Mother Nature Smackdown: 9 Natural Disasters Throughout the Ages

When it comes down to it, we’re at the mercy of Mother Nature. Natural disasters will always occur, no matter what we do, though our careless treatment of the planet can make them more frequent and severe. As modern civilization marches on, belching chemicals into the air, tearing up forests and rapidly changing ecosystems, the earth will occasionally flex to show us the raw power that it’s capable of. It’s just another reminder that though the earth will go on, we as humans may not.

As we’ve seen throughout history, nature can throw some pretty crazy disasters at us, from droughts and floods to hurricanes and volcanic eruptions. Here are 9 of the most dramatic natural disasters through the ages.

AD 79 - The Eruption of Mt. Vesuvius

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Mount Vesuvius, located on the southwestern coast of Italy near Naples, gifted the surrounding area with extremely fertile soil that attracted a large population who lived off its renowned agricultural bounty. During the first century, Pompeii was just one of a number of cities that flourished in the area, including nearby Herculaneum. A series of small earthquakes that began on August 20, 79 should have been a warning, but people in the area were used to frequent tremors, which were common in that area of Italy.

On the afternoon of August 24th, the eruption started, and soon devastated the entire region, burying Pompeii and other cities. The people who weren’t able to get out in time were burned or asphyxiated. The death toll is unknown, but about 1,150 remains of bodies have been found in and around Pompeii, and 350 in Herculaneum. Neither city was ever rebuilt, and they were forgotten until their accidental recovery in the 18th century. Vesuvius, which has erupted many times since then and is still active, is now a national park.

1200-1202 – The Nile Drought and Famine

Image via Flickr user Nasser Nouri

Inhabitants of the fertile Nile River valley in Egypt depended upon annual flooding brought on by heavy rains to replenish farm fields and irrigate crops. In the year 1200, about two months before the floods were expected, Egyptians noticed a foul smell and green tint to the Nile, caused by insufficient rain at the Nile’s source.

It didn’t take long before the lack of rain and floods caused widespread famine. Chroniclers maintain that the lack of food got so bad, the population turned to cannibalism. People began eating their dogs, and then moved on to fresh corpses. Over time, young children began to vanish, and grotesque accounts by eyewitnesses claim to have seen cauldrons with children’s heads floating in them. Then, people reportedly got really desperate and started killing and eating each other. One inheritance was reportedly passed on to 40 heirs in one month.

When the Nile failed to rise again the following year, the devastation was on a smaller scale due to the simple fact that the population was so dramatically reduced.

1815 - The Eruptions of Mount Tambora

Image via Nature.com

Though the 1883 eruption of Krakatoa is more renowned, the eruption of Indonesia’s Mount Tambora in 1815 had more far-reaching, dramatic consequences. It led to incredibly strange weather patterns that crossed the globe, including what has been called ‘The Year Without a Summer’.

A series of eruptions of Mount Tambora between April 5th and 15th in 1815 seems to have caused a volcanic winter, during which severe summer climate abnormalities destroyed crops throughout Northern Europe, the American Northeast and eastern Canada. In May of 1816, a frost killed off most of the crops that had been planted, and large snowstorms blanketed the eastern Canadian and New England countryside. Lake and river ice were reported as far south as Pennsylvania in July and August. A widespread famine resulted from the strange temperatures. Hungary saw brown snow, while the flakes falling in Italy were red. Unusually severe storms, abnormal rainfall and floods were also attributed to the eruptions.

The Mount Tambora eruption was the biggest in 1,600 years, and ejected enormous amounts of volcanic ash into the atmosphere.

1888 - The Great Blizzard

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In the year 1888, America experienced a snow storm like no other. Referred to as The Great White Hurricane, the blizzard that devastated much of the Northeastern United States seemed to come out of nowhere – temperatures had previously been unseasonably mild. Heavy rains rapidly turned to snow as temperatures fell dramatically. The snowstorm started on March 12th and lasted a day and a half, dumping nearly 50 inches of snow on Connecticut and Massachusetts, while New Jersey and New York saw 40 inches. Drifts up to 40 feet were reported.

Despite the severity of the situation, many people still tried to get to work for fear of losing their jobs. On their way home, 30 of them in New York alone froze to death on their way home after finding that the electricity was out. The resulting transportation crisis led in part to the creation of the New York City subway system.

1921-1922 - The Soviet Union Drought and Famine

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A drought in the Soviet Union in 1921, combined with disruption of agricultural production due to war, caused massive crop failures, with 20 percent of Soviet farmland seeing total crop destruction. The rules at the time, the Bolsheviks, ignored the famine and failed to react to the natural disaster. Lenin reportedly ordered food purchases from other countries, but had them delivered only to politically important cities, while peasants died in huge numbers.

But, even if the government had reacted to the best of their abilities, it’s unlikely that they could have stopped the deaths in such a large population. The famine had devastating consequences: it killed an estimated 5 million people.

1931 - The Great Flood of China

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In 1931 came the greatest natural disaster of the 20th century: the China floods. Up to 4 million are estimated to have been killed. In the period before the floods began, the country was in the grips of a severe drought, so when the snowstorms began in the winter months of late 1930, people were grateful. However, a quick spring thaw turned all of that snowfall into water very rapidly, and heavy rains raised the water levels even higher. The rains continued into the summer, when the country was also hit by 7 cyclones in July alone.

The majority of China’s rivers flooded including The Yellow River, the Yangtze and the Huai. The Yangtze river basin is one of the most populated places on earth, and the rising waters drove 500,000 people from their homes in that area by the beginning of August. Many of those who died were victims of starvation and waterborne disease after the flood waters receded.

1993 - The Great American Flood

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In 1993, the Mississippi and Missouri rivers overtook their boundaries in response to unusually heavy precipitation. Storms battered the Midwest with inch after inch of rainfall, swelling the rivers to the point of no return. This Midwestern flood was among the most costly and devastating natural disasters ever to hit America, and caused $15 billion in damages. The flooded area totaled 30,000 square miles, displaced thousands of people and caused catastrophic crop damage.

It surpassed the Great Mississippi Flood of 1927, which was at the time the largest flood ever recorded on the Mississippi. 1,000 levees failed. Some locations along the Mississippi remained flooded for nearly 200 days. The towns of Valmeyer, Illinois and Rhineland, Missouri were subsequently relocated to higher ground.

2004 - The Earthquake and Tsunami in the Indian Ocean

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On December 26th, 2004, an earthquake rocked the Indian Ocean, shaking the ground violently and spurring giant waves that are said to have traveled across the ocean at the speed of a jet airliner. The earthquake – estimated to have released the energy of 23,000 Hiroshima-type atomic bombs - instigated the tsunami that went on to kill over 150,000 people. Millions were suddenly homeless in 11 countries as the giant waves overtook communities. Property was demolished from Thailand to Africa. The 2004 tsunami is thought to have been the most dangerous in history.

The 9.0 magnitude earthquake had been caused by the shifting of a portion of the Earth’s crust known as the India plate under the section called the Burma plate. The rupture has been estimated at 600 miles long.

2005 - Hurricane Katrina

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After crossing Southern Florida as a mild Category 1 hurricane, Katrina regained strength in the Gulf of Mexico and slammed into southeastern Louisiana on Monday, August 29th, 2005 as a Category 3. Severe destruction was left in its wake, with the worst effects felt in New Orleans, which flooded catastrophically after the levees failed. 80% of the city became flooded, buildings were destroyed and a failure on the part of the U.S. government to properly respond left thousands of people stranded and starving. The coasts of Mississippi and Alabama were also greatly affected.

An estimated 1,836 people lost their lives from the hurricane and floods, and 705 remain categorized as missing. That makes Katrina the second-deadliest hurricane in terms of lives lost (the 1928 Okeechobee Hurricane was the deadliest). The total damage from the storm totaled an estimated $81.2 billion.

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