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Every year , some of the baneful natural disasters — earthquakes , volcanic eruptions , hurricanes , tsunamis , overflow , wildfiresanddroughts — kill nearly 60,000 the great unwashed , according toGlobal Change Data Lab .
Violent natural disasters have been a fact of human life since the beginning of humankind , but the death numeration of the most ancient of these disasters are lost to history . The ancient Mediterranean island of Thera ( now Santorini , Greece ) , for example , experience a ruinous volcanic eruption that extinguish the entire Minoan civilization around 1600 B.C. , according to a 2020 study put out in the journalProceedings of the National Academies of Sciences . But exactly how many life-time were lost ? We ’ll never jazz .
The deadliest natural disasters include earthquakes, floods and cyclones.
However , thanks to historical phonograph recording and journals , historians can at least figure the number of fatality relate to disasters that pass off in the usual earned run average . consort to such records , the following natural catastrophe are some of the deadliest of all meter .
The A.D. 1138 Aleppo earthquake
On Oct. 11 , 1138 , the ground under the Syrian city of Aleppo begin to shake . The city sit down on the confluence of the Arabian and African plates , throw it prone to quake , but this one was specially violent . The magnitude of the quake is lost to time , but contemporary chronicler account that the city ’s citadel collapsed and houses crumbled across Aleppo . The result destruction toll is estimated at around 230,000 , but that figure come from the fifteenth C , and the historian who reported it may have conflated the Aleppo quake with one that occurred in what is now the modern - mean solar day Eurasiatic country of Georgia , according to a 2004 paper in the journalAnnals of Geophysics . Still , this supposed death toll score this result as one of the most deathly natural disasters of all time .
The 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami
Another deadly natural disaster was a catastrophic magnitude 9.1 quake that struck undersea off the west coast of Sumatra , Indonesia , on Dec. 26 , 2004 . The seism create a massive tsunami thatkilled approximately 230,000 , and displaced nearly 2 million people in 14 South Asiatic and East African country . Traveling as fast as 500 mph ( 804 km / h ) , the tsunami reach landed estate in as minuscule as 15 to 20 minutes after the quake run into , pay resident little time to take flight to high ground .
In some places , especially hard - hit Indonesia , the tsunami moving ridge attain over 100 foot ( 30 meters ) high , according toWorld Vision , a humanitarian aid organization .
Damages from the earthquake and tsunami are estimated at $ 10 billion dollar sign . This consequence is considered the third largest quake in the world since 1900 , and its tsunami has killed more people than any other tsunami in register history , according toNOAA ’s National Centers for Environmental Information .
The 13th-century citadel of Aleppo in Syria has been listed since 1986 as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
The 1976 Tangshan earthquake
At 3:42 a.m. on July 28 , 1976 , the Taiwanese city of Tangshan was razed to the basis by a magnitude 7.8 earthquake , allot to a story by theU.S. Geological Survey ( USGS ) . Tangshan , an industrial metropolis with a universe of about 1 million at the time of the disaster , ache staggering casualties of over 240,000 . While this was the prescribed death toll , some experts suggest this number is grossly underestimated and that the loss of life was in all probability close to 700,000 . Reportedly , 85 % of Tangshan ’s buildings collapsed , and shiver were felt in Beijing , China , more than 100 miles ( 180 km ) away . It took several years before the city of Tangshan was reconstruct to its anterior glory .
The A.D. 115 Antioch earthquake
The Hellenistic Greek city of Antioch , which served as a regional capital to both the Roman and involved empire , sit in modern - day Turkey atop a three-fold tectonic junction between the African home , the Arabian scale and the Anatolian sub - home base . On Dec. 13 , A.D. 115 , the tectonic system beneath the metropolis produced an estimated order of magnitude 7.5 earthquake that reached an " utmost " intensity on theMercalli intensity shell .
The temblor lead inapproximately 260,000 deathsand destroyed Antioch , as well as five nearby urban center . It also touch off a local tsunami that severely damaged Beirut , the capital of modern - sidereal day Lebanon , and the haven of an ancient port city called Caesarea Maritima . The Roman emperor butterfly Trajan was caught in the earthquake while wintering in Antioch and became trapped under the rubble of his home , but he get by to head for the hills with only minor injury .
The A.D. 526 Antioch earthquake
As with all disasters occurring millenia ago , a exact last bell for the A.D. 526 Antioch earthquake is knockout to come by . modern-day chronicler John Malalas publish at the time that about 250,000 people die when the quake bump off theByzantine Empirecity ( now Turkey and Syria ) in May , 526 . Malalas attributed the disaster to the wrath of God and describe that fires destroy everything in Antioch that the earthquake did not .
According to a 2007 composition inThe Medieval History Journal , the last bell was high than it would have been at other times of the class because the city was full of tourer celebratingAscension Day — the Christian feast that commemorates Jesus ' ascension into heaven .
The 1737 Calcutta cyclone
The 1737 Calcutta cyclone , also jazz as the Hooghly River cyclone , made landfall in the Ganges Delta just south of the metropolis of Calcutta ( modern - twenty-four hours Kolkata ) , in India ’s West Bengal res publica , early in the morning of Oct. 11 , 1737 — although some accountssay the tempest occurred on Sept. 30 . The cyclone is the early super - cyclone on track record in the North Indian Ocean , meaning it had wind speeds of at least 140 mph ( 225 km / h ) that were sustained for 3 arcminute .
The cyclone make a storm surge up to 40 animal foot ( 13 meters ) gamey in the Ganges and traced a 200 - mi - long ( 320 kilometers ) course of destruction . It lead few buildings standing in Calcutta and sink roughly 20,000 boats in the Bay of Bengal . The storm caused 300,000 end according to some accounts — butresearchers manoeuver outthere is a divergence between this casualty count and the urban universe of Calcutta at the time , which was less than 20,000 .
The 1920 Haiyuan earthquake
" The Haiyuan earthquake was the big temblor show in China in the 20th century with the highest magnitude and loudness , " Deng Qidong , a geologist with the Chinese Academy of Sciences , enunciate during a seminarin 2010 .
interrelate : How are earthquakes measured ?
The earthquake , which excise north cardinal China ’s Haiyuan County on Dec. 16 , 1920 , also rocked the contiguous Gansu and Shaanxi Provinces . It was reportedly a 7.8 on the Richter scale , however , China today claim it was of order of magnitude 8.5 . There are also discrepancies in the figure of lives lost . The USGSreported full casualties of 200,000 , but according toa 2010 studyby Chinese seismologists , the last toll could have been as high as 273,400 . The region ’s high deposits of loess grime ( porous , silty sediment that ’s very unstable ) triggered massive landslide which were creditworthy for over 30,000 of these last , harmonize to a 2020 study published in the journalLandslides .
An aerial view of the destruction caused in Meulaboh city, Indonesia, by a quake and tidal wave that made landfall on Dec. 26, 2004.
The 1839 Coringa cyclone
The Coringa cyclone made landfall at the port city of Coringa on India ’s Bay of Bengal on Nov. 25 , 1839 , whipping up a violent storm upsurge of 40 feet ( 12 m ) , according toNOAA ’s Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory Hurricane Research Division . The hurricane ’s wind stop number and category are not known , as is the showcase for many storms that took topographic point before the 20th century . About 20,000 ship and vessels were destroy , along with the life of an estimated 300,000 mass .
The 1881 Haiphong typhoon
Another disaster with a similar demise toll as the core cyclone is the 1881 typhoon that hit the port city of Haiphong in northeastern Vietnam on Oct. 8 . This storm is also consider to have belt down an estimated 300,000 hoi polloi .
The 2010 Haiti earthquake
The ruinous magnitude 7.0 quake that affect Haiti just northwest of Port - au - Prince on Jan. 12 , 2010 , ranks as one of the three deadliest temblor of all clip .
Haiti ’s standing as one of the poorest rural area in the Western Hemisphere and its limited history of large earthquakes go away it super vulnerable to damages and loss of life . As many as 3 million people were affected by the quake . Death bell estimates were all over the place ; initially , the government activity of Haiti estimated fatalities stand at 230,000 people , but in January 2011 , officials revise that image to 316,000 . A 2010 study published in the journalMedicine , Conflict and Survivalput the turn at around 160,000 death , while the USGS take even scummy numbers — around 100,000 . These disparity contemplate the trouble of counting deaths even in the modern era , not to mention the political haggle that goes on over " official " issue .
The 1970 Bhola cyclone
This tropic cyclone hit what is now Bangladesh ( then East Pakistan ) on Nov. 12 - 13 , 1970 . According toNOAA ’s Hurricane Research Division , the storm ’s substantial confidential information speeds measured 130 mph ( 205 kilometre / h ) , urinate it the combining weight of a Category 4 major hurricane on the Saffir - Simpson Hurricane scale of measurement . Ahead of its landfall , a 35 - infantry ( 10.6 m ) tempest rush wash over the low - lying islands frame the Bay of Bengal , causing far-flung implosion therapy .
The tempest surge , combine with a lack of evacuation , resulted in a massive death toll estimate at 300,000 to 500,000 the great unwashed . A1971 reportfrom the National Hurricane Center and the Pakistan Meteorological Department acknowledged the challenge of accurately estimating the death toll , especially due to the influx of seasonal doer who were in the area for the Timothy Miles Bindon Rice harvesting . As of the writing of this article , the Bhola cyclone is considered the mortal tropical cyclone on record , allot to theWorld Meteorological Organization . And it caused an estimated $ 86 billion in damages .
The 1556 Shaanxi earthquake
The baneful earthquake in story hit China ’s Shaanxi responsibility on Jan. 23 , 1556 . Known as the " Jiajing Great Earthquake " after the emperor whose reign it occurred in , the quake foreshorten a 621 - square - mile ( 1,000 square kilometers ) belt of the country to rubble , according to theScience Museums of China . An estimated 830,000 masses died as theiryaodong — cave homes cut up into the region ’s loess plateau — collapsed . The exact magnitude of the earthquake is lost to history , but modern - day geophysicists reckon it at around order of magnitude 8 .
The 1887 Yellow River flood
The Yellow River ( Huang He ) in China was precariously situate far above most of the realm around it in the late 1880s , thanks to a serial of dikes build to curb the river as it flow through the farmland of cardinal China . Over time , these dikes had silted up , gradually lifting the river in elevation . When heavy rains tumesce the river in September 1887 , it talk over these dyke into the surrounding low - consist land , inundating 5,000 square miles ( 12,949 square klick ) , according to " Encyclopedia of Disasters : Environmental Catastrophes and Human Tragedies " ( Greenwood Publishing Group , 2008 ) . As a result of this flood , an estimated 900,000 to 2 million people lost their aliveness .
The 1931 Yangtze River floods
Excessive rainfall over central China in July and August of 1931 triggered the most deadly natural disaster in world history — the Central China photoflood of 1931 . The Yangtze River overlook its banks as spring snowmelt mingle with the over 24 inch ( 600 millimeters ) of rain that fell during the month of July alone . ( The Yellow River and other big waterway also reached high levels . ) concord to " The Nature of Disaster in China : The 1931 Yangzi River Flood " ( Cambridge University Press , 2018 ) , the flood inundated almost 70,000 square miles ( 180,000 straight kilometre ) and turned the Yangtze into what look like a giant lake or ocean . Contemporary government numbers put the number of numb at around 2 million , but other agency , including NOAA , say it may have beenas many as 3.7 million people .
Additional resources
For more on instinctive disasters fit out DK ’s Eyewitness Books " Natural Disasters : Confront the Awesome Power of Nature from Earthquakes and Tsunamis to Hurricanes " and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention page " Natural Disasters and knockout weather condition " .
Bibliography
Nicholas N. Ambraseys , “ The 12th century seismic paroxysm in the Middle East : a historic perspective ” , Annal of Geophysics , Volume 47 , June 2004 .
Walter Kutschera , “ On the mystery of dating the Minoan eruption of Santorini ” , Proceedings of the National Academies of Sciences , loudness 117 , April 2020,https://doi.org/10.1073 / pnas.2004243117
U.S. Geological Survey , “ quake with 1,000 or More Deaths 1900 - 2014 ” , February 2015 .
View of the damage in Tangshan, China, after a magnitude 7.8 earthquake in 1976.
Mischa Meier , “ lifelike disaster in the Chronographia ofJohn Malalas : thoughtfulness on their Function — An Initial Sketch ” , The Medieval History Journal , Volume 10 , 2007
NOAA , OAR , Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory , " 175th Anniversary of the Coringa cyclone " , November 2014 .
Athena Kolbe , et al , " Mortality , crime and access to basic needs before and after the Haiti earthquake : a random survey of Port - au - Prince households " , Medicine , Conflict and Survival , intensity 26 , December 2010,https://doi.org/10.1080/13623699.2010.535279
A vintage engraving shows the ruined city walls of Antioch.
Angus Gynn , " Encyclopedia of disaster : Environmental Catastrophes and Human Tragedies " , Greenwood Publishing Group , December 2007 .
Chris Courtney , " The Nature of Disaster in China : The 1931 Yangzi River Flood " , University of Cambridge Press , February 2018,https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108278362 .
A 1890 drawing of the “Approach to Antioch,” a centre of early Christianity. Artist unknown.
A 19th-century engraved map shows the layout of the Ganges Delta and the Bay of Bengal.
Parts of the Great Wall of China run through Haiyuan County, where a huge earthquake in 1920 killed at least 200,000 people.
People living on the Bay of Bengal are no strangers to natural disasters. Here, people try to repair a broken dam after the landfall of cyclone Amphan in Satkhira, a town on the Bay of Bengal, in spring 2020.
Today, Haiphong is a major port city with over 2 million inhabitants in northeastern Vietnam.
Rescuers search for people among the rubble of Haiti’s National Palace building in Port-au-Prince five days after the 2010 earthquake.
Aerial view of the coastal area of Patuakhali in East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) Nov. 13, 1970, after it was hit by the Bhola tropical cyclone and tidal wave.
China’s Shaanxi province is home to the holy mountain Huashan, which is pictured here.
The flow of China’s Yellow River is now closely monitored and controlled to help prevent flooding. This aerial photo taken on 5 May 2025 shows water released from the Xiaolangdi Reservoir Dam in Luoyang in China’s central Henan province, in preparation of the upcoming annual flood season at the Yellow River basin.
This aerial photo taken on 24 January 2025 shows a flooded sports ground along the Yangtze River in Wuhan in China’s central Hubei province.
