According to the Global Change Data Lab, natural disasters kill over 60,000 people every year.
The death counts of the most ancient natural disasters are lost to history, despite the fact that violent natural disasters have been a fact of human life since the beginning of mankind. The Minoan civilization was wiped out by a catastrophic volcanic eruption on the ancient Mediterranean island of Thera, according to a 2020 study. How many lives were lost? We will never know.
Historians can estimate the number of deaths linked to disasters thanks to historical records and journals. Natural disasters are ranked from lowest to highest death toll according to records. Disasters that have a death toll range are ranked by the highest end of the estimate.
The ground under the city of Aleppo began to shake. The city sits on the confluence of the Arabian and African plates, making it prone to earthquakes, but this one was particularly violent. The magnitude of the earthquake is lost to time, but contemporary chroniclers reported that the city's citadel collapsed and houses crumbled across the city. The death toll is thought to be around 230,000, but the historian who reported it may have been related to the 15th century earthquake in Georgia, according to a 2004 paper. This event is thought to be the 10th most deadly natural disaster of all time.
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A catastrophic magnitude 9.1 earthquake that struck off the west coast of Sumatra, Indonesia, in 2004, is tied for 10th place. 220,000 people were killed and 2 million were displaced in 14 South Asian and East African countries because of the earthquake. Residents had little time to flee to higher ground after the earthquake as the wave reached land in as little as 20 minutes.
World Vision said the wave reached over 100 feet (30 meters) high in some places.
Damages from the earthquake are estimated to be $10 billion. This event is considered the third largest earthquake in the world since 1900, and its tsunami has killed more people than any other in recorded history.
The Chinese city of Tangshan was destroyed by a 7.8 magnitude earthquake on July 28, 1976, according to a report by the USGS. Tangshan, an industrial city with a population of about 1 million at the time of the disaster, suffered staggering casualties of over 240,000. The official death toll is around 700, but some experts think it's closer to 700,000. More than 100 miles away, Beijing, China, felt the effects of the collapse of 85% of Tangshan's buildings. The city of Tangshan was rebuilt after a long time.
The death toll for the earthquake in Antioch is hard to come by. The Byzantine Empire city of Constantinople was hit by a temblor in May of 526, which killed about 250,000 people. The earthquake did not cause as much damage as the fires did, but the disaster was attributed to the wrath of God.
The death toll was higher than it would have been at other times of the year because the city was full of tourists celebrating the Christian feast of Ascension Day.
The largest earthquake recorded in China in the 20th century was the Haiyuan one, which had the highest magnitude and intensity.
How are earthquakes measured?
The earthquake that hit north central China on December 16, 1920, also hit the neighboring provinces of Gansu and Shaanxi. China claims that it was of a magnitude of 8.5, despite the fact that it was reported as a 7.8. The number of lives lost is different. According to a 2010 study by Chinese seismologists, the death toll could have been as high as 273,400. A study published in the journal Landslides shows that over 30,000 deaths were caused by the region's high deposits of loess soils.
According to the Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory Hurricane Research Division, the storm surge of 40 feet (12 m) was caused by the Coringa cyclone. Many storms that took place before the 20th century have no known wind speeds or category. 300,000 people were killed and 20,000 ships and vessels were destroyed.
The sixth deadliest natural disaster is the typhoon that hit the port city of Haiphong in northeastern Vietnam on October 8. This storm is thought to have killed 300,000 people.
One of the three deadliest earthquakes of all time was the magnitude 7.0 earthquake that struck Haiti on January 12, 2010.
One of the most vulnerable countries in the Western Hemisphere is Haiti, which has a limited history of large earthquakes. 3 million people were affected by the earthquake. Initially, the government of Haiti estimated 230,000 deaths, but in January 2011, they revised that figure to 316,000. A study published in the journal Medicine, Conflict and Survival put the number at around 160,000 deaths, while the US Geological Survey claimed around 100,000. The difficulty of counting deaths in the modern era is reflected in the disparity.
The tropical storm hit Bangladesh in 1970. The strongest wind speeds of the storm were 130 mph, making it the equivalent of a Category 4 major Hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane scale. The storm surge washed over the low-lying islands bordering the Bay of Bengal, causing widespread flooding.
The death toll from the storm surge was estimated to be 300,000 to 500,000 people. The National Hurricane Center and the Pakistan Meteorological Department acknowledged the challenge of estimating the death toll due to the influx of seasonal workers who were in the area for the rice harvest. According to the World Meteorological Organization, the Bhola cyclone is the deadliest tropical storm on record. It caused an estimated $86 billion in damages.
The deadliest earthquake in history happened in China. The Science Museums of China say that after the emperor's reign, the Great Earthquake reduced a swath of the country to rubble. An estimated 830,000 people died when their cave homes collapsed. The exact magnitude of the earthquake is lost to history, but modern-day seismologist estimate it to be around 8.
The Yellow River in China was placed far above most of the land around it in the late 1800s due to a series of dikes built to protect it. The river was gradually lifted in elevation by the silted up dikes. According to the Encyclopedia of Disasters: Environmental Catastrophes and Human Tragedies, when the river overflowed in September 1887, it swamped 5,000 square miles of low-lying land. An estimated 2 million people lost their lives as a result of this flood.
The Central China floods of 1931 were the most deadly natural disaster in the history of the world. During the month of July, over 24 inches of rain fell on the river as spring snowmelt mingled with the rain. The Yellow River and other large waterways reached high levels. According to The Nature of Disaster in China: The 1931 Yangzi River Flood, the flood turned the Yangtze into a giant lake. The number of dead is put by the government at around 2 million, but other agencies say it could be as many as 3.7 million.
Natural Disasters: Confront the Awesome Power of Nature from Earthquakes and Tsunamis to Hurricanes and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention can be found in Eyewitness Books.
The 12th century seismic paroxysm in the Middle East: a historical perspective was written by Nicholas N. Ambraseys.
The Minoan eruption of Santorini was dated by Walter Kutschera in the April 2020 edition of the Proceedings of the National Academies of Sciences.
The U.S. Geological Survey reports earthquakes with 1,000 or more deaths in the last century.
Natural Disasters in the Chronographia of John Malalas: Reflections on their Function was written by Mischa Meier.
The 175th anniversary of the Coringa cyclone was celebrated by the Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory.
There was a random survey of Port-au-Prince households before and after the Haiti earthquake.
Encyclopedia of Disasters: Environmental Catastrophes and Human Tragedies was published in December 2007.
The Nature of Disaster in China: The 1931 Yangzi River Flood was published by the University of Cambridge in February.
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