169 Fun Facts About Natural Disaster

The 1755 Lisbon earthquake struck on the morning of which religious feast?

Churches were packed; the quake, fires and a tsunami killed 30,000 to 40,000 of the city's 200,000 people.

The Lisbon earthquake is credited with the birth of which science?

It was the first earthquake studied scientifically for its effects over a wide area.

The 1906 San Francisco earthquake had roughly what magnitude?

The fires that followed burned for days and destroyed more than 80% of the city.

Roughly what proportion of San Francisco was destroyed in 1906?

More than 3,000 people died.

The 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami was triggered by an earthquake off which island?

Waves up to 30 metres high hit coasts around the ocean on Boxing Day.

The 2004 Boxing Day disaster holds which grim record?

It is also the deadliest natural disaster of the 21st century.

The March 2011 Japanese earthquake, the most powerful ever recorded there, triggered which nuclear disaster?

Three reactors melted down; official figures list 19,759 deaths from the quake and tsunami.

Which country suffered the most powerful earthquake ever recorded, in 1960?

The Valdivia quake measured 9.4 to 9.6 and sent tsunamis to Hawaii, Japan and New Zealand.

The 2010 Haiti earthquake struck near which town, west of Port-au-Prince?

Death-toll estimates run from 100,000 to over 300,000.

Which US city was 80% flooded by Hurricane Katrina in 2005?

Most deaths came from failures in the federally built levee system.

Katrina made its Louisiana landfall at what strength?

It had peaked as a Category 5 in the Gulf and remains the costliest US hurricane.

The deadliest natural disaster in US history was a 1900 hurricane that struck which Texas city?

The most-cited death toll is 8,000, and it left 10,000 of 38,000 residents homeless.

The deadliest tropical cyclone on record struck East Pakistan in which year?

The Bhola cyclone's storm surge killed at least 300,000 people in the Ganges Delta.

Cyclone Nargis killed at least 138,000 people in 2008 in which country?

Its surge travelled 40 km up the Irrawaddy delta.

Typhoon Haiyan devastated which country in November 2013?

Known locally as Yolanda, it killed at least 6,300 people in the Visayas alone.

The 1883 eruption of Krakatoa produced what record?

It was heard in Perth and on Rodrigues near Mauritius, 4,800 km away.

How far away was Krakatoa's explosion heard, on the island of Rodrigues?

At least 36,417 people died, mostly in the tsunamis.

Which 1815 eruption is considered the most powerful in recorded history?

It reached VEI 7 and led to the Year Without a Summer.

Which year is known as the Year Without a Summer?

Crops failed in New England and there were food riots in Britain and France.

Whose two letters give the detailed eyewitness account of the AD 79 eruption of Vesuvius?

He watched from Misenum; his uncle Pliny the Elder died leading a rescue fleet.

Which town did the 1902 eruption of Mount Pelée destroy, leaving only three known survivors?

Around 29,000 people died in minutes on Martinique, the worst volcanic disaster of the 20th century.

The 1980 Mount St. Helens eruption began with what, the largest in recorded history?

The whole north face slid away after a quake at 8:32am; 57 people died.

The deadliest lahar in history, in 1985, buried which Colombian town?

A small eruption of Nevado del Ruiz melted ice and sent mudflows that killed about 25,000.

The 1931 floods often ranked the deadliest natural disaster ever struck which two Chinese rivers?

An official report counted 140,000 drowned and up to 2 million dead from flooding and famine.

The Johnstown Flood of 1889 was caused by the failure of a dam owned by what?

Henry Clay Frick led the Pittsburgh money behind the South Fork club, which had no way to lower the lake.

The 1953 North Sea flood was the worst 20th-century natural disaster in which country?

It hit the Netherlands even harder and led to the Delta Works.

The Tri-State Tornado of 1925 killed how many people, the most of any US tornado?

Its 219-mile track through Missouri, Illinois and Indiana is also the longest ever recorded.

How long was the Tri-State Tornado's track?

Scientists still debate whether it was one tornado or a family of them over 3.5 hours.

Who coined the term 'Dust Bowl' after the Black Sunday storms of April 1935?

Edward Stanley rewrote a reporter's story from Boise City, Oklahoma.

Which nickname was given to Dust Bowl migrants heading to California?

Many came from Oklahoma; Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath followed one such family.

The Black Saturday bushfires of February 2009 killed 173 people in which Australian state?

It was Australia's worst-ever loss of life from a bushfire, with up to 400 fires that day.

The Great Fire of London in 1666 started in a bakery on which street?

Thomas Farriner's neighbours tried to douse it; by Tuesday it had taken St Paul's Cathedral.

Which diarist climbed the Tower of London to watch the Great Fire?

He then took the news by river to the king at Whitehall.

Charles Richter developed his earthquake scale in collaboration with whom?

Each whole number on the scale is a tenfold increase in measured amplitude.

On the Richter scale, each whole-number step represents what increase in measured amplitude?

Most seismologists now use the moment magnitude scale, though the media still say Richter.

What is the minimum sustained wind speed for a hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson scale?

Category 5 begins at 157 mph; proposals for a Category 6 have never been adopted.

The top rank of the Saffir-Simpson scale begins at what sustained wind speed?

Katrina reached that strength over the Gulf before weakening at landfall.

The Enhanced Fujita scale for tornadoes came into use in the United States in which year?

It replaced Ted Fujita's original 1971 scale; Canada adopted a modified version in 2013.

What is the wind speed threshold for an EF5 tornado?

The old F5 range was 261 to 318 mph, later found higher than needed for the damage.

The term 'Tornado Alley' was first used in 1952 as the title of what?

It studied severe weather from Texas up to South Dakota; research suggests the alley is shifting east.

The 2011 tsunami waves in Japan may have reached heights of up to how many metres?

Snow was falling and it was 0°C in Ishinomaki, the city with the most deaths, as the water arrived.

Which organisation, led by Clara Barton, mounted a major relief effort after the Johnstown Flood?

Barton arrived with 50 volunteers.

The 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake ranks how among earthquakes recorded since 1900?

It remains the strongest ever recorded in Asia.

Roughly how many people were killed by Krakatoa's 1883 eruption and tsunamis?

The 27 August blast destroyed 70% of the island, which collapsed into a caldera.

Mount Pelée is on which Caribbean island?

The French overseas department's former capital was the town it destroyed.

The Vesuvius eruption of AD 79 buried Pompeii and which other town?

Remains of more than 1,500 people have been found at the two sites.

Peru's Great Ancash earthquake triggered the world's deadliest avalanche from which peak?

The ice and rock avalanche buried Yungay and Ranrahirca, killing an estimated 66,000 to 70,000 people.

Peru marks 31 May, the Ancash earthquake anniversary, as what kind of national day?

Schools practise earthquake drills to commemorate the 1970 disaster.

Where were most of Yungay's 400 survivors when the Huascarán debris avalanche buried the town?

Both sites stood on the highest ground in town; the old town is now a national cemetery.

Contrary to popular belief, which of these does NOT trigger avalanches?

Sound pressure is orders of magnitude too small; snowfall loading and warming are the main natural causes.

The deadliest wildfire in recorded history struck which Wisconsin town on 8 October 1871?

It happened the same day as the Great Chicago Fire yet killed at least five times as many people.

Which land-clearing practice fed the merged fires that became the 1871 Wisconsin firestorm?

An eastward cold front whipped up winds and merged several small fires into one.

The 2003 European heat wave was Europe's hottest summer since at least which year?

The death toll has been estimated at more than 70,000.

How many heat-related deaths did France record during the 2003 heat wave?

Auxerre saw eight straight days above 40 °C; most victims were elderly people living alone.

By what stormy nickname is the 1888 blizzard also known?

Drifts topped 50 feet and the New York Stock Exchange closed for two days.

Where was the highest snowdrift of the 1888 blizzard, 52 feet, recorded?

Saratoga Springs got the deepest snowfall, at 58 inches.

Gridlock from the 1888 blizzard helped spur which US city to open the first underground subway, in 1897?

New York's first underground line followed in 1904.

The 1993 Storm of the Century formed over which body of water on March 12?

At its height it stretched from Canada to Honduras and cut power to over 10 million households.

Which Tennessee peak recorded the 1993 superstorm's greatest snowfall, 56 inches?

Birmingham, Alabama saw a rare 13 inches of snow.

Whose handling of the 1927 Mississippi flood helped him win the presidency the next year?

The disaster also helped Huey Long win the Louisiana governorship.

How many square miles did the 1927 Mississippi flood inundate?

Levees broke in at least 145 places, leaving over 700,000 people homeless.

The 1998 China floods prompted the government to blame what upstream cause?

The floods marked a turning point in China's environmental policy.

How many people died in the 2022 Pakistan floods?

Around 33 million people were affected and about 10 percent of the country was underwater.

Which Pakistani province recorded 784% of its average August rainfall in 2022?

Balochistan received 500% more than average.

In which East Pakistan upazila did the Bhola cyclone kill over 45% of the population?

The storm surge flooded the low-lying islands of the Ganges Delta.

Which party won a landslide a month after the Bhola cyclone, amid anger at Pakistan's response?

The Bangladesh Liberation War followed seven months later.

Which 1998 hurricane, the deadliest in Central American history, killed over 11,000 people?

Honduras's president said it set the country back 50 years.

Which Florida city took the brunt of Hurricane Andrew's Category 5 landfall in 1992?

Andrew destroyed more than 63,500 houses and left 65 dead.

Which hurricane surpassed Andrew as Florida's costliest, 25 years later?

Katrina had already surpassed Andrew as costliest in the US as a whole.

How many people did Hurricane Maria kill in Puerto Rico in 2017, by official estimate?

It caused the worst electrical blackout in US history.

On which island did Hurricane Maria make landfall at Category 5 strength?

It practically eradicated the island's lush vegetation.

Which Texas town recorded Hurricane Harvey's peak rainfall of 60.58 inches?

Harvey is the wettest tropical cyclone on record in the United States.

Harvey ended a record drought of how many years without a US major-hurricane landfall?

The last had been Wilma in 2005.

How wide was Hurricane Sandy's tropical-storm-force wind field, the largest Atlantic hurricane by diameter?

Sandy killed 254 people in eight countries.

Near which New Jersey town did Sandy come ashore in October 2012?

It was just northeast of Atlantic City, after a famous 'left hook' turn.

Which island did the Great Hurricane of 1780 strike first, likely at Category 5?

An estimated 22,000 died across the Lesser Antilles, the Western Hemisphere's deadliest cyclone.

The 1976 Tangshan earthquake destroyed what share of the city's buildings within minutes?

Historians accept at least 300,000 died, the deadliest earthquake in recorded history.

How many landslides did the 2008 Sichuan earthquake trigger, the most geohazards ever recorded?

More than 800 'quake lakes' also formed; landslides caused at least a third of the deaths.

Along which fault did the 2008 Sichuan earthquake rupture?

The rupture lasted nearly 120 seconds with displacement of up to nine metres.

In the 1556 Shaanxi earthquake, most victims died in collapsed cave homes called what?

The quake is often called the Jiajing Great Earthquake after the reigning emperor.

How many of the 114 Kaicheng Stone Classics steles were broken in the 1556 Shaanxi quake?

Scholar Qin Keda advised crouching indoors rather than running out at the first tremor.

The 2023 Turkey–Syria earthquakes' first shock had its epicentre near which city?

A magnitude 7.7 second quake followed nine hours later, and more than 30,000 aftershocks in three months.

How large was the international rescue force that joined Turkey's 2023 earthquake effort?

The confirmed Turkish death toll was 53,537.

The 2015 Nepal earthquake triggered an avalanche that killed 22 people on which mountain?

It remains the deadliest incident on the mountain on record.

Which nine-storey Kathmandu tower, also called Bhimsen Tower, fell in the 2015 earthquake?

The 61.88-metre tower was part of Kathmandu's UNESCO-recognised architecture.

How long did the 1964 Alaska earthquake, North America's most powerful, last?

It struck on Good Friday and released about 500 years of stress buildup.

A 27-foot tsunami after the 1964 Alaska quake destroyed which village, killing 23 of 68 residents?

Survivors outran the wave by climbing to high ground.

Mexico City suffered so badly in 1985 partly because it sits on which drained ancient lakebed?

The epicentre was more than 350 km away, but soft lakebed clay amplified the shaking.

The 1995 Kobe earthquake was the first in Japan officially rated at the top JMA shindo, which is what?

Its hypocentre lay under the northern end of Awaji Island, 20 km from Kobe.

How many people died in the February 2011 Christchurch earthquake?

Liquefaction produced around 400,000 tonnes of silt in the eastern suburbs.

The 1991 Pinatubo eruption was the 20th century's second largest, behind which 1912 Alaskan eruption?

Pinatubo's ash cloud rose 40 km and its summit collapsed into a 2.5 km caldera.

Which US military installation near Pinatubo was swept by lahars in 1991?

Most of the 840-plus deaths came from roofs collapsing under wet ash.

How many people could be at risk from future lahars from Nevado del Ruiz, by estimate?

Similar but smaller lahar disasters struck in 1595 and 1845.

Iceland's 1783 Laki eruption killed what fraction of the island's people through famine?

Over half of Iceland's livestock died from fluorine poisoning first.

What name did Icelanders give the hardships that followed the 1783 Laki eruption?

It translates roughly as 'mist hardships'; Skaftáreldar was the eruption itself.

How many travellers were affected by the 2010 Eyjafjallajökull ash cloud airspace closures?

Some 20 countries closed their airspace, the worst air disruption since World War II.

Past Eyjafjallajökull eruptions have often been followed by eruptions of which larger neighbour?

Iceland's president warned in 2010 that Katla's time was 'coming close'.

The 2022 Hunga Tonga eruption produced the largest what ever recorded by modern instruments?

NASA judged it hundreds of times more powerful than the Little Boy atomic bomb.

Tsunami run-up from the 2022 Tonga eruption reached 45 metres on which uninhabited island?

Two people drowned as far away as Peru.

Which gas burst from a Cameroon crater in 1986, killing 1,746 people around Nyos?

The heavier-than-air cloud hugged the ground and suffocated villagers up to 25 km away.

What colour did Lake Nyos's normally blue water turn after the 1986 outgassing?

Iron-rich deep water rose to the surface and oxidised.

Which Cameroonian body of water suffered the first recorded limnic eruption, in 1984, killing 37?

Lake Kivu on the Congo–Rwanda border holds huge amounts of dissolved CO2 and methane.

The 2011 Joplin tornado inspired FEMA to create which informal disaster gauge?

Some restaurant locations stayed open through the storm.

How many people did the 2011 Joplin tornado kill, making it Missouri's deadliest?

With $2.8 billion in damage it was also the costliest single tornado in US history.

What record wind speed did radar measure in the 1999 Bridge Creek–Moore tornado?

It prompted the first ever 'tornado emergency' statement by the National Weather Service.

How many tornadoes touched down on 27 April 2011, the peak day of the Super Outbreak?

Four were rated EF5, a rating typically seen no more than once a year.

Which state suffered 238 tornado deaths in the 2011 Super Outbreak, the most of any?

The outbreak killed 348 people overall and caused $10.2 billion in damage.

The deadliest tornado in history struck which country in April 1989, killing about 1,300?

The Daulatpur–Saturia tornado hit an area that had been in drought for six months.

How high did the 1958 Alaska megatsunami strip trees from the shoreline?

A rockslide of 30 million cubic metres into the Alaskan inlet caused the largest megatsunami of modern times.

On which fault did the 1958 Lituya Bay earthquake occur?

Lituya Bay has seen four tsunamis over 100 feet in 170 years.

Park ranger Roy Sullivan, struck by lightning seven times, worked in which national park?

Guinness lists him as the person struck by lightning more times than any other.

Ted Fujita's original 13-level tornado rating was designed to link the Beaufort scale to what?

F1 matched Beaufort 12 and F12 equalled Mach 1.

Where was Ted Fujita based when he introduced his tornado scale in 1971?

He worked with Allen Pearson of the National Severe Storms Forecast Center.

Which two seismologists defined the moment magnitude scale in a 1979 paper?

Unlike the Richter scale it does not 'saturate' for very large quakes.

Which Japanese seismologist showed in 1931 that seismic wave amplitude fades with distance at a set rate?

Richter built on this to publish his magnitude scale in 1935.

What is the highest value on the Volcanic Explosivity Index?

A VEI-8 eruption ejects over 1,000 cubic kilometres of material; none has occurred in the Holocene.

Which two scientists devised the Volcanic Explosivity Index in 1982?

Chris Newhall was with the US Geological Survey.

The most recent VEI-8 eruption, over 25,000 years ago, occurred at which New Zealand volcano?

It is known as the Oruanui eruption.

Which BBC programme popularised the word 'supervolcano' in 2000?

The term was first used in 1949 in a review referring to Oregon's mythical Mount Multnomah.

On which ship was Francis Beaufort serving when he devised his wind scale in 1805?

The scale was first used officially on the Beagle's 1831–36 Darwin voyage.

The original Beaufort scale described wind by its effect on the sails of what?

In 1916 the descriptions were changed to sea state to suit steam power.

Which Queensland meteorologist is credited with first giving personal names to storms, from 1887?

The practice lapsed after he retired and revived in the Pacific late in World War II.

Japanese tsunami records date the great Cascadia earthquake to which evening?

'Ghost forests' of red cedar in Oregon and Washington confirm the date through tree rings.

The 1811–12 New Madrid earthquakes created which Tennessee lake by obstructing streams?

Uplift on the Reelfoot Fault even made temporary waterfalls on the Mississippi.

Which Native American leader's alliance read the New Madrid earthquakes as a sign to support him?

The quakes were felt across roughly a million square miles.

The Toba supereruption about 74 millennia ago occurred on which Indonesian island?

Its ash blanketed the Indian subcontinent in a 5 cm layer.

Which Japanese port city was almost entirely destroyed alongside Tokyo in the 1923 Kantō earthquake?

Fires fanned by a nearby typhoon caused most of the 105,000-plus deaths.

Japan commemorates the 1923 Kantō earthquake each 1 September as what?

Home Minister Gotō Shinpei led the ambitious reconstruction of Tokyo.

Which US state has the most tornadoes overall each year?

Per area, Florida ranked first in a 2013 count thanks to its many waterspouts.

The 1928 Okeechobee hurricane remains the only storm on record to hit Puerto Rico at what intensity?

It later drowned at least 2,500 people around Lake Okeechobee in Florida.

Which Florida Keys town was 'obliterated' by the 1935 Labor Day hurricane?

Its 892 mb landfall pressure stood as an Atlantic record for decades.

Cyclone Tracy struck which Australian city on Christmas Eve 1974?

It destroyed more than 70 percent of the city's buildings.

Cyclone Tracy was the smallest cyclone by gale diameter until which 2008 Atlantic system?

Tracy's record stood for 34 years.

Cyclone Idai made its devastating March 2019 landfall near which Mozambican city?

It is the deadliest cyclone recorded in the South-West Indian Ocean basin.

What record-low sea-level pressure did Typhoon Tip reach in 1979?

Tip was also the largest cyclone on record, 2,220 km across.

Which storm holds the record for the highest sustained winds ever measured, 215 mph, in 2015?

It went from tropical storm to Category 5 in just 24 hours.

By what nickname is the 1938 New England hurricane also known?

It killed an estimated 682 people and its damage was still visible in 1951.

A 1963 landslide into the reservoir of which Italian dam sent a 250-metre wave over its crest?

Around 2,000 people died in the Piave valley; the dam itself survived almost intact.

Which mountain's instability was concealed by ENEL before the 1963 Italian dam disaster?

Ground fractures had been noticed on its flank as early as 1959.

Which building did the 1966 Aberfan spoil-tip slide engulf, killing 109 pupils?

116 children and 28 adults died; the tip had been built over a natural spring.

Which storm's rains caused China's Banqiao Dam and 61 others to collapse in August 1975?

More than a normal year's rain fell in a single day near the storm's centre.

What nickname did the reinforced Banqiao Dam earn in the 1950s?

It was built under Soviet guidance to hold a 'once in 1,000 years' rain of 306 mm a day.

Near which city did the Yellow River break its dikes in the catastrophic 1887 flood?

At least 930,000 people died, making it China's deadliest single flood.

The word 'derecho' for a straight-line windstorm comes from Spanish and contrasts with what?

Gustavus Hinrichs coined it in 1888 after an 1877 Iowa storm.

How many meteotsunamis does NOAA say strike the US East Coast in an average year?

The Great Lakes see even more, about 126 a year.

A sinkhole that exposes groundwater beneath is called what?

Most sinkholes form where limestone or other carbonate rock dissolves.

When did the Yellowstone Caldera's most recent supereruption, producing the Lava Creek Tuff, occur?

The last magmatic eruption there was about 70,000 years ago.

In which Oklahoma city is the Storm Prediction Center headquartered?

It sits at the National Weather Center and issues convective outlooks eight days ahead.

On which Miami campus is the National Hurricane Center located?

The first hurricane warning service began in 1870s Cuba under Father Benito Viñes.

Roughly what share of the world's earthquakes occur within the Ring of Fire?

The belt holds two-thirds of the world's active or dormant volcanoes.

Giuseppe Mercalli, whose name is on the shaking-intensity scale, was what by profession?

His 1902 scale adapted the ten-degree Rossi–Forel scale.

On which barrier island did Hurricane Ian make its Florida landfall in 2022?

Ian became the third costliest weather disaster on record worldwide.

Which year of the Irish Great Famine became known as 'Black '47'?

Roughly one million died and more than a million emigrated.

Which brain chemical triggers the switch of solitary grasshoppers into swarming locusts?

Drought followed by rapid plant growth sets the change in motion.

How much does sea level rise for each millibar drop in atmospheric pressure during a storm surge?

A 100-millibar pressure drop would raise water about a metre from pressure alone.

Which European country reports the most waterspouts per year, around 60?

About 160 waterspouts are reported across Europe annually.

What is the minimum ice accumulation for the US National Weather Service to call a storm an ice storm?

That much ice adds about 500 pounds of weight per span of power line.

Which ancient Greek historian first linked tsunamis to submarine earthquakes?

The word tsunami itself is Japanese for 'harbour wave'.

What is the scientific study of lightning called?

Air around a flash heats to about 30,000 °C.

What share of US wildfires are started by human activity?

Natural causes include lightning, eruptions, rockfall sparks and spontaneous combustion.

How many people were killed in the second deadly Pelée eruption on 20 May 1902?

Rescuers, engineers and mariners bringing supplies were among the dead.

Volcanic winters are caused mainly by droplets of which compound reflecting sunlight?

Stratospheric aerosols cool the surface but warm the stratosphere for years.

How deep was the ash and pumice that buried Pompeii in AD 79?

The town of 10,000 to 20,000 people draws about 2.5 million visitors a year.

The English word monsoon ultimately derives from an Arabic word meaning what?

It reached English via Portuguese monção.

The magnitude 8.8 earthquake of 27 February 2010 struck off the coast of which Chilean region?

Known in Chile as 27F, it lasted about three minutes, sent a 24-metre tsunami into Constitución and blacked out 93 percent of the country.

Along which tectonic boundary did the deadly 1999 Turkish earthquake near İzmit occur?

It was part of a sequence that marched westward along the fault for 60 years from 1939, and it prompted Turkey to introduce an earthquake tax and compulsory quake insurance.

Which 2001 storm was the first Atlantic tropical storm retired without ever reaching hurricane strength?

It dumped over 40 inches of rain on Texas, flooding 70,000 Houston homes; Erika in 2015 became the only other such case.

About how many terrestrial vertebrates did Australia's 2019-20 Black Summer fires kill or displace?

More than 24 million hectares burned and 33 people died directly, with smoke blamed for a further 417 deaths.

Which Texas boomtown on Matagorda Bay was wrecked by hurricanes in 1875 and 1886?

Most of its residents moved away after the second storm, fourteen years before the 1900 Galveston hurricane became America's deadliest natural disaster.