Mother Nature at her Worst

We hear a lot these days, thanks to TV and the Internet, about major natural disasters. Each one is portrayed as the “worst” or “biggest” or “most deadly” event ever to have been experienced. Most often the comments come from those who were closest to where the events occurred. The sentiments are, of course, subjective, based on a limited level of knowledge of natural history and a result of the anxiety of how people are so negatively impacted.

Having said that, there have indeed been many events in recorded history that were decidedly deadly and widely damaging. Following are just a few of the worst. I will follow up, in a later post, with a summary of the most positive natural developments and changes, so readers may realize that Mother Nature is not always malicious.

The worst and, to humans, deadliest natural events span history. Contrary to modern news reports, they are not confined to recent years or decades or to any particular region. There have been some notable ones in the 21^st century, but then those are the ones we are most familiar with and that have been imprinted on our collective memories through detailed news reports. Incomplete records mean that we cannot measure the effects of those that happened more than a few hundred years ago. In geologic time, we can only look at the sedimentary strata to see what devastation might have occurred, during times of early man or before humans walked the Earth.

Following are some examples we know about from actual records:

Flooding

The deadliest flood occurred in China in 1931. Drought conditions had persisted between 1928 to 1930. Substantial snowfall arrived during the harsh winter of 1931-31. The spring melt was accompanied by torrential rain storms resulted in widespread flooding of the Yangtze River valley. Extreme cyclonic activity (nine separate storms) occurred during the summer season, offering no respite from the exceptional inundation.

Up to 50 million people were affected; crop loss was significant; homes and farms were destroyed. Following on the physical devastation was the spread of diseases including: cholera, measles, malaria, dysentery and schistosomiasis (caused by parasitic flatworms). Estimates of deaths, realizing that records were sparse and government reports were probably intentionally conservative, range from one to four million people.

Earthquakes

Earthquakes are the most dangerous and deadly of Mother Nature’s tricks. Commonly thousands of people are affected and killed by such events around the world.

China was also the site of what is believed to be the greatest earthquake death toll. It has been estimated that over 830,000 people were killed in a tremor near Shaanzi in 1556. What makes these kinds of events particularly deadly is when they occur in densely-populated areas. Tectonic shifts of the Earth’s crust are part of the planet’s entire geologic record. They are considered disasters only if people are impacted.

The epicentre was near the cities of Huaxian, Weinan and Huayin where almost every building was destroyed and tens of thousands died. Damage and death were experienced over 300 miles away.

The area of the 1556 and other events is under extensional stress, bounded by major normal faults. When activated (often), large blocks are vertically-displaced with accompanying opening of fissures and production of landslides in surrounding highlands.

Storms

Major storms are frequent and can be devastating when they come ashore near populated areas. They have not increased in number or intensity over the centuries during which they have been reported, but as people and communities have grown in number so have the destruction and death tolls. Invariably, undeveloped regions with large numbers of poor neighbourhoods suffer the greatest.

On 7 October 1737, one of the deadliest cyclones struck Calcutta, India, killing an estimated, though unconfirmed, 300,000 people. A representative of the British East India Company, stationed there, reported on the damage in that city. Others wrote that storm surges destroyed 20,000 ships in the harbor.

In another time, and in another part of the world, a 1703 storm crossed southern England, causing significant damage. Daniel Dafoe, in his definitive book, The Storm, described the effects thusly:

·         wind gusts possibly topping 120 mph at the peak of the storm, levelling almost everything in its path

·         over 700 ships wrecked while docked or at anchor in harbours around southern England and while still at sea, with an estimated death toll of up to 10,000 sailors

·         thirteen Royal Navy warships sunk, with the loss of over 1,500 lives; many others severely damaged

·         over 120 lives lost, and hundreds more injured on land across England and Wales

·         significant damage in towns and cities – in London over 2,000 chimney stacks blown down, demolishing parts of the houses to which they had been attached

·         tens of thousands of head of cattle and sheep lost on farms along the storm’s path

·         major parts of forests levelled

·         areas around major estuaries impacted by floods from storm surges, in many cases more dangerous than the accompanying winds

·         severe disruption to local economies just emerging from decades of recession, the effects of which felt for years afterward

·         mercantile shipping, involving fleets serving major cities like London and the export markets, disrupted for many years until replacement ships could be put to sea

·         immediate inflation of prices in foodstuffs and other goods – building materials in particular

This event was singularly important as it hit a populated and advanced (for the time) economic centre of Europe. Dafoe’s report lists the many communities and people affected by the disaster.

Disease and Epidemics

We understand how diseases can decimate communities. Epidemics have raged in regions around the world, many spread by Europeans to unsuspecting and ill-prepared indigenous groups during the age of explorations and colonization during the 16^th to 19^th centuries.

No example is more illustrative of the potential for death, though, that the Black Death that spread over Europe in the 14^th century. Between 1346 and 1352, the plague moved from the central Asia, to the Mediterranean trading ports and then across the continent to Scandinavia and the British Isles.

An estimated 75 to 200 million people died, representing from 30% to 60% of Europe’s population.

Other diseases have made their way through the human population over the centuries, some of which we have better information as to their consequences:

·         Since its recognition in the 17^th century (it is believed to have originated several thousand years earlier), small pox has killed hundreds of millions of people around the world.

·         Measles has resulted in the deaths of at least 200 million people just during the last 150 years

·         Malaria has taken the lives of probably 250 million since the beginning of the 20^th century.

·         The Spanish Flu arrived in 1918 in America and Europe, killing from 50 to 100 million worldwide.

·         Tuberculosis, also known as consumption or phthisis, killed over 1 billion people in the 19^th and 20^th centuries

Until the advent of vaccines, and better health care techniques, many of these and other diseases continued their relentless attack on communities everywhere.

Volcanoes

While not common as direct killers, other than adjacent to locations of eruptions, volcanoes have had an effect of health, weather, agriculture and general climate. Some of the most violent and deadly eruptions were:

·         Mt. Tambora in 1815 which killed up to 120,000 people and affected weather and climate around the world for several years.

·         Krakatau, in 1883, had similar effects on global climate, and killed over 30,000 people in nearby areas to the eruption.

·         Laki fissure, in Iceland, erupted in 1783, sending a pall of ash and gas over most of Europe, causing crops losses, illness and death.

·         Mt. Pelee, in the Caribbean, exploded in 1902, destroying the city of St. Pierre, killing all but two of the 28,000 inhabitants.

Eruptions continue to occur with regularity along the active tectonic plate margins of the Earth’s crust. Accompanying them are devastating earthquakes and the spread of ash and gas high into the atmosphere. Mother Nature never rests in her quest to alter the surface of the globe and spread fear and death.