DAVID SNCHEZ

TY OISIN

TOP
TEN
NATU
RAL
DISAS
TERS

NUMBER 10:

TORNADO ALLEY

Tornado Alley is a colloquial term for the area of the United States (or by
some definitions extending into Canada) where tornadoes are most
frequent.[1] The term was first used in 1952 as the title of a research project
to study severe weather in parts of Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, South Dakota,
Iowa, Missouri, New Mexico, Colorado, North Dakota, and Minnesota only.
[citation needed] It is largely a media driven term although tornado
climatologists distinguish peaks in activity in various areas and storm
chasers have long recognized the Great Plains tornado belt.
Although the boundaries of Tornado Alley are not clearly defined, its core
extends from northern Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, into Nebraska. Some
research suggests that tornadoes are becoming more frequent in the
northern parts of Tornado Alley where it reaches the Canadian prairies.
Despite the elevated frequency of destructive tornadoes, building codes,
such as requiring strengthened roofs and more secure connections between
the building and its foundation, are not necessarily stricter than for other
parts of the U.S. and are markedly weaker than some hurricane prone areas
such as south Florida. One particularly tornado afflicted town, Moore,
Oklahoma, did increase its building requirements in 2014. Other common
precautionary measures include the construction of storm cellars, and the
installation of tornado sirens. Tornado awareness, preparedness, and media
weather coverage are also high.
The southeastern U.S. region is particularly prone to violent, long track
tornadoes. Much of the housing in this region is less robust than in other
parts of the U.S. and many people live in mobile homes. As a result, tornado
related casualties in the southern U.S. are particularly high. Significant
tornadoes occur less consistently than in the traditionally recognized
tornado alley, however, very severe and expansive outbreaks occur every
few years.

DAVID SNCHEZ
TY OISIN
NUMBER 9:

EARTHQUAKE JAPAN

The 2011 earthquake off the Pacific coast of Thoku was a magnitude 9.0
(Mw) undersea megathrust earthquake off the coast of Japan that occurred
at 14:46 JST on Friday 11 March 2011, with the epicentre approximately 70
kilometres east of the Oshika Peninsula of Thoku and the hypocenter at an
underwater depth of approximately 30 km. The earthquake is also often
referred to in Japan as the Great East Japan earthquake and also known as
the 2011 Tohoku earthquake, and the 3.11 earthquake. It was the most
powerful earthquake ever recorded to have hit Japan, and the fourth most
powerful earthquake in the world since modern record-keeping began in
1900. The earthquake triggered powerful tsunami waves that reached
heights of up to 40.5 metres in Miyako in Thoku's Iwate Prefecture, and
which, in the Sendai area, travelled up to 10 km inland. The earthquake
moved Honshu 2.4 m east, shifted the Earth on its axis by estimates of
between 10 cm and 25 cm and generated sound waves detected by the loworbiting GOCE satellite.
On 10 March 2015, a Japanese National Police Agency report confirmed
15,893 deaths, 6,152 injured, and 2,572 people missing across twenty
prefectures, as well as 228,863 people living away from their home in either
temporary housing or due to permanent relocation.

DAVID SNCHEZ
TY OISIN

NUMBER 8:

SPANISH FLU

The 1918 flu pandemic (January 1918 December 1920) was an unusually
deadly influenza pandemic, the first of the two pandemics involving H1N1
influenza virus. It infected 500 million people across the world, including
remote Pacific islands and the Arctic, and resulted in the deaths of 50 to
100 million (three to five percent of the world's population[3]), making it one
of the deadliest natural disasters in human history.
Most influenza outbreaks disproportionately kill juvenile, elderly, or already
weakened patients; in contrast, the 1918 pandemic predominantly killed
previously healthy young adults. Modern research, using virus taken from
the bodies of frozen victims, has concluded that the virus kills through a
cytokine storm (overreaction of the body's immune system). The strong
immune reactions of young adults ravaged the body, whereas the weaker
immune systems of children and middle-aged adults resulted in fewer
deaths among those groups.
Historical and epidemiological data are inadequate to identify the
pandemic's geographic origin. It was implicated in the outbreak of
encephalitis lethargica in the 1920s.
To maintain morale, wartime censors minimized early reports of illness and
mortality in Germany, Britain, France, and the United States; but papers
were free to report the epidemic's effects in neutral Spain (such as the
grave illness of King Alfonso XIII), creating a false impression of Spain as
especially hard hitthus the pandemic's nickname Spanish flu. In Spain, a
different nickname was adopted, the Naples Soldier (Soldado de Npoles),
which came from a musical operetta (zarzuela) titled La cancin del olvido
(The Song of Forgetting), which premiered in Madrid during the first
epidemic wave. Federico Romero, one of the librettists, quipped that the
play's most popular musical number, Naples Soldier, was as catchy as the
flu.
NUMBER 7:

KRAKATOA VOLCANO

Krakatoa, or Krakatau (Indonesian: Krakatau), is a volcanic island situated in

the Sunda Strait between the islands of Java and Sumatra in the Indonesian
province of Lampung. The name is also used for the surrounding island
group comprising the remnants of a much larger island of three volcanic
peaks which was obliterated in a cataclysmic 1883 eruption, unleashing
huge tsunamis (killing more than 36,000 people) and destroying over twothirds of the island. The explosion is considered to be the loudest sound ever
heard in modern history, with reports of it being heard up to 3,000 miles
(4,800 km) from its point of origin. The shock waves from the explosion were
recorded on barographs worldwide.

DAVID SNCHEZ
TY OISIN
In 1927 a new island, Anak Krakatau, or "Child of Krakatoa", emerged from
the caldera formed in 1883 and is the current location of eruptive activity.

DAVID SNCHEZ
TY OISIN

NUMBER 6:

HURRACANE KATERINA

Hurricane Katrina was the eleventh named storm and fifth hurricane of the
2005 Atlantic hurricane season. It was the costliest natural disaster, as well
as one of the five deadliest hurricanes, in the history of the United States.
The storm is currently ranked as the third most intense United States
landfalling tropical cyclone, behind only the 1935 Labor Day hurricane and
Hurricane Camille in 1969. Overall, at least 1,245 people died in the
hurricane and subsequent floods, making it the deadliest United States
hurricane since the 1928 Okeechobee hurricane. Total property damage was
estimated at $108 billion (2005 USD),[1] roughly four times the damage
wrought by Hurricane Andrew in 1992.[3]
Katrina originated over the Bahamas on August 23 from the interaction
between a tropical wave and the remnants of Tropical Depression Ten. Early
the following day, the new depression intensified into Tropical Storm Katrina.
The cyclone headed generally westward toward Florida and strengthened
into a hurricane only two hours before making landfall Hallandale Beach and
Aventura on August 25. After very briefly weakening to a tropical storm,
Katrina emerged into the Gulf of Mexico on August 26 and began to rapidly
deepen. The storm strengthened to a Category 5 hurricane over the warm
waters of the Gulf of Mexico, but weakened before making its second
landfall as a Category 3 hurricane on August 29 in southeast Louisiana.
NUMBER 5:

MEGA FLOOD

The Missoula Floods (also known as the Spokane Floods or the Bretz Floods)
refer to the cataclysmic floods that swept periodically across eastern
Washington and down the Columbia River Gorge at the end of the last ice
age. The glacial flood events have been researched since the 1920s. These
glacial lake outburst floods were the result of periodic sudden ruptures of
the ice dam on the Clark Fork River that created Glacial Lake Missoula. After
each ice dam rupture, the waters of the lake would rush down the Clark Fork
and the Columbia River, flooding much of eastern Washington and the
Willamette Valley in western Oregon. After the rupture, the ice would reform,
creating Glacial Lake Missoula again.
During the last deglaciation that followed the end of the Last Glacial
Maximum, geologists estimate that a cycle of flooding and reformation of
the lake lasted an average of 55 years and that the floods occurred several
times over the 2,000-year period between 15,000 and 13,000 years ago.
U.S. Geological Survey hydrologist Jim O'Connor and Spanish Center of
Environmental Studies scientist Gerard Benito have found evidence of at
least twenty-five massive floods, the largest discharging 10 cubic
kilometers per hour (2.7 million m/s, 13 times the Amazon River). Alternate
estimates for the peak flow rate of the largest flood include 17 cubic

DAVID SNCHEZ
TY OISIN
kilometers per hour and range up to 60 cubic kilometers per hour. The
maximum flow speed approached 36 meters/second (130 km/h or 80 mph).

DAVID SNCHEZ
TY OISIN

NUMBER 4:

EARTHQUAKE SAN FRANCISCO

The 1906 San Francisco earthquake struck the coast of Northern California
at 5:12 a.m. on April 18 with a moment magnitude of 7.8 and a maximum
Mercalli intensity of XI (Extreme). Severe shaking was felt from Eureka on
the North Coast to the Salinas Valley, an agricultural region to the south of
the San Francisco Bay Area. Devastating fires broke out in the city that
lasted for several days. As a result, about 3,000 people died and over 80%
of San Francisco was destroyed. The earthquake and resulting fire are
remembered as one of the deadliest natural disasters in the history of the
United States. The death toll from the earthquake and resulting fire remains
the greatest loss of life from a natural disaster in California's history.
NUMBER 3:

ICELANDIC ERUPTION

El Laki o Lakaggar (crteres de Laki) es una fisura volcnica situada en el

sur de Islandia, cerca del can del Eldgj y el pequeo pueblo de
Kirkjubjarklaustur, en el Parque Nacional de Skaftafell. Es parte de un
sistema volcnico en el que se incluyen los volcanes Grmsvtn y
Thrdarhyrna. Se encuentra entre los glaciares de Mrdalsjkull y
Vatnajkull, en una zona recorrida por fisuras desde el suroeste al norte.
La erupcin, tambin conocida como Skaftreldar ('Fuegos de Skaft') o
Sueldur, produjo unos 14 km de lava basltica, y el volumen total de tefra
emitido fue de 0,91 km.3 Se calcula que las fuentes de lava alcanzaron
alturas de 800-1400 m. En el Reino Unido, el verano de 1783 fue conocido
como el sand-summer ('verano de arena') debido a la cada de cenizas.4 Los
gases fueron llevados por la columna de erupcin convectiva a altitudes de
alrededor de 15 km.
Asimismo, se apunta a esta erupcin para explicar el bajo nivel del agua en
el ro Nilo en 1783, lo que produjo que muchos terrenos no pudieran ser
sembrados, lo que llev a una hambruna que redujo en un sexto la
poblacin del valle del Nilo.1
La erupcin continu hasta el 7 de febrero de 1784, pero la mayor parte de
la lava se lanz en los primeros cinco meses. El volcn Grmsvtn, desde el
que parte la fisura de Laki, tambin estaba en erupcin entre 1783 hasta
1785. El lanzamiento de gases, incluyendo aproximadamente 8 millones de
toneladas de fluorido de hidrgeno y aproximadamente 120 millones de
toneladas de dixido de sulfuro, suscit lo que se ha conocido como la
bruma de Laki por toda Europa.

DAVID SNCHEZ
TY OISIN
NUMBER 2:

THAILANDIC TSUNAMI

The 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake occurred at 00:58:53 UTC on 26

December with an epicentre off the west coast of Sumatra, Indonesia. The
shock had a moment magnitude of 9.19.3 and a maximum Mercalli
intensity of IX (Violent). The undersea megathrust earthquake was caused
when the Indian Plate was subducted by the Burma Plate and triggered a
series of devastating tsunamis along the coasts of most landmasses
bordering the Indian Ocean, killing 230,000 people in 14 countries, and
inundating coastal communities with waves up to 30 metres (100 ft) high. It
was one of the deadliest natural disasters in recorded history. Indonesia was
the hardest-hit country, followed by Sri Lanka, India, and Thailand.
It is the third-largest earthquake ever recorded on a seismograph and had
the longest duration of faulting ever observed, between 8.3 and 10 minutes.
It caused the entire planet to vibrate as much as 1 centimetre (0.4 inches)
and triggered other earthquakes as far away as Alaska. Its epicentre was
between Simeulue and mainland Indonesia. The plight of the affected
people and countries prompted a worldwide humanitarian response. In all,
the worldwide community donated more than US$14 billion (2004) in
humanitarian aid. The event is known by the scientific community as the
SumatraAndaman earthquake The resulting tsunami was given various
names, including the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, South Asian tsunami,
Indonesian tsunami, the Christmas tsunami and the Boxing Day tsunami.
NUMBER 1:

THE BLACK DEATH

The Black Death was one of the most devastating pandemics in human
history, resulting in the deaths of an estimated 75 to 200 million people and
peaking in Europe in the years 134653. Although there were several
competing theories as to the etiology of the Black Death, analysis of DNA
from victims in northern and southern Europe published in 2010 and 2011
indicates that the pathogen responsible was the Yersinia pestis bacterium,
probably causing several forms of plague.
The Black Death is thought to have originated in the arid plains of Central
Asia, where it then travelled along the Silk Road, reaching Crimea by 1343.
From there, it was most likely carried by Oriental rat fleas living on the black
rats that were regular passengers on merchant ships. Spreading throughout
the Mediterranean and Europe, the Black Death is estimated to have killed
3060% of Europe's total population. In total, the plague reduced the world
population from an estimated 450 million down to 350375 million in the
14th century. The world population as a whole did not recover to pre-plague
levels until the 17th century. The plague recurred occasionally in Europe
until the 19th century.
The plague created a series of religious, social, and economic upheavals,
which had profound effects on the course of European history.