Photo Credit: meansmuchtome
This is one of the most bizarre natural disasters that is known. Lake Nyos is located in a remote area of the Cameroonian jungle. It is only 1.2 miles, but is six hundred and eighty two feet deep. Under the bed, a magma chamber is leaking carbon dioxide. This turns the water into carbonic acid. There are only three lakes like this on earth. On August 21, 1986, out of nowhere, the carbon dioxide from the bottom erupted – all 1.6 million tons of it. This released a big cloud of carbon dioxide from the lake. It went into small villages and displaced the oxygen. It suffocated around 1,800 people and this is not counting the livestock.
Photo Credit: blueskydesert
On May 3, 1999 a tornado broke out and lasted for three days. It started with a bang when this tornado formed. It is the most powerful windstorm ever recorded at 318 mph. It killed 36 people. Eight thousand houses were ripped through. It even shredded big vehicles and wrapped them around phone poles. This is the first time that the weather stations reports that if the residents were not under the ground securely that they would be killed. Hiding in ditches, under overpasses and under mattresses would not work.
I live in Florida, so I am used to paying attention to the hurricane season. I remember Hurricane Katrina. It was the costliest natural disaster. It was one of the five deadliest hurricanes to be recorded in the history of the USA. Around 1,836 people lost their lives. It caused big floods and caused triple the damage that hurricane Andrew caused in 1992.
Photo Credit: brothergrimm
This was an undersea megathrust earthquake that happened on December 26, 2004. This tsunami has various names such as Indonesian Tsunami, Asian Tsunami, Boxing Day Tsunami or just simply The Tsunami.
Photo Credit: pan-o
This mudslide happened on February 17, 2006 in the Philippine province of Southern Leyte. It caused a lot of damages and deaths. This followed a ten day period of lots of rains and a minor earthquake. The death toll stood at 1,126 people.
Photo Credit: mbeachy
This was a devastating tropical cyclone that hit East Pakistan, which is now Bangladesh. It happened on November 12, 1970. It was the deadliest tropical cyclone that has ever been recorded and one of the deadliest natural disasters in modern days. Up to five hundred thousand people died.
Photo Credit: United Nations Development Programme
I am sure that all of you are familiar with the 2010 earthquake that has hit Haiti. You see a lot of “donate to Haiti” requests. A lot of earthquakes have been happening, but this is a big one. It was a magnitude of 7.0 Mw with an epicenter that was near the town of Leogane. It happened on January 12, 2010. By the 24th, there was at least 52 aftershocks that measured 4.5 or greater. It has been estimated that three million people were affected by this. It has been estimated that 230,000 people died and 300,000 was injured and it made 1,000, 000 people homeless; 30,000 commercial buildings were severely damaged or collapsed along with 250,000 residences.
Despite my past blogs, I can’t really go and say that any of these were my favorite, because I didn’t like any of them. We’re talking real business here. We’re not talking about make-up, what to wear to the dance or relationships. I am talking about something that was way out of our hands, something that caused death to innocent people. This is natural stuff, unlike the oil flooding into the ocean, which was man-made. That reminds me, I am going to go write a blog on the man-made disasters of this world! Surely, there are lots of them. Would you like to add to this list? I saw MANY that are worth mentioning.
Top Photo Credit: encouragement