The most famous natural disasters in the world. The worst natural disasters in history. Piper Alpha oil rig disaster
Whoever is in power, the media is always on the hook. Last Sunday, the complaisance of the media, fed from the federal budget, broke another bottom. In dozens of cities in the country, including Moscow, thousands of people took to the streets against corruption - not a word on the news.
Now we have the Internet, from which you can’t hide anything, but in Soviet times it was like this: if the newspapers are not written, the people are neither in hearing nor in spirit. Therefore, it often happened that people learned about federal-scale events many years later.
Mass crush in Luzhniki
Towards the end of the football match between Spartak Moscow and the Dutch Haarlem in the UEFA Cup, which took place at the Lenin Central Stadium on October 20, 1982, the worst tragedy in the history of Soviet sports broke out. Spartacus learned about it the next day from the coach, and everyone else - only after seven years.
Spartak won 1-0, and a few minutes before the end of the game, chilled fans rushed to the exit. According to eyewitnesses, law enforcement officers opened only one of the four gates on stand C, where almost all the spectators were seated. At some point, a girl fell on the stairs, someone stopped to help her, and people pressed in from behind - a crush began.
Unfortunately, at this time Sergey Shvetsov scored the second goal. Many moved back to the stands, and the situation took on a completely nightmarish turn. As a result, 66 fans died in the stampede, most of them teenagers.
Monument to those who died on the territory of Luzhniki, erected on the 10th anniversary of the tragedy.
Newspapers wrote about the match itself, but they did not say a word about the tragedy. Only "Vechernyaya Moskva" on the last page reported in two lines about an "accident", as a result of which "people suffered". The mass media spoke about the crush already under Gorbachev. Relatives of the victims are convinced that there were many more victims than 66.
The collapse of the escalator in the Moscow metro
On February 17 of the same year, at the Aviamotornaya station, during rush hour, due to improper maintenance, the handrail of one of the escalators jumped off, and the stairs, accelerating under the weight of passengers, rushed down. Neither the service brake nor the emergency brake worked properly.
Escalator at Aviamotornaya today. The tragedy happened on the far right of the escalator.
Many panicked and rushed up the stairs, colliding with those who were trying to stay on their feet. People began to fall, a blockage formed below. Someone tried to get over to the next escalator, but the plastic coating could not stand it and broke. Several people fell under the balustrade. The driving mechanisms were turned off by hand only after two minutes.
Eight people died in the stampede and 30 were seriously injured. A short message the next day was published only by the same Vechernyaya Moskva. It looked like this:
Due to the fact that the tragedy was not covered in the media, it was overgrown with fictitious details and turned into a bloody meat grinder, although in reality it was not.
Disaster at Baikonur
In October 1960, a ballistic R-16 exploded at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in preparation for a test launch. This happened due to the fact that a frankly unfinished rocket was brought to the site. The Soviet leadership pushed the developers in connection with the aggravation of the Cold War, plus, according to tradition, it was necessary to boast of the outstripping pace of work for the anniversary October revolution.
R-16 put on the launcher.
The explosion was terrifying. According to various estimates, from 70 to 120 people were burned alive, including the commander-in-chief Missile troops strategic purpose Marshal Mitrofan Nedelin, who was sitting in a bunker a few meters from the foot of the rocket.
Mitrofan Ivanovich Nedelin.
Movie cameras captured a terrible picture: waves of flame radiated from the rocket, people burning like torches jumped out of the fire and scattered in all directions. Some ran to the barbed wire fence and hung lifelessly on it.
The moment of the explosion.
Information about the tragedy was immediately classified. And in order to somehow explain the death of the Commander-in-Chief of the Strategic Missile Forces, they invented a certain plane crash in which Nedelin allegedly died. He was buried with honors at the Kremlin wall, the rest of the victims - secretly in the cemeteries of different cities and in a mass grave in Baikonur. This case became public knowledge only after the collapse Soviet Union.
Ram of a residential building in Novosibirsk
In the early morning of September 26, 1976, 23-year-old civil aviation pilot Vladimir Serkov hijacked an An-2 plane from a local airfield, circled over the city at low altitude and suddenly directed it straight at a residential five-story building. As it turned out, the psychopath aimed at the apartment on the third floor, where his wife's parents lived and where she left him, taking her two-year-old son. Luckily, no one was in the apartment.
"Corn" crashed into the house at a speed of more than 150 kilometers per hour, punched a hole between the third and fourth floors in the stairwell area, its front part with a propeller and a motor flew into one of the apartments. Serkov died, but no one else was hurt by the blow. A woman and three children died in the fire.
Khrushchev was quickly restored, and the incident itself was classified. It was not officially reported anywhere, instead, ominous rumors spread around the city - either these were terrorists unprecedented in the USSR, or a terrible political action. In the end, this story would have turned into a bike, and eyewitnesses would have been considered crazy, if not for the declassified KGB archives at the beginning of the 2000s.
The death of cosmonaut Bondarenko
24-year-old Valentin Bondarenko was one of the candidates for the first space flight in the history of mankind. In the detachment of Soviet cosmonauts who were trained to fly on the Vostok spacecraft, he was the youngest and, according to the results of training, was fourth on the list.
But three weeks before the historic start, Bondarenko died tragically during a test in an isolation chamber. It happened on the 10th day out of 15 that he had to spend all alone in a tightly closed chamber with reduced pressure and high level oxygen.
Photos of other test participants.
After one of the medical tests, Bondarenko wiped the places where the biosensors were fixed on the body with an alcohol swab and accidentally dropped it. Cotton wool fell on a hot spiral tile and flared up. The flame instantly spread throughout the oxygenated room.
German Titov, Gagarin's understudy, during training in the isolation chamber.
Due to the large pressure drop, the door could only be opened after half an hour. With burns, 80% of Valentin's body was taken to the hospital, where doctors fought for his life for eight hours. According to them, Gagarin was always at the bedside of a friend until he died.
Everything related to space, the state kept in the strictest confidence. The death of Bondarenko was not just hidden - he was erased from the group photographs of the first detachment. The press recognized the death of the astronaut only in 1986. On the grave of Bondarenko in Kharkov, until then, it was written: "Blessed memory from fellow pilots." And only then a postscript was added: "...-cosmonauts of the USSR."
You can’t live in the past, dream about the future, you need to appreciate the present, enjoy every day you live. The horrors that befell mankind in the twentieth century cannot be forgotten. You will find the most tragic events, shocking lessons of fate in our review.
Water disasters
The death of thousands of people in the open spaces of water is caused by various reasons: the human factor, structural errors, military operations, natural disasters. Consider the most large-scale tragedy in terms of the number of victims that occurred in the last century on the water:
1. "Goya". On a warship confiscated by the Germans after they occupied the Norwegian territories during the Great Patriotic War, 7,000 people died. On April 16, 1945, a torpedo was sent from a Russian submarine to a powerful ship, as a result of which the Goya sank in the Baltic Sea.
2. "Wilhelm Gustloff". The German ship is named after a Nazi party leader. At the time of construction, it was considered the largest ship in the world. Before the war, it was used as a means of recreation. The ship sank on January 30, 1945. The reason is the attack of the Soviet military from a submarine. The exact composition of the passengers is unknown, but according to the official version, 5,348 people died. There were women and children on board.
3. "Mont Blanc". On December 6, 1917, a French military ship exploded in the Canadian harbor, which collided with the ship "Imo" (Norway). Few survived the fire. The death rate is 2,000 people (1,950 people have been identified), and the cause is a banal human factor. Apart from the pre-nuclear era, this explosion was the most powerful in the history of mankind. About the terrible tragedy, you can watch a film shot in Canada in 2003 - "Destruction City".
4. "Bismarck". German battleship sunk by British aircraft on 12 June 1944 during the course of the war. The number of victims was 1,995 people.
The sinking of the Titanic At the time of commissioning, the ship was considered the largest on earth. The giant ship sank on its first voyage on April 15, 1912, colliding with an iceberg.
Horror and death in the air
In the middle of the twentieth century, air travel gained mass character. The active development of passenger aviation has led to an excess of deaths in the sky compared to "water" mortality. Here is a list of "bright" tragedies that claimed the lives of many innocent people:
1. Collision in Tenerife. The crash happened on March 27, 1977. Location of the event - Canary Islands (Tenerife). The fatal "meeting" of the two liners caused the death of 583 people. 61 people managed to escape in the tragedy. For the period of the twentieth century, this air crash is the largest in terms of the number of civil aviation.
2. Disaster near Tokyo. On August 12, 1985, the Japanese airliner lost control 12 minutes after its takeoff, losing its vertical stabilizer. For 32 minutes, the crew fought to save the aircraft in the air, but a collision with Mount Otsutaka affected the devastating outcome of events. 520 people died, and only 4 survived. The disaster is called the largest in the history of "one plane".
3. Charkhi Dadri (city in India). The plane crash occurred as a result of a collision between the flagship and Kazakh airliners at an altitude of 4,109 meters. All passengers were killed, including the crew of both aircraft (a total of 349 people).
4. Air crash near Paris. On March 3, 1974, a wide-body airliner built by a Turkish company killed 346 people. A few minutes after takeoff, the cargo bay door suddenly opened.
Explosive compression destroyed all control systems. The plane picketed and crashed into the forest. The conducted investigation pointed to the imperfection of the locking mechanism in the compartment. After that, many airlines made changes in aircraft designs to avoid catastrophic repetitions.
5. Terror attack near Cork. On the way to London, India's flagship carrier was the victim of a brutal terrorist attack. Literally a few minutes before arrival, an explosion occurred on board the plane and all those on board died (329 people). This is the largest terrorist attack in Canadian history.
Tragedies on earth
Some of the tragedies that happened in the last century on earth still cause concern and fear, continuing to destroy the health and lives of ordinary people, namely:
1. Bhopal disaster. The man-made tragedy is the largest in history. There was an accident at a chemical plant in India (1984). 18,000 people died. 3,000 of those who died were victims of instant death, and the rest died in the months and years following the tragedy. The cause of the horrific event could not be determined.
2. Chernobyl. April 26, 1986 there was a major fatal accident, an explosion at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant (Ukraine). The release into the air of a huge amount of radioactive substances caused the death of hundreds of people, and not immediately, but gradually.
3. Piper Alpha. At the oil station in 1988, 167 people (members of the staff) died, 59 people were lucky, they managed to survive. In the oil industry, this disaster is the largest.
In addition to man-made tragedies, many other shocking events took place in the 20th century - a warrior, the total number of millions of victims of which can no longer be counted: the First World War (1914-1818), Civil War in Russia (1917-1923), World War II (1939-1945), Korean War (1950-1053).
Natural disasters
1. Cyclone "Bhola". The disaster happened in 1970. Tropical elements swept several territories of Pakistan and Bengal, wiping out cities and small villages. The researchers failed to find out the exact number of deceased citizens (approximately 5,000,000 people).
2. Valdivskoe earthquake (1960 - Chile). The resulting tsunami did not save many innocent people. The number of victims reached several thousand people. In addition to death, the natural phenomenon caused significant damage to the affected territories (estimated cost - $ 500 million).
3. Megatsunami in Alaska (1958). Earthquake, landslides, collapse of rocks and ice into the water, the world's highest tsunami. The element has victims in the amount of 5,000,000 people.
Tsunami in Alaska Every year, many disasters of a different nature occur in the world due to natural phenomena, technical failures, errors of specialists and many other unfavorable factors. All of them often lead to tragic consequences.
They will forever remain in the memory of those people who lost their loved ones. In memory of those who provided any assistance in the center of events, and all those who could not help, but were worried about the fate of people in trouble. This article contains the most terrible disasters ever happened in history: on water, in air, and on land.
In 1931, China experienced the worst flood in history. The Yangtze River ranks third among major rivers, with about 700 different rivers flowing into it. Every year, during the rains, it overflowed and caused damage.
In August 1931, the Yangtze River and the neighboring Yellow River burst their banks, merging into one powerful stream, destroyed the dams. This led to a global flood. They, destroying everything in their path, flooded 16 Chinese provinces, which is about 300,000 hectares of land. 
More than 40 million people were affected, left without shelter, clothing and food. The water did not come down for about 4 months. As a result of prolonged famine and disease, the death toll exceeded 3.5 million people. To prevent such a tragedy, two protective dams were later built and two reservoirs created.
fertilizer plant
In 1984, in the Indian city of Bhopal, there was a major ecological catastrophy in history. On the night of December 3, one of the tanks with the poisonous gas methyl isocyanate exploded at a chemical plant producing fertilizers. The tank volume was 40 tons.
Presumably, the cause of this accident was a safety violation. Heating has occurred in the methyl isocyanate tank, which has reached critical temperature. As a result, the emergency valve burst in it, and the gas escaped from the tank. 
Due to the strong wind, the gas cloud quickly spread over 40 square kilometers. Unsuspecting, sleeping people were eating away at their eyes and lungs. Over the first week, more than 3000 thousand people. In subsequent years, 15,000 people died from diseases. And about 100,000 people needed treatment.
The uncleaned area of the chemical plant is still infecting people. Thousands of people suffer from toxic contamination, many children are born with abnormalities.
Chernobyl tragedy
One of the worst nuclear accidents occurred at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in 1986. The accident had a hazard level of 7 on the scale of nuclear events.
The nuclear power plant was located near the city of Pripyat, which was built specifically for the workers of the station. At that time, more than 47,000 people lived in it. In the early morning of April 26, there was a powerful explosion of a nuclear reactor in the building of the fourth power unit. 
The ill-conceived and erroneous actions of the station engineers during the tests of the turbogenerator led to this. As a result of the accident nuclear reactor was completely destroyed, and a fire started in the building of the power unit, which was extinguished for more than a week. 600 firefighters died while extinguishing it, having received the largest dose of radiation.
The consequences of the accident were frightening, thousands of people lived their calm, measured lives just a few kilometers from the accident and did not know what had happened. Information about the accident was not disseminated for the first day, but when the release of radioactive substances reached a critical level, they began to evacuate Pripyat and nearby settlements.
About 800,000 people participated in the liquidation of the accident. According to unofficial data, half of the liquidators received a lethal dose of radiation.
Boat trip
In 1987 there was the largest disaster on the water. On December 20, the Philippine ferry Dona Paz, carrying passengers, collided with the tanker Vector, which was carrying more than 8,000 thousand barrels of oil.
As a result of the impact, the steam broke in half, and oil poured from the holes in the tanker. A fire started almost instantly, both ships and the surface of the water burned. Fleeing, people jumped into the water, where fire and sharks were waiting for them.
Rescuers arrived only after 8 hours, only 26 people survived. The death toll has exceeded 4200 people. The exact cause of the accident has not been established.
deadly tsunami
On December 26, 2004, the most powerful tsunami in history occurred in the Indian Ocean. Due to a strong underwater earthquake with a magnitude of 9 points, at a depth of 30 kilometers, a rock shift occurred, which gave rise to this devastating tsunami. At that time, there was no system in the Indian Ocean that would detect tsunamis, so this tragedy could not be prevented.
In a few hours, waves up to 20 meters high reached the coast, crushing everything in their path. Within hours, the waves brought incredible destruction to Thailand, India, Indonesia and Sri Lanka.
In total, the tsunami reached the coasts of 18 countries. It took more life 300,000 thousand people, 15,000 people went missing and about 1.5 million people were left homeless. Restoration work lasted about five years, houses, schools and resort areas were rebuilt. After the tragedy, an evacuation system was organized and a tsunami warning system was created.
Cyclone named after a flower
The devastating cyclone Nargis passed through Myanmar on May 3, 2008. The wind speed reached 240 km/h. A tropical cyclone destroyed many small settlements. And almost completely destroyed the large city of Yangon. The population was left without shelter and electricity. 
As a result of the terrible natural disaster, the death toll amounted to 90,000 thousand people. More than 55,000 people were never found. In total, more than 1.5 million people were affected. Many countries came to the rescue of Myanmar by providing material and humanitarian assistance.
Cruelty of nature
A powerful earthquake destroyed part of the island of Haiti in 2010, the magnitude of which was 7 points. The first shocks were registered on January 12, 20 kilometers from the capital of Haiti. A number of strong shocks continued shocks with a magnitude of 5.9 points.
After a terrible shaking, more than 3 million people were left without a home. 60% of residential premises and many public buildings such as schools, hospitals, cathedrals were destroyed. 
The death toll during the natural disaster and under the rubble was 222,570 thousand people, wounded 311,000 thousand people, and about 1,000 people who were never found.
Not a cheap flight
The crash of a Japanese Boeing 747 in 1985 is recognized as the worst air crash in the air. And it ranks second in the number of deaths. On August 12, in connection with the Japanese holiday, there were 524 people on board along with the crew.
The cause of the disaster was poor-quality repair of the aircraft. At the 12th minute of the flight, the keel of the aircraft comes off, the control system fails, and at an altitude of 1500 meters the aircraft crashes into a mountain. 
Due to a strong fire at the crash site, the rescue operation did not begin until 14 hours later. Many of the wounded never received help. Rescuers found notes from passengers with appeals to their families. dead 520 people only 4 survivors.
This article describes only a small part of the disasters that are recorded in world history. Here are collected the most massive and tragic of them. All of them claimed the lives of millions of children, adults, old people of different nationalities and religions. After all, trouble is indifferent to gender, age and race.
Man-made disasters often occur as a result of natural disasters, but also because of worn-out equipment, greed or inattention. The memory of them serves as an important lesson for humanity, because natural disasters can harm us, but not the planet, while man-made ones threaten absolutely the entire world around us.
The collapse of the train with oil in Lac-Megantic, July 6, 2013. The accident occurred in the east of the Canadian province of Quebec. A train carrying seventy tanks of crude oil derailed and the tanks exploded. More than half of the buildings in the city center were destroyed by the explosion and subsequent fire, killing about fifty people.
Explosion at the chemical plant of the Phillips Petroleum Company, October 23, 1989, in Pasadena, Texas. Due to the oversight of the employees, a large leak of combustible gas occurred, and there was a powerful explosion, equivalent to two and a half tons of dynamite. It took firefighters more than ten hours to put out the flames. 23 people died and 314 were injured.
Explosion in a coal mine in Centralia, Illinois, March 25, 1947. The town, now better known for the eternal underground fire, which served as the prototype of the fire in the game and the movie "Silent Hill", suffered in the middle of the 20th century. It was then that an explosion of coal dust buried more than a hundred people at a local mine - some died instantly under the rubble, others from poisonous smoke.
Explosion in Halifax, December 6, 1917. In the bay of the Canadian year of Halifax, the French warship "Mont Blanc", bound for France, collided with the Norwegian ship "Imo". The problem was that Mont Blanc was filled to the brim with explosives, and the force of the explosion was enough to destroy half the city. Two thousand people died, nine thousand were injured.
Bhopal disaster, December 3, 1984. One of the largest man-made disasters in history that occurred in the Indian city of Bhopal. As a result of an accident at a chemical plant producing pesticides, the poisonous substance methyl isocyanite was released. On the day of the release, about 3 thousand people died, another 15 thousand - in subsequent years, and hundreds of thousands were affected in one way or another.
A building collapses in the Bangladeshi city of Savar on April 24, 2013. The Rana Plaza Mall, which also housed clothing businesses, collapsed during rush hour due to poor construction safety. 1127 people died, another 2500 were injured.
Explosion at a chemical plant in Oppau, Germany, September 21, 1921. At the plant where the disaster happened, a month earlier there had already been an explosion that killed a hundred people. But no action was taken, and the next accident claimed the lives of 600 employees and random people, injuring several thousand. 12 tons of a mixture of sulfate and ammonium nitrate exploded with a force of 5 kilotons of TNT, literally wiping the town off the face of the earth.
Chernobyl accident, April 26, 1986. The biggest accident in history nuclear energy, which has become a kind of symbol of man-made disasters. The explosion of the reactor at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant released radioactive substances into the atmosphere, which forced the evacuation of several settlements. Only 31 people died, but hundreds and thousands of people suffered from the consequences of exposure, and huge areas on the territory of Ukraine and Belarus became uninhabitable for many years.
The volcano that destroyed ancient Pompeii cannot be responsible for the saddest natural disaster in history, despite the fact that many films have been made and many songs have been sung on the subject. Modern natural disasters claim countless human victims. Take a look at our grim list. It contains only the most terrible catastrophes of all time.
Earthquake in the Syrian city of Aleppo (1138)
Fortunately, these days the news reports do not shock us with giant faults in the Dead Sea area. Now there is a relatively stable tectonic relief. Syria experienced unprecedented cataclysms in the 12th century. Seismic activity in the north of the country continued for almost a year and eventually resulted in a destructive cataclysm. In 1138, the city of Aleppo was destroyed to the ground, other settlements and military installations suffered. In total, the elements claimed the lives of 230,000 people.
Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami (2004)
This is the only event on the list that many of us have seen. This tragedy is considered the deadliest in modern history. It all started with a 9.3 magnitude underwater earthquake off the coast of Indonesia. Then the elements transformed into a cruel tsunami that rushed to the shores of 11 countries. In total, 225,000 people died, and about a million more inhabitants of the Indian Ocean coast were left homeless. It is sad that this happened in the heyday of the development of earthquake-resistant architectural technologies, and not in the days of thatched dugouts.
Antioch earthquake (526)
People like to compare the potential end of the world to catastrophes of biblical proportions. The earthquake in Antioch is the only natural cataclysm that is more or less close to the biblical era. This natural disaster occurred in the first millennium from the birth of Christ. The Byzantine city in the period from 20 to 29 May 526 experienced an earthquake of magnitude 7.0. Due to the high population density (which was rare for the region at the time), 250,000 people died. The fires caused by the cataclysm also contributed to the increase in the number of victims. 
Earthquake in the Chinese province of Gansu (1920)
The next natural disaster on our list has created a giant rift over 160 kilometers long. According to experts, the greatest damage was caused not by an earthquake measuring 7.8 on the Richter scale, but by landslides that swept entire cities underground and were the main reason that slowed down the response. According to various estimates, the cataclysm claimed the lives of 230,000 to 273,000 inhabitants.
Tangshan earthquake (1976)
Another terrible earthquake of the 20th century shows that the natural disaster itself is not so terrible as the imperfections of the infrastructure of the area in which it occurs. Aftershocks of magnitude 7.8 hit the Chinese Tangshan on the night of July 28 and instantly leveled 92 percent of residential buildings in this millionth city. The lack of food, water and other resources became the main obstacles in the rescue efforts. In addition, railway tracks and bridges were destroyed, so there was nowhere to wait for help. Many of the victims died under the rubble. 
Cyclone at Koring, India (1839)
By the early 19th century, Koringa had become the main Indian port city at the mouth of the Godavari River. On the night of November 25, 1839, this title had to be folded. The oncoming cyclone destroyed 20,000 ships and 300,000 people. Many of the victims were thrown into the open sea. Now there is a small village on the site of Koringa. 
Cyclone Bhola, Bangladesh (1970)
Natural disasters regularly hit the Bay of Bengal, but none has been more devastating than Cyclone Bhola. Hurricane wind gusts on November 11, 1970 reached 225 kilometers per hour. Due to extreme poverty in the region, no one was able to warn the population of the impending danger. As a result, the cyclone killed more than half a million lives. 
Chinese earthquake (1556)
Despite the fact that in the 16th century a system for assessing the magnitude of tremors was not yet introduced, historians have calculated that the earthquake that occurred in China in 1556 could have had a magnitude of 8.0 - 8.5. It so happened that the main blow was taken by a densely populated area. The disaster created deep canyons that permanently swallowed over 800,000 people.
Flood on the Yellow River (1887)
One of the largest rivers in the world is responsible for more deaths than all other rivers combined. In 1887, the deadliest flood was recorded, which was exacerbated by heavy rains and the destruction of dams near the city of Changshu. The flooded low-lying plains claimed the lives of about two million Chinese. 
Flood on the Yangtze River (1931)
Record natural disaster happened with the beginning heavy rains and the Yangtze River flood in April 1931. This natural disaster, coupled with dysentery and other diseases, killed about three million lives. In addition, the destruction of rice fields caused mass starvation.
