What was the worst natural Disaster in the history of man

[Jim Cantore]

I cant put this in poll verson because it would take me a while to find options, so I decided to make it an open question.

Note: I mean Weather disasters

[terstorm1012]

1556 Shanxii Earthquake in China. It killed 1 million people. Link to start from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1556_Shaanxi_earthquake

The Black Death. It killed 35 million people and reduced Europe's population by one-third. Link to start from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_death

The Mt. Toba Eruption 74,000 years ago. Genetic research on the Y chromosome and Mitochondrial DNA indicates (though the theory is still very controversal) it reduced the human population to barely 10,000 individuals, of which all of us are descended from.

Links to start from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Population_bottleneck and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toba_catastrophe_theory and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Y-chromosomal_Adam

I use Wikipedia as a source for you all to start from, not the end all to be all of sources.

[AussieMark]

The 1931 Yellow River flood (Huang He flood) is generally thought to be the deadliest natural disaster of historic times, and almost certainly of the twentieth century (when pandemics are discounted). The Yellow River or Huang He has been prone to flooding due to the broad expanse of almost flat land around it. The 1887 Yellow River flood had already devastated the area, killing 900,000-2,000,000 people. Estimates of the number of people killed in the 1931 flooding range from 850,000 to 4,000,000. Deaths caused by the flooding include but are not limited to drowning, disease, ensuing famines, and droughts.

[GalvestonDuck]

I think Hitler's birth counts as a natural disaster.

Since you're talking about diseases in addition to geological and meteorological events, what about cancer and AIDS? Some form of cancer is responsible for one in four deaths in the US alone and AIDS has killed more than 25 million.

[Jim Cantore]

The 1931 Yellow River flood (Huang He flood) is generally thought to be the deadliest natural disaster of historic times, and almost certainly of the twentieth century (when pandemics are discounted). The Yellow River or Huang He has been prone to flooding due to the broad expanse of almost flat land around it. The 1887 Yellow River flood had already devastated the area, killing 900,000-2,000,000 people. Estimates of the number of people killed in the 1931 flooding range from 850,000 to 4,000,000. Deaths caused by the flooding include but are not limited to drowning, disease, ensuing famines, and droughts.

thats my pick as well

dont forget the Tsunami ether

[Matt-hurricanewatcher]

Commies like the USSR/China killed 100 million people through out the 20th cent. That fellowed what happen 74k ago as the worst disaster in the histroy of men.

[terstorm1012]

we're talking natural disasters. what governments did world wide in the 20th Century and before are man-made. Horrible yes but seperate topics all together.

Cancer and AIDS yea I'd consider them natural as they're naturally occuring from body processes or viruses. by the time AIDS burns itself out I think it'll halve Africa's population which is sad.

[Audrey2Katrina]

Well, since according to the thread's heading, we're supposed to be counting "weather" disasters, I can't really include cancer or AIDS... frankly, there's no comparison between those two anyway--while AIDS gets an enormous amount of publicity, cancer kills many times as many people, and FWIW cardio-vascular related deaths top even that... but I digress, the idea is "Weather" related. My guess would be either the last glacial period which might well have caused either directly, or indirectly a massive extinction of humanoids, possibly the Toba eruption, although a lot of its human impact is equally speculative and unproveable, but if you need some documentation of death toll, I'd have to agree that it's either the flooding of the Huang Ho(He) as even the low estimate of approx. 800,000 equals the high estimate of the massive earthquake (also in China) that claimed similar numbers--but not as high as the flooding estimates go as the max is in the millions.

So there ya go, a definite: "It could be any of these" answer

A2K

[Audrey2Katrina]

Interesting link for any of you wishing to know more about these "supervolcanoes" is found here:

http://www.solcomhouse.com/yellowstone.htm

Of note is that 3 of the 7 listed, are here in the US, including the one most likely to go next--Yellowstone.

A2K

[Matt-hurricanewatcher]

I heard yellowstone is rising a dome...In the intense heat is starting to kill things off. Today we humans are so weak and fooliest that it would knock us down to a few thousand.

[Matt-hurricanewatcher]

I heard yellowstone is rising a dome...In the intense heat is starting to kill things off. Today we humans are so weak and fooliest that it would knock us down to a few thousand.

[SouthFloridawx]

Interesting link for any of you wishing to know more about these "supervolcanoes" is found here:

http://www.solcomhouse.com/yellowstone.htm

Of note is that 3 of the 7 listed, are here in the US, including the one most likely to go next--Yellowstone.

A2K

awesome link thank you!!

[rainstorm]

clearly mankinds worst natural disaster was when eve ate the forbidden fruit. its been downhill from there

[Audrey2Katrina]

clearly mankinds worst natural disaster was when eve ate the forbidden fruit. its been downhill from there

Now that one's hard to beat! LOL



A2K

[Coredesat]

I think the 1970 Bhola tropical cyclone should go up there on that list. 500,000+ direct deaths.

[Tstormwatcher]

I am sure that there have been incredible natural disasters which modern man is unaware of. But China seens to hold the distinction of have the top 5.

[hial2]

Did anyone mention the Krakatoa explosion or the volcano that erupted so much that it buried the city of Pompeii ?

[Audrey2Katrina]

Krakatau was a massive eruption, but the death tolls aren't in the million area, at least not from what records I've seen...and it certainly wouldn't rival the supervolcanic eruptions of Toba, about 75,000 years ago, or Yellowstone (which was even longer ago--hence no way to know)... Pompeii was buried by Vesuvius in 79AD, I believe; but few people realize that most Pompeiians actually escaped... it was the city of Herculaneum engulfed in the pyroclastic blast in which the entire populace was decimated (mostly huddled in caves trying to escape--didn't work). The eruption on Martinique actually killed many times that number of people and it was only about a century or so ago...still not in the same league as the others represented here--gosh talking about all this can get quite depressing!

A2K

[Matt-hurricanewatcher]

Some times Advancement are not always good, what it did is make us weak. There maybe 6.5 billion of us but we are weak to what we where 100k or 10k years ago. 75k years ago we where very strong in hard to kill. The same thing today would kill us to about the same number.

Some times Advancements are not good...

[Aslkahuna]

Krakatau was not even in the same league as Tambora in 1815. No volcanic eruption in recorded history (which excludes Toba) has killed anywhere near the number as the deadliest floods. Tropical Cyclones and Earthquakes. At least not yet.

Steve