic in the Old World. The natural disaster destabilized the lives of millions of people in Europe itself, as well as in North America.
Thousands of flights, both passenger and cargo, were cancelled. Daily airline losses during that period amounted to more than $200 million.
Earthquake in China's Sichuan province
As in the case of the earthquake in Haiti, a huge number of victims after a similar disaster in Chinese province Sichuan, which occurred there on May 12, 2008, is due to the low level of capital buildings.
As a result of the main earthquake of magnitude 8, as well as subsequent smaller tremors, more than 69 thousand people died in Sichuan, 18 thousand were missing, and 288 thousand were injured.
At the same time, the government of the People's Republic of China greatly limited international assistance in the disaster zone; it tried to solve the problem with its own hands. According to experts, the Chinese thus wanted to hide the real scale of what happened.
For publishing real data about deaths and destruction, as well as for articles about corruption that led to such huge numbers of losses, the Chinese authorities even sent the most famous contemporary Chinese artist, Ai Weiwei, to prison for several months.
Hurricane Katrina
However, the scale of the consequences of a natural disaster does not always directly depend on the quality of construction in a particular region, as well as on the presence or absence of corruption there. An example of this is Hurricane Katrina, which struck the Southeast coast of the United States in the Gulf of Mexico at the end of August 2005.
The main impact of Hurricane Katrina fell on the city of New Orleans and the state of Louisiana. Rising water levels in several places broke the dam protecting New Orleans, and about 80 percent of the city was under water. At this moment, entire areas were destroyed, infrastructure facilities, transport interchanges and communications were destroyed.
The population that refused or did not have time to evacuate took refuge on the roofs of houses. The main gathering place for people was the famous Superdome stadium. But it also turned into a trap, because it was no longer possible to get out of it.
The hurricane killed 1,836 people and left more than a million homeless. Damage from this natural disaster estimated at $125 billion. At the same time, New Orleans has not been able to return to a full-fledged normal life in ten years - the city's population is still about a third less than the 2005 level.
On March 11, 2011, tremors with a magnitude of 9-9.1 occurred in the Pacific Ocean east of the island of Honshu, which led to the appearance of a huge tsunami wave up to 7 meters high. It hit Japan, washing away many coastal objects and going tens of kilometers inland.
In different parts of Japan, after the earthquake and tsunami, fires started, infrastructure, including industrial, was destroyed. In total, almost 16 thousand people died as a result of this disaster, and economic losses amounted to about 309 billion dollars.
But this turned out to be not the worst thing. The world knows about the 2011 disaster in Japan, primarily because of the accident at the Fukushima nuclear plant, which occurred as a result of a tsunami wave hitting it.
More than four years have passed since this accident, but the operation at the nuclear power plant is still ongoing. And those closest to her settlements were permanently resettled. This is how Japan got its own.
A large-scale natural disaster is one of the options for the death of our Civilization. We have collected.
Humanity will never forget the accident on the Deepwater Horizon oil platform. An explosion and fire occurred on April 20, 2010, 80 kilometers off the coast of Louisiana, at the Macondo oilfield. The oil spill was the largest in US history and virtually destroyed the Gulf of Mexico. We remembered the largest man-made and ecological disasters the world, some of which are almost worse than the Deepwater Horizon tragedy.
Could the accident have been avoided? Man-made disasters often occur as a consequence of natural disasters, but also because of worn-out equipment, greed, negligence, inattention... The memory of them serves as an important lesson for humanity, because natural disasters can harm people, but not the planet, but man-made ones pose a threat to absolutely the entire surrounding world.
15. Explosion at a fertilizer plant in the city of West - 15 victims
On April 17, 2013, an explosion occurred at a fertilizer plant in West, Texas. The explosion occurred at 19:50 local time and completely destroyed the plant, which belonged to the local company Adair Grain Inc. The explosion destroyed a school and a nursing home located near the plant. About 75 buildings in the city of West were seriously damaged. The explosion killed 15 people and injured about 200 people. Initially, there was a fire at the plant, and the explosion occurred while firefighters were trying to control the fire. At least 11 firefighters were killed.
Witnesses said the explosion was so strong that it was heard about 70 km from the plant, and the US Geological Survey recorded ground vibrations of magnitude 2.1. “It was like an atomic bomb explosion,” said eyewitnesses. Residents in several areas near West were evacuated due to a leak of ammonia used in the production of fertilizers, and authorities warned everyone about the leak of toxic substances. A no-fly zone was introduced over West at an altitude of up to 1 km. The city resembled a war zone...
In May 2013, a criminal case was opened into the explosion. The investigation found that the company stored the chemicals that caused the explosion in violation of safety requirements. The US Chemical Safety Board found that the company failed to take adequate measures to prevent the fire and explosion. In addition, at that time there were no rules that would prohibit the storage of ammonium nitrate near populated areas.
14. Flooding of Boston with molasses - 21 victims
The molasses flood in Boston occurred on January 15, 1919, after a giant molasses tank exploded in Boston's North End, sending a wave of sugar-containing liquid sweeping through the city's streets at high speed. 21 people died, about 150 were hospitalized. The disaster occurred at the Purity Distilling Company during Prohibition (fermented molasses was widely used to produce ethanol at the time). On the eve of the introduction of a complete ban, the owners tried to make as much rum as possible...
Apparently, due to metal fatigue in an overflowing tank with 8700 m³ of molasses, the sheets of metal connected by rivets came apart. The ground shook and a wave of molasses up to 2 meters high poured into the streets. The pressure of the wave was so great that it moved the freight train off the tracks. Nearby buildings were flooded to a height of one meter and some collapsed. People, horses, and dogs got stuck in the sticky wave and died from suffocation.
A Red Cross mobile hospital was deployed in the disaster zone, a US Navy unit entered the city - the rescue operation lasted a week. The molasses was removed using sand, which absorbed the viscous mass. Although the factory owners blamed the anarchists for the explosion, the townspeople extracted payments from them totaling $600,000 (approximately $8.5 million today). According to Bostonians, even now on hot days a cloying smell of caramel emanates from old houses...
13. Explosion at the Phillips chemical plant in 1989 -23 victims
The explosion at the Phillips Petroleum Company chemical plant occurred on October 23, 1989, in Pasadena, Texas. Due to an oversight by employees, a large leak of flammable gas occurred, and a powerful explosion occurred, equivalent to two and a half tons of dynamite. A tank containing 20,000 gallons of isobutane gas exploded and the chain reaction caused 4 more explosions.
During scheduled maintenance, the air ducts on the valves were accidentally closed. Thus, the control room displayed that the valve was open, while it appeared to be closed. This led to the formation of a cloud of steam, which exploded at the slightest spark. The initial explosion registered a magnitude of 3.5 on the Richter scale and debris from the explosion was found within a 6-mile radius of the explosion.
Many of the fire hydrants failed, and the water pressure in the remaining hydrants dropped significantly. It took firefighters more than ten hours to bring the situation under control and completely extinguish the flames. 23 people were killed and another 314 were injured.
12. Fire at a pyrotechnics factory in Enschede in 2000 - 23 victims
On May 13, 2000, as a result of a fire at the S.F. pyrotechnics factory. Fireworks in the Dutch city of Enshede, an explosion occurred, killing 23 people, including four firefighters. The fire started in the central building and spread to two full containers of fireworks illegally stored outside the building. Several subsequent explosions occurred with the largest explosion felt as far away as 19 miles.
During the fire, a significant part of the Rombek district was burned and destroyed - 15 streets were burned, 1,500 houses were damaged, and 400 houses were destroyed. In addition to the deaths of 23 people, 947 people were injured and 1,250 people were left homeless. Fire crews arrived from Germany to help fight the fire.
When S.F. Fireworks built a pyrotechnics factory in 1977, it was located far from the city. As the city grew, new low-cost housing surrounded the warehouses, causing terrible destruction, injury and death. Majority local residents had no idea that they lived in such close proximity to a pyrotechnics warehouse.
11. Explosion at a chemical plant in Flixborough - 64 victims
An explosion occurred in Flixborough, England on June 1, 1974, killing 28 people. The accident happened at the Nipro plant, which produced ammonium. The disaster caused a whopping £36 million in property damage. British industry had never known such a catastrophe. The chemical plant at Flixborough virtually ceased to exist.
A chemical plant near the village of Flixborough specialized in the production of caprolactam, the starting product for synthetic fiber.
The accident happened like this: the bypass pipeline connecting reactors 4 and 6 ruptured, and steam began to escape from the outlets. A cloud of cyclohexane vapor containing several tens of tons of substance was formed. The source of the cloud's ignition was probably a torch from a hydrogen installation. Due to the accident at the plant, an explosive mass of heated vapors was released into the air, the slightest spark was enough to ignite them. 45 minutes after the accident, when the mushroom cloud reached the hydrogen plant, a powerful explosion occurred. The explosion in its destructive force was equivalent to the explosion of 45 tons of TNT, detonated at a height of 45 m.
About 2,000 buildings outside the plant were damaged. In the village of Amcotts, located on the other side of the River Trent, 73 of the 77 houses were badly damaged. In Flixborough, located 1200 m from the center of the explosion, 72 of 79 houses were destroyed. The explosion and subsequent fire killed 64 people, 75 people inside and outside the enterprise received injuries of varying severity.
Plant engineers, under pressure from the owners of the Nipro company, often deviated from the established technological regulations and ignored safety requirements. The sad experience of this disaster showed that in chemical plants it is necessary to have a fast-acting automatic fire extinguishing system that allows fires of solid chemicals to be eliminated within 3 seconds.
10. Hot steel spill - 35 victims
On April 18, 2007, 32 people were killed and 6 injured when a ladle containing molten steel fell at the Qinghe Special Steel Corporation plant in China. Thirty tons of liquid steel, heated to 1500 degrees Celsius, fell from an overhead conveyor. Liquid steel burst through the doors and windows into the adjacent room where the workers on duty shift were located.
Perhaps the most horrifying fact discovered during the study of this disaster is that it could have been prevented. The immediate cause of the accident was the unlawful use of substandard equipment. The investigation concluded that there were a number of deficiencies and safety violations that contributed to the accident.
When emergency services reached the scene of the disaster, they were stopped by the heat of molten steel and were unable to reach the victims for a long time. After the steel began to cool, they discovered 32 victims. Surprisingly, 6 people miraculously survived the accident and were taken to the hospital with severe burns.
9. Oil train crash in Lac-Mégantic - 47 victims
An explosion of an oil train occurred on the evening of July 6, 2013 in the town of Lac-Mégantic in Quebec, Canada. The train, owned by The Montreal, Maine and Atlantic Railway and carrying 74 tanks of crude oil, derailed. As a result, several tanks caught fire and exploded. 42 people are known to have died, and 5 more people are listed as missing. As a result of the fire that engulfed the city, approximately half of the buildings in the city center were destroyed.
In October 2012, epoxy materials were used during engine repairs on the GE C30-7 #5017 diesel locomotive to quickly complete the repairs. During subsequent operation, these materials deteriorated, and the locomotive began to smoke heavily. Leaking fuel and lubricants accumulated in the turbocharger housing, which led to a fire on the night of the crash.
The train was driven by driver Tom Harding. At 23:00 the train stopped at Nantes station, on the main track. Tom contacted the dispatcher and reported problems with the diesel engine, strong black exhaust; the solution to the problem with the diesel locomotive was postponed until the morning, and the driver went to spend the night at a hotel. A train with a running diesel locomotive and dangerous cargo was left overnight at an unmanned station. At 11:50 p.m., 911 received a report of a fire on the lead locomotive. The compressor did not work in it, and the pressure in the brake line decreased. At 00:56, the pressure dropped to such a level that the hand brakes could not hold the cars and the out of control train went downhill towards Lac-Mégantic. At 00:14, the train derailed at a speed of 105 km/h and ended up in the city center. The cars derailed, explosions followed and burning oil spilled along the railway.
People in a nearby cafe, feeling the tremors of the earth, decided that an earthquake had started and hid under the tables, as a result they did not have time to escape from the fire... This train accident became one of the deadliest in Canada.
8. Accident at the Sayano-Shushenskaya hydroelectric power station - at least 75 victims
The accident at the Sayano-Shushenskaya hydroelectric power station is an industrial man-made disaster that occurred on August 17, 2009 - a “black day” for the Russian hydropower industry. As a result of the accident, 75 people died, the equipment and premises of the station were seriously damaged, and electricity production was suspended. The consequences of the accident affected the ecological situation of the water area adjacent to the hydroelectric power station, the social and economic spheres region.
At the time of the accident, the hydroelectric power station carried a load of 4100 MW, out of 10 hydraulic units, 9 were in operation. At 8:13 local time on August 17, the destruction of hydraulic unit No. 2 occurred with significant volumes of water flowing through the hydraulic unit shaft under high pressure. Power plant personnel who were in the turbine room heard a loud bang and saw the release of a powerful column of water.
Streams of water quickly flooded the machine room and the rooms below it. All hydraulic units of the hydroelectric power station were flooded, while short circuits occurred on the operating hydraulic units (their flashes are clearly visible on the amateur video of the disaster), which put them out of action.
The lack of obviousness of the causes of the accident (according to Russian Energy Minister Shmatko, “this is the largest and most incomprehensible hydropower accident that has ever happened in the world”) gave rise to a number of versions that were not confirmed (from terrorism to water hammer). As the most probable cause The accidents are called fatigue failures of studs that occurred during the operation of hydraulic unit No. 2 with a temporary impeller and an unacceptable level of vibration in 1981-83.
7. Piper Alpha explosion - 167 victims
On July 6, 1988, an oil production platform in the North Sea called Piper Alpha was destroyed by an explosion. The Piper Alpha platform, installed in 1976, was the largest structure on the Piper site, owned by the Scottish company Occidental Petroleum. The platform was located 200 km north-east of Aberdeen and served as the control center for oil production at the site. The platform contained a helipad and a residential module for 200 oil workers working in shifts. On July 6, an unexpected explosion occurred on the Piper Alpha. The fire that engulfed the platform did not even give the staff the opportunity to send an SOS signal.
As a result of a gas leak and subsequent explosion, 167 people out of 226 on the platform at that moment were killed, only 59 survived. It took 3 weeks to extinguish the fire, with high winds (80 mph) and 70-foot waves. The final cause of the explosion could not be established. According to the most popular version, there was a gas leak on the platform, as a result of which a small spark was enough to start the fire. The Piper Alpha accident led to significant criticism and subsequent review of safety standards for oil production in the North Sea.
6. Fire in Tianjin Binhai - 170 victims
On the night of August 12, 2015, two explosions broke out at a container storage area in the port of Tianjin. At 22:50 local time, reports began to arrive about a fire at the warehouses of the Ruihai company located in the port of Tianjin, which transports hazardous chemicals. As investigators later found out, it was caused by spontaneous combustion of nitrocellulose that had dried and heated in the summer sun. Within 30 seconds of the first explosion, a second explosion occurred - a container containing ammonium nitrate. The local seismological service estimated the power of the first explosion at 3 tons of TNT equivalent, the second at 21 tons. Firefighters who arrived at the scene were unable to stop the spread of the fire for a long time. The fires raged for several days and 8 more explosions occurred. The explosions created a huge crater.
The explosions killed 173 people, injured 797, and left 8 people missing. . Thousands of Toyota, Renault, Volkswagen, Kia and Hyundai vehicles were damaged. 7,533 containers, 12,428 vehicles and 304 buildings were destroyed or damaged. In addition to death and destruction, the damage amounted to $9 billion. It turned out that three apartment buildings were built within a one-kilometer radius of the chemical warehouse, which is prohibited by Chinese law. Authorities have charged 11 officials from the city of Tianjin in connection with the explosion. They are accused of negligence and abuse of power.
5. Val di Stave, dam failure - 268 victims
In northern Italy, above the village of Stave, the Val di Stave dam collapsed on July 19, 1985. The accident destroyed 8 bridges, 63 buildings, and killed 268 people. Following the disaster, an investigation found that there had been poor maintenance and little operational safety margins.
In the upper of the two dams, rainfall had caused the drainage pipe to become less effective and become clogged. Water continued to flow into the reservoir and the pressure in the damaged pipe increased, which also caused pressure on the shore rock. The water began to penetrate the soil, liquefy into the mud and weaken the banks until finally erosion occurred. In just 30 seconds, water and mud flows from the upper dam broke through and poured into the lower dam.
4. The collapse of a waste heap in Namibia - 300 victims
By 1990, Nambia, a mining community in southeastern Ecuador, had a reputation for being "environmentally hostile." The local mountains were pitted by miners, riddled with holes from mining, the air was damp and filled with chemicals, toxic gases from the mine and a huge waste heap.
On May 9, 1993, most of the coal slag mountain at the end of the valley collapsed, killing about 300 people in a landslide. 10,000 people lived in the village in an area of about 1 square mile. Most of the town's houses were built right at the entrance to the mine tunnel. Experts have long warned that the mountain has become almost hollow. They said that further coal mining would lead to landslides, and after a few days heavy rains the soil softened and the worst predictions came true.
3. Texas explosion - 581 victims
A man-made disaster occurred on April 16, 1947 in the port of Texas City, USA. A fire on board the French ship Grandcamp led to the detonation of about 2,100 tons of ammonium nitrate (ammonium nitrate), which led to a chain reaction in the form of fires and explosions on nearby ships and oil storage facilities.
The tragedy killed at least 581 people (including all but one of the Texas City Fire Department), injured more than 5,000, and sent 1,784 to hospitals. The port and a large part of the city were completely destroyed, many businesses were razed to the ground or burned down. More than 1,100 vehicles were damaged and 362 freight cars were mangled - property damage was estimated at $100 million. These events sparked the first class action lawsuit against the US government.
The court found the Federal Government guilty of criminal negligence committed by government agencies and their representatives involved in the production, packaging and labeling of ammonium nitrate, aggravated by gross errors in its transportation, storage, loading and fire safety measures. 1,394 compensations totaling approximately $17 million were paid.
2. Bhopal disaster - up to 160,000 victims
This is one of the worst man-made disasters that occurred in the Indian city of Bhopal. As a result of an accident at a chemical plant owned by the American chemical company Union Carbide, which produces pesticides, a toxic substance, methyl isocyanate, was released. It was stored at the factory in three partially buried tanks, each of which could hold about 60,000 liters of liquid.
The cause of the tragedy was the emergency release of methyl isocyanate vapor, which in the factory tank heated above the boiling point, which led to an increase in pressure and rupture of the emergency valve. As a result, on December 3, 1984, about 42 tons of toxic fumes were released into the atmosphere. A cloud of methyl isocyanate covered nearby slums and the railway station, located 2 km away.
The Bhopal disaster is the largest in terms of casualties in modern history, causing the immediate death of at least 18 thousand people, of which 3 thousand died directly on the day of the accident, and 15 thousand in subsequent years. According to other sources, the total number of victims is estimated at 150-600 thousand people. Big number casualties are explained by the high population density, untimely informing of residents about the accident, lack of medical personnel, as well as unfavorable weather conditions - a cloud of heavy vapors was carried by the wind.
Union Carbide, which was responsible for the tragedy, paid victims $470 million in an out-of-court settlement in 1987 in exchange for a waiver of claims. In 2010, an Indian court found seven former Indian executives of Union Carbide guilty of negligence causing death. Those convicted were sentenced to two years in prison and a fine of 100 thousand rupees (approximately $2,100).
1. Banqiao Dam tragedy - 171,000 dead
The designers of the dam cannot even be blamed for this disaster; it was designed for severe floods, but this was completely unprecedented. In August 1975, the Banqiao Dam burst during a typhoon in western China, killing about 171,000 people. The dam was built in the 1950s to generate electricity and prevent flooding. Engineers designed it with a safety margin of a thousand years.
But on those fateful days in early August 1975, Typhoon Nina immediately produced more than 40 inches of rain, exceeding the area's annual rainfall total in just one day. After several days of even more heavy rain, the dam gave way and was washed away on August 8th.
The dam failure caused a wave 33 feet high, 7 miles wide, traveling at 30 mph. In total, more than 60 dams and additional reservoirs were destroyed due to the failure of the Banqiao Dam. The flood destroyed 5,960,000 buildings, killed 26,000 people immediately and another 145,000 died later as a result of famine and epidemics due to the natural disaster.
Majority explanatory dictionaries interprets the basic meaning of the word “catastrophe” as an event with tragic consequences. The history of our planet has many such events, which still horrify our contemporaries with their scale and the number of people and animals killed. The most terrible disasters sometimes influenced further development affected countries or even an entire civilization.
With the development of technology, people began to explore ocean spaces that were unsuitable for their existence, and then turned their dreams and aspirations to the sky. With the advent of huge ocean cruisers and multi-seat passenger airliners, the number of deaths and injuries in disasters has increased significantly. In the last century, there have been more man-made disasters, which can also be called one of the largest.
Worst civil aviation accident
The worst plane crashes include the Tenerife plane crash, which resulted in the death of 583 people. Everything happened on March 27, 1977 directly on runway Los Rodeos Airport, located near the city of Santa Cruz de Tenerife (Canary Islands). All passengers on the KLM Boeing were killed, including 14 crew members, with the exception of one passenger, Robina Van Lanskot, who decided to interrupt the flight to meet a friend and disembarked in Tenerife. But there were survivors on board the Pan American Boeing after the crash. 61 people managed to escape - 54 passengers and 7 crew members.
Due to the terrorist attack that occurred the day before at the largest airport in the Canary Islands, Las Palmas, it was closed, and Los Rodeos airport was heavily overloaded due to these events. It was a day off; many planes, rejected by Las Palmas, filled all the parking lots. Some of them were standing on taxiways. The reasons that led to the terrible disaster are known:
- fog, due to which visibility was initially limited to 300 meters, and a little later became even less;
- lack of lights on the runway boundaries and taxiway;
- the dispatcher’s strong Spanish accent, which the pilots did not understand well, asked again and clarified his orders;
- lack of coordinated actions on the part of the pilots during negotiations with the dispatcher; they entered into a conversation and interrupted each other.
KLM subsequently accepted responsibility for the tragedy and paid significant compensation to the victims' families and victims.
On May 5, 1937, a German cruise liner was launched, named after Wilhelm Gustloff, one of the leaders of the National Socialists of Switzerland, who died a year earlier.
The passenger liner had ten decks, was designed for 1.5 thousand people, and was served by 417 crew members. The ship was built using the most advanced technologies, and it was very comfortable. The liner was intended primarily for long and leisurely cruises. In 1939, the Wilhelm Gustloff was transferred to the German Navy. It soon became a floating hospital, and then after 1940 it was assigned to the submarine school in Gotenhafen. Its color became camouflage again and it lost the protection of the Hague Convention.
After a torpedo attack carried out by a Soviet submarine under the command of A.I. Marinescu, "Wilhelm Gustloff" sank off the coast of Poland on January 30, 1945. According to official data, 5,348 people died, however, the exact number of passengers remained unknown.
Near the coast of Crimea, on November 7, 1941, Nazi aircraft sunk the Soviet motor ship Armenia, which allegedly carried more than 3,000 people.
From an environmental point of view, one of the largest catastrophes is currently happening on the planet - a decrease in the level of the Aral Sea and its drying out. The so-called Aral Sea was the fourth largest lake on the planet after the Caspian Sea (which, due to its isolation, can be classified as a lake), Lake Superior in North America and Lake Victoria in Africa.
But after the runoff of the Syr Darya and Amu Darya rivers, which fed the Aral, began to be drawn through the constructed irrigation systems, the lake became shallow. In the summer of 2014, its eastern part almost dried out, the volume of water decreased to 10%.
All this resulted in climate change, which became continental. The Aralkum sand and salt desert appeared on the protruding bottom of the former sea. Dust storms carry tiny particles of salt interspersed with pesticides and agricultural fertilizers, which once entered the Aral Sea from fields through rivers and can negatively affect the health of people and animals. Due to salinity, most species of marine life disappeared, ports were closed, and people lost their jobs.
Among such disasters, which affect the population of the entire planet with their disastrous consequences, we must first of all include the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. During the explosion of the fourth nuclear reactor, it was completely destroyed. Work to eliminate the consequences has not yet been completed. After April 26, 1986, all people were evacuated from the disaster site within a radius of 30 km - 135,000 people and 35,000 heads of livestock. A protected exclusion zone was created. Ukraine, Belarus, and western Russia suffered the most from radioactive substances released into the air. In other countries, an increase in radioactive background levels was also noted. More than 600,000 people participated in the aftermath of this disaster.
The largest earthquake in Japan, which occurred on March 11, 2011, and then the tsunami, caused a radiation accident at the Fukushima-1 nuclear power plant, which has the highest, seventh level. External power supplies and backup diesel generators were disabled, which resulted in a failure in the cooling system, and then a meltdown of the reactor core at power units 1, 2, and 3. The entire financial damage, which includes decontamination work, compensation for victims and internally displaced persons, is approximately $189 billion.
Another disaster that affected the state of the entire biosphere of the Earth is the explosion of the Deepwater Horizon oil platform, which occurred on April 20, 2010 in the Gulf of Mexico. The oil spill caused by the accident was the largest. At the moment of the explosion itself and in the subsequent fire on the semi-submersible installation, 11 people died and 17 out of 126 were injured who were on the platform at that moment. Two more died later. Oil flowed into the gulf for 152 days, in total more than 5 million barrels entered the gulf. This man-made disaster had a devastating impact on the ecology of the entire area. Were injured different kinds sea animals, fish and birds. And in the northern Gulf of Mexico, increased mortality of cetaceans was recorded in the same year. In addition to oil, a large number of underwater oil plumes formed on the surface of the water (the size of the spot reached 75,000 km²), the length of which reached 16 km, and the width and height were 5 km and 90 m, respectively.
These are just a few terrible accidents that can be classified as the worst disasters in the history of mankind. But there were others, sometimes less known, that brought a lot of destruction and misfortune to people. Often these disasters were caused by war or a series of accidents, and in some cases the disaster was caused by the destructive force of nature.
