Examples of Natural Disasters | ||||
Type | Disaster | Date | Affected Areas | Event |
Geological Disasters | Avalanche | 31 May 1970 | Huascaran-Ancash, Peru | An earthquake triggered an avalanche in Peru, killing nearly 20,000 people. |
Landslides | 18 August, 1998 | Malpa, Uttarakhand | An entire village was wiped away in the Pithoragarh district of Uttarakhand | |
Earthquakes | 26 January, 2001 | Gujarat | An earthquake which registered 7.9 on the Richter scale, ripped through Gujarat, killing over 1,00,000 people | |
Sinkholes | February, 2007 | Guatemala City, Central America | A sinkhole over 100 meters deep formed suddenly. The event resulted in the death of five people and the evacuation of thousands | |
Volcanic Eruption | 79 AD | Italy | Mount Vesuvius – the deadliest volcano to ever erupt. It released 100,000 times the thermal energy of the Hiroshima-Nagasaki bombings. It was speculated that around 2,000 people died as a direct result | |
Hydrological Disasters | Flood | 1931 | Republic of China | A series of floods devastated China. It was also called one of the deadliest floods in history, with the death toll estimated to be between 3.7 million to 4 million |
Tsunami | 11 March, 2011 | Pacific Coast of Japan | A 9.0 magnitude earthquake caused a 33-feet-high tsunami to strike. It resulted in the deaths of over 18,500 individuals. The tsunami also caused the nuclear meltdown of the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant. | |
Limnic Eruption | 21 August 1986 | Lake Nyos, Cameroon | A limnic eruption is a rare kind of natural disaster. Because of its invisible nature, only two instances of this disaster have been ever observed. The deadliest among the two was the Lake Nyos limnic eruption. 1746 people and 3500 cattle were killed in this event. | |
Meteorological Disasters | Cyclonic Storm | 2020 | India | Cyclone Amphan caused widespread damage in Eastern India, while Cyclone Nisarga wreaked havoc on the West Coast of India. |
Blizzard | 1972 | Iran | In 1972, a blizzard dropped nearly 26 feet of snow, completely covering 200 villages in Iran. It was the deadliest in recorded history, causing the death of 4,000 individuals. | |
Cold waves | 2020 | Baghdad | In February 2020, Baghdad experienced the very first snowfall since the 1910s. | |
Drought | 2015-18 | Cape Town | Cape Town, in South Africa, faced a major water crisis between mid 2017 to 2018. This crisis had an extensive impact on public health and the nation’s economy. | |
Tornadoes | April 26, 1989 | Daulatpur–Saturia, Bangladesh | The Daulatpur-Saturia tornado was the deadliest tornado to occur in recorded history. It killed approximately 1,300 people and injured an estimated 12,000 people. | |
Space Disasters | Impact Events | ~66 million years | Entire earth | The Chicxulub impactor is the asteroid that struck Earth roughly 66 million years ago. This, along with the event’s aftermath caused the extinction of 75% of all plant and animal species. |
Other Types of Disasters | Forest fires | 2019-2020 | Australia | The 2019-20 Australian Bushfires resulted in 34 deaths, the destruction of 5,900 buildings, and an estimated 46 million acres burnt. |
They encompass a wide range of phenomena, including hurricanes, typhoons, cyclones, volcanoes, earthquakes, tsunamis, droughts, landslides, forest fires, and flooding. These events have the potential to cause significant damage to communities and the environment.
A natural disaster is a catastrophic event caused by severe weather. Natural disasters do not include events caused by the actions of humans but do include the following: tsunamis, earthquakes, hurricanes, volcanic eruptions, floods, blizzards/hailstorms, wildfires, and tornadoes.
Various phenomena like earthquakes, landslides, volcanic eruptions, floods, hurricanes, tornadoes, blizzards, tsunamis, cyclones, wildfires, and pandemics are all natural hazards that kill thousands of people and destroy billions of dollars of habitat and property each year.
6 of the World's Deadliest Natural Disasters
Yangtze River Flood (1931)
Haitian Earthquake (2010)
Typhoon Nina–Banqiao Dam Failure (1975)
Tokyo-Yokohama Earthquake (1923)
Kashmir Earthquake (2005)
Great Galveston Storm (1900)
A Natural disaster is an unforeseen occurrence of an event that causes harm to society. There are many Natural disasters that damage the environment and the people living in it. Some of them are earthquakes, cyclones, floods, Tsunami, landslides, volcanic eruption, and avalanches.
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