Natural disasters have made history more than once. They changed the climate, led to the death of entire civilizations and massive migrations of the population, and sometimes helped to heal from epidemics.
The death of "Greek Atlantis"
The eruption of the Santorini volcano on the island of Fera can be called the most iconic in the history of mankind. The explosion destroyed most of the island and led to the death of an entire civilization in the Minoan, located near Crete. Volcanic sulfur deposited on the fields and led to the end of farming. This one of the most powerful volcanic eruptions in history has led to interesting scientific versions. So, some scientists believe that the island of Fera and the legendary Platonic Atlantis are one and the same. There is also a version that the pillar of fire that Moses saw was the eruption of Santorini, and the parted sea was a consequence of the immersion of the island of Fera in the water. The last time the volcano showed signs of activity was already in 1886, pieces of lava flew out to a height of up to half a kilometer. As a result of the eruption, several islands were then formed.
The last day of Pompeii
In the Roman town of Pompeii, no one suspected that Vesuvius, towering over the city, was a dormant volcano. Everyone took it for an ordinary mountain, albeit a strange shape - as if someone pressed the top inward and formed a depression. However, it has long been overgrown with trees, and no one even imagined that it was a volcanic crater.
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Aristotle was the first to suggest this, who, having visited Pompeii long before the eruption, warned the inhabitants that Vesuvius was a volcano. However, this had no effect. No action was taken and after a strong earthquake on February 5, 62 AD. e., almost 10 years before the awakening of Vesuvius. Obviously, these were the first signs of an impending cataclysm.
The legendary eruption, which buried several cities alive, began in the afternoon of August 24, 79 and lasted about a day. As Pliny the Younger wrote: “a huge black cloud was rapidly approaching … from it every now and then long, fantastic tongues of flame, reminiscent of flashes of lightning, only much larger, burst out”.
The eruption of Vesuvius is more powerful than the explosion of the atomic bomb in Hiroshima. The death toll is difficult to establish. Many left the city before the deadly pyroclastic rain, that is, the ash that covered Pompeii, but apparently most of the people died trying to escape on ships.
Krakatoa
The volcanic explosion and eruption of the Krakatoa volcano on August 27, 1883 still amaze the imagination with its phenomenal power and destructiveness. The tsunami raised by the explosion up to 30 meters in height led to the death of about 36,000 people on the neighboring islands, and 295 cities and villages were washed into the sea. The force of the explosion of the volcano (6 points on the scale of eruptions), according to geologists, was 10,000 times higher than the force of the explosion that destroyed Hiroshima, and was equivalent to an explosion of 200 megatons of TNT. The roar from the explosion was heard over 8% of the Earth's territory, the height of the pyroclastic flow, which rushed north from the volcano and claimed 2000 lives, was 900 meters. The volcanic ash, carried away by the wind, fell out in 10 days for 5330 km from the eruption site (the approximate distance between Moscow and Baikal). The atmosphere of the entire Earth was disturbed by the explosion for several days. The air wave circled the Earth, according to various sources, from 7 to 11 times.
Great London Fire
Not all significant disasters are natural. The human factor can do no less harm than a volcanic eruption. This happened in London in September 1666. The fire, which began on September 2 in the City area as a result of the negligence of the baker Thomas Farriner, destroyed a third of the city in a few days and miraculously did not reach the aristocratic Westminster and the royal palace.
On the second day, the fire reached the financial center of London. Some of the gold reserves stored in banks simply melted or were stolen by adventurers, which dealt a huge blow to the economy of England. The number of victims of the London fire is difficult to estimate - the poor, who densely settled in shacks with thatched roofs, no one counted, moreover, most of the remains were destroyed by the fire along with the houses. It is known that of the 80 thousand inhabitants of London, about 70 thousand were left homeless. True, the consequences of the fire were not only negative. The flames destroyed the rodents and stopped the Great Plague that raged in the city in 1665-1666.
Shaanxi earthquake
The largest earthquake in human age occurred on January 23, 1556 in Shaanxi province in central China. Presumably, it reached 11 points. The areas within 500 km from the epicenter in the Weihe River valley were destroyed. In some areas of the province, especially those where people lived in loess caves that collapsed during the first aftershocks, there were no survivors. In others, the mortality rate was 60%. In total, 830 thousand people died due to the natural disaster.
Floods in central China
The largest natural disaster in the history of mankind is considered the flood in south-central China in 1931, during which 3.7 million people died and more than 50 million were affected.
After a long drought of 1928-1930, the winter turned out to be extremely snowy. In the spring of 1931, a record amount of precipitation fell, and in the summer there was a record number of cyclones - seven in July, although the norm is two cyclones per year. By July, China's largest rivers Yangtze, Huaihe, Yellowhe overflowed their banks, and on the night of August 25, the river waters reached the Great Canal and washed away the dams, drowning about 200 thousand people who were sleeping at that moment.
A large number of unburied bodies in warm weather led to the spread of epidemics - typhoid and cholera. And the lack of food leads to infanticide and cases of cannibalism.