The biggest tragedy in the world. The worst disasters in history

Environmental disasters have their own specifics - not a single person may die during them, but very significant damage to the environment will be inflicted. In our time, the culprit of environmental disasters is mainly a person. The growth of industrial and agricultural production brings not only material benefits, but also slowly kills our habitat. Therefore, the biggest environmental disasters in the world are imprinted in human memory for a long time.

1. Leakage of oil products from the tanker "Prestige"

The Bahamian-flagged single-hull tanker Prestige was built by the Japanese shipyard Hitachi to carry crude oil and launched in 1976. In November 2002, while passing through the Bay of Biscay, the tanker got into a strong storm off the coast of Galicia, as a result of which it received a 35 m long crack, from which about a thousand tons of fuel oil began to flow out per day.
The Spanish coast guards did not allow the dirty ship to enter the nearest port, so they tried to tow it to Portugal, but a similar refusal was received there. In the end, the restless tanker was towed to the Atlantic. On November 19, it sank completely, splitting into two parts, which sank to the bottom to a depth of about 3,700 m. Since it was impossible to fix the breakdown and pump out oil products, more than 70,000 cubic meters of oil got into the ocean. On the surface along coastline a spot more than a thousand kilometers long was formed, which caused enormous damage to the local fauna and flora.
For Europe, this case was the most catastrophic oil spill in history. The damage from it was estimated at 4 billion euros, 300,000 volunteers worked to eliminate its consequences.

2. The collapse of the tanker "Exxon Valdez"

On March 23, 1989, the Exxon Valdez tanker, fully loaded with oil, sailed from the terminal in the Alaskan port of Valdez, bound for the Californian port of Long Beach. Having taken the ship out of Valdez, the pilot handed over control of the tanker to Captain Joseph Jeffrey, who was already “drunk” by that time. There were icebergs in the sea, so the captain was forced to deviate from the course, notifying the coast guard about this. Having received permission from the latter, he changed course, and at 23 o'clock left the wheelhouse, leaving the control of the ship to the third mate and the sailor, who had already defended their watches and needed a 6-hour rest. In fact, the tanker was controlled by an autopilot guided by a navigation system.
Before leaving, the captain instructed the assistant that two minutes after passing the traverse of the island, you need to change course. The assistant conveyed this order to the sailor, but either he himself was late, or his execution was late, but at half past midnight on March 24, the tanker crashed into Blythe Reef. As a result of the disaster, 40,000 cubic meters of oil spilled into the ocean, and environmentalists believe that much more. 2,400 km of coastline were contaminated, making this accident one of the most significant environmental disasters in the world.

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3. Chernobyl disaster

Everyone has probably heard about the largest accident at a nuclear power plant in the history of mankind, which occurred in Chernobyl. Its consequences are visible now, and will remind of themselves for many years to come. April 26, 1986 at the 4th power unit Chernobyl nuclear power plant an explosion occurred that completely destroyed the reactor, and in environment tons of radioactive materials were thrown out. At the time of the tragedy itself, 31 people died, but this is only the tip of the iceberg - it is simply impossible to calculate the number of victims and victims of this accident.
About 200 people who directly took part in its liquidation are officially considered dead from the accident, their lives were claimed by radiation sickness. Enormous damage was suffered by the nature of the whole of Eastern Europe. Dozens of tons of radioactive uranium, plutonium, strontium and cesium were sprayed into the atmosphere and began to slowly settle to the ground, carried by the wind. The desire of the authorities not to give wide publicity to what happened, so that panic would not start among the population, made its share in the tragedy of the unfolding events around the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. Therefore, many thousands of residents of cities and villages who did not fall into the alienated 30-kilometer zone, carelessly remained in their places.
In subsequent years, there was a surge of cancer among them, mothers gave birth to thousands of freaks, and this is still observed. In total, due to the spread of radioactive contamination of the area, the authorities had to evacuate over 115,000 people who lived inside the 30-kilometer zone around the nuclear power plant. More than 600,000 people took part in the liquidation of this accident and its protracted consequences, and colossal funds were spent. The territory immediately adjacent to the Chernobyl nuclear power plant is still a restricted area, since it is unsuitable for habitation.

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4. Accident at the Fukushima-1 nuclear power plant

The crash happened on March 11, 2011. It all started with a strong earthquake and a powerful tsunami, they put out of action the backup diesel generators and the power supply system of the nuclear power plant. This led to the dysfunction of the reactor cooling system, the melting of the core in three power units of the station. During the accident, hydrogen was released, which exploded, destroying the outer shell of the reactor, but the reactor itself survived.
Due to the leakage of radioactive substances, the level of radiation quickly began to grow, because the depressurization of the shells of the fuel elements caused the leakage of radioactive cesium. Water samples were taken 30 kilometers from the station in the ocean on March 23, which showed an excess of the norms for iodine-131 and cesium-137, but the radioactivity of the water kept increasing and by March 31 exceeded the normal level by almost 4400 times, because even after the accident the water contaminated with radiation continued to seep into the ocean. It is clear that after some time, animals with outlandish genetic and physiological changes began to come across in local waters.
The spread of radiation contributed to the fish themselves, and other marine animals. Thousands of local residents had to be resettled from the radiation-contaminated area. A year later, on the coast near the nuclear power plant, radiation exceeded the norm by 100 times, so decontamination work will be carried out here for a long time.

5. Bhopal disaster

The catastrophe in Indian Bhopal turned out to be truly terrible, not only because it caused great damage to the nature of the state, but also because it claimed the lives of 18,000 inhabitants. A subsidiary of the Union Carbide Corporation was building a chemical plant in Bhopal that was originally designed to produce agricultural pesticides.
But in order for the plant to become competitive, it was decided to change the production technology towards a more dangerous and complex one, which would not require more expensive imported raw materials. But a series of crop failures led to the fact that the demand for the plant's products decreased, so its owners decided to sell the plant in the summer of 1984. The financing of the operating enterprise was curtailed, the equipment gradually wore out and ceased to meet safety standards. In the end, liquid methyl isocyanate overheated in one of the reactors, there was a sharp release of its vapors, which ruptured the emergency valve. In a matter of seconds, 42 tons of poisonous vapors entered the atmosphere, which formed a deadly cloud with a diameter of 4 kilometers over the plant and the surrounding area.
Residential areas and Train Station. The authorities did not have time to inform the population about the danger in time, and there was a critical shortage of medical staff, so on the very first day, 5,000 people died after inhaling poisonous gas. But even for a number of years after that, poisoned people continued to die, and the total number of victims of that accident is estimated at 30,000 people.

6Sandoz Chemical Disaster

One of the worst environmental disasters that caused incredible damage to nature occurred on November 1, 1986 in prosperous Switzerland. The plant of the chemical and pharmaceutical giant Sandoz, built on the banks of the Rhine near Basel, produced a variety of chemicals used in agriculture. When a severe fire broke out at the plant, about 30 tons of pesticides and mercury compounds got into the Rhine. The water in the Rhine has turned an ominous red.
The authorities forbade the inhabitants who lived on its banks to leave their homes. Downstream, in some German cities the centralized water supply had to be cut off, and drinking water was brought to residents in cisterns. Almost all fish and other living creatures died in the river, some species were irretrievably lost. Later, a program until 2020 was adopted, the goal of which was to make the waters of the Rhine suitable for bathing.

7. Disappearance of the Aral Sea

Back in the middle of the last century, the Aral was the fourth largest lake in the world. But the active withdrawal of water from the Syr Darya and Amu Darya for irrigation of cotton and other crops led to the fact that the Aral Sea began to quickly become shallow, divided into 2 parts, one of which has already completely dried up, and the second will follow its example in the coming years.
Scientists have calculated that from 1960 to 2007 the Aral Sea lost 1,000 cubic kilometers of water, which led to its reduction by more than 10 times. Previously, 178 species of vertebrates lived in the Aral Sea, and now there are only 38 of them.
For decades, agricultural waste was dumped into the Aral and settled at the bottom. Now they have turned into poisonous sand, which the wind carries fifty kilometers around, polluting the surroundings and destroying vegetation. The island of Vozrozhdenie has long since become part of the mainland, and once upon a time there was a testing ground for bacteriological weapons on it. There are graves with such deadly dangerous diseases like typhus, plague, smallpox, anthrax. Some pathogens are still alive, so they can spread to habitable zones thanks to rodents.

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8 Flixboro Chemical Plant Accident

In the British city of Flixborough, there was a Nipro plant that produced ammonium nitrate, and 4,000 tons of caprolactam, 3,000 tons of cyclohexanone, 2,500 tons of phenol, 2,000 tons of cyclohexane and many other chemicals were stored on its territory. But the various process tanks and spherical tanks were underfilled, which increased the danger of an explosion. In addition, under high pressure and high temperature the factory reactors contained a variety of flammable materials.
The administration sought to increase the productivity of the plant, but this reduced the effectiveness of fire extinguishing equipment. The company's engineers were often forced to turn a blind eye to deviations from the technological regulations, to neglect safety standards - a familiar picture. Finally, on June 1, 1974, the plant was shaken by a powerful explosion. Instantly, the production facilities were engulfed in flames, and the shock wave from the explosion swept through the surrounding settlements, shattering windows, ripping off roofs from houses and maiming people. Then 55 people died. The power of the explosion was estimated at 45 tons of TNT. But worst of all, the explosion was accompanied by the appearance big cloud toxic fumes, because of which the authorities had to urgently evacuate the inhabitants of some neighboring settlements.
The damage from this man-made disaster was estimated at 36 million pounds - it was the most expensive emergency for British industry.

9 Piper Alpha Oil Rig Fire

In July 1988, a major disaster occurred on the Piper Alpha platform, which was used for oil and gas production. Its consequences were exacerbated by the indecisive and ill-considered actions of the personnel, due to which 167 out of 226 people working on the platform died. For some time after the accident, oil products continued to flow through the pipes, so the fire did not die out, but flared up even more. This catastrophe ended not only with human casualties, but also with great damage to the environment.

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10. The explosion of an oil platform in the Gulf of Mexico

On April 20, 2010, an explosion occurred on the Deep Water Horizon oil platform, owned by British Petroleum and located in the Gulf of Mexico, which caused a huge amount of oil to be thrown out of an uncontrolled well into the sea for a long time. The platform itself plunged into the waters of the Gulf of Mexico.
Experts were only able to roughly estimate the volume of spilled oil, but one thing is clear - this catastrophe has become one of the most terrible for the biosphere, not only the coast of the Gulf of Mexico, but also the waters Atlantic Ocean. Oil poured into the water for 152 days, 75,000 sq. km of the waters of the bay were covered with a thick oil film. All the states whose coast goes to the Gulf of Mexico (Louisiana, Florida, Mississippi) suffered from pollution, but Alabama got the most.
About 400 species of rare animals were endangered, and thousands of seabirds and amphibians died on the oil-filled shores. The Office of Specially Protected Resources reported that there was an outbreak of mortality among cetaceans in the bay following the oil spill.

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October 13 marks the International Day for Natural Disaster Reduction - which is no reason to remember the most terrible and deadly natural disasters in the history of mankind.

Earthquake in Syria. 1202

The earthquake of 1202, whose epicenter was in the Dead Sea, was not so much powerful as long and large-scale - it was felt in the vast territory located between Syria and Armenia. The exact number of deaths is unknown - in the XIII century, no one counted the population, but even according to the most conservative estimates, the earthquake claimed the lives of more than a million people.

Earthquake in China. 1556

One of the most destructive earthquakes in the history of mankind - in China - occurred on January 23, 1556. Its epicenter was located in the region of the right tributary of the Yellow River - Weihe, and it affected 97 districts in several Chinese provinces. The earthquake was accompanied by landslides, landslides and changes in river beds, which, in turn, led to floods, and the destruction of houses and temples led to strong fires. As a result of the disaster, the soil liquefied and pulled buildings and people underground, its impact was felt even at a distance of 500 kilometers from the epicenter. The earthquake killed 830 thousand people.

Earthquake and tsunami in Portugal. 1755

The infamous Lisbon earthquake began on November 1, 1755 at nine o'clock in the morning - only twenty minutes had passed from the first tremors in the sea to the moment when a 15-meter tsunami covered the central embankment of the city. Most of its inhabitants were in the service in churches - they celebrated All Saints' Day, so they had no chance of salvation. Fires broke out in Lisbon and lasted for ten days. In addition to the capital, sixteen more Portuguese cities were affected, and neighboring Setúbal was almost completely washed away by the tsunami. From 40 to 60 thousand people became victims of the earthquake. Such architectural gems as the Opera House and the Royal Palace, as well as the picturesque masterpieces of Caravaggio, Titian and Rubens, were lost.

Great hurricane. 1780

The Great Hurricane, or Hurricane San Calixto II, is the most powerful and deadly tropical cyclone in human history. It originated in early October 1780 in the area of ​​the Cape Verde Islands and raged for a week. On October 10, at a speed of 320 kilometers per hour, San Calixto II hit Barbados, Martinique, St. Lucia and St. Eustatius, leaving thousands of dead everywhere. The islands of Dominica, Guadeloupe, Antigua and St. Kitts also suffered. The great hurricane razed houses to the ground and tore ships off their anchors and smashed against rocks, and heavy cannons flew in the air like matches. In terms of human casualties, a total of 27,000 people died during the rampage of San Calixto II.

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History knows several eruptions of the Krakatoa volcano, but the one that happened on August 27, 1883 turned out to be the most destructive. Then, as a result of the most powerful explosion in the history of mankind, 20 cubic kilometers of stones and ash and a jet of steam 11 meters high literally blew apart a volcanic island in the Sunda Strait - between the islands of Java and Sumatra. The shock waves went around the globe seven times and formed a 36-meter-high tsunami that hit the coast - it claimed the lives of 36 thousand people. In total, as a result of the eruption of Krakatoa, 200 thousand people died.

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Several floods in China at once, which followed one after another, claimed a total of 4 (!) Million lives. Historians believe that this is the largest and most tragic natural disaster in the history of mankind. In August 1931, the Yangtze and Yellow Rivers, overflowing their banks as a result of prolonged rains, destroyed the dams holding them back and flowed, sweeping away everything in their path. The water completely destroyed Agriculture in several dozen provinces, and the city of Gaoyu, located on the shore of the lake, was completely washed away. But the worst of all were human sacrifices: those who did not die from water died from devastation, famine and epidemics.

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May 31, 1970 due to an earthquake, the epicenter of which was in pacific ocean, a stone-ice avalanche broke away from Mount Huascarana in Peru and, moving at a speed of a thousand kilometers per hour, covered the towns of Ranragirk and Yungay, located in the valley of the Rio Santa River - only a cemetery with a figure of Christ hovering above it remained of them. In just a few minutes, the avalanche wiped them and several other small villages, including the ports of Kasma and Chimbote, off the face of the earth. The result of the cataclysm: 70 thousand dead, among whom were Czech climbers who were going to conquer the Andes, and 150 thousand wounded. The memory of those whose lives were claimed by the avalanche was honored in Peru with eight days of mourning.

Cyclone Bhola. 1970

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George Harrison at a charity concert in Bangladesh.

Tropical cyclone Bhola is one of the worst natural disasters of the 20th century. On November 13, 1970, a wave 15 (!) meters high hit the islands and coast of East Pakistan, washing away entire settlements and agricultural land in its path. In a short time, 500 thousand people died - mostly elderly people and children. The catastrophe had political consequences: riots began, the participants of which accused the Pakistani government of inaction and slow elimination of the consequences. A civil war broke out between East Pakistan and the central government, resulting in the independence of Bangladesh.

The whole world helped to restore the affected territories. One of the most famous charity events was a concert organized by George Harrison: by inviting many famous performers, he raised a quarter of a million dollars in one day.

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Heat in Europe. 2003

The heat wave that swept the continent in 2003 - the hottest summer since the end of World War II - took the health care system by surprise European countries, which turned out to be unprepared for loads when in medical care needed not tens, but hundreds and thousands of people. Countries such as France, Austria, Italy, Hungary, Croatia and Bulgaria were particularly affected. The temperature in some areas did not fall below +40°C. Elderly people were the first to be hit, as well as allergy sufferers and those who suffered from cardiovascular diseases. In total, about 70 thousand people died on the European continent that summer.

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Tsunami in the Indian Ocean. 2004

Along with the European heat of 2003, many people remember the tsunami in the Indian Ocean, which happened a year and a half later - Ukrainian citizens were among the dead. The deadly wave was the result of the largest in history indian ocean earthquake that occurred on December 26, 2004. Its magnitude on the Richter scale was 9 points, as a result of which a tsunami was formed, the height of which in the coastal zone was 15 meters, and in the splash zone - 30 meters. An hour and a half after the earthquake, she reached the shores of Thailand, two later - Sri Lanka and India, and claimed the lives of 250 thousand people.

Today, the attention of the whole world is drawn to Chile, where a large-scale eruption of the Calbuco volcano began. The time has come to remember 7 biggest natural disasters recent years to know what we can expect in the future. Nature steps on people, as people used to step on nature.

Calbuco volcano eruption. Chile

Mount Calbuco in Chile is a fairly active volcano. However, its last eruption took place more than forty years ago - in 1972, and even then it lasted only one hour. But on April 22, 2015, everything changed for the worse. Calbuco literally exploded, starting the ejection of volcanic ash to a height of several kilometers.

On the Internet you can find a huge number of videos about this amazingly beautiful sight. However, it is pleasant to enjoy the view only through a computer, being thousands of kilometers from the scene. In reality, being near Calbuco is scary and deadly.

The Chilean government decided to resettle all people within a radius of 20 kilometers from the volcano. And this is only the first step. It is not yet known how long the eruption will last and what real damage it will bring. But it will definitely be a sum of several billion dollars.

Earthquake in Haiti

On January 12, 2010, Haiti suffered a catastrophe of unprecedented proportions. There were several tremors, the main of which had a magnitude of 7. As a result, almost the entire country was in ruins. Even the presidential palace, one of the most majestic and capital buildings in Haiti, was destroyed.

According to official figures, more than 222,000 people died during and after the earthquake, and 311,000 were injured to varying degrees. At the same time, millions of Haitians were left homeless.

This is not to say that magnitude 7 is something unprecedented in the history of seismic observations. The scale of destruction turned out to be so huge due to the high deterioration of the infrastructure in Haiti, and also because of the extremely low quality of absolutely all buildings. In addition, the local population itself was in no hurry to provide first aid to the victims, as well as to participate in the removal of rubble and the restoration of the country.

As a result, an international military contingent was sent to Haiti, which took over the government in the first period after the earthquake, when the traditional authorities were paralyzed and extremely corrupt.

Tsunami in the Pacific Ocean

Until December 26, 2004, the vast majority of the inhabitants of the Earth knew about the tsunami exclusively from textbooks and disaster films. However, that day will forever remain in the memory of Mankind because of the huge wave that covered the coast of dozens of states in the Indian Ocean.

It all started with a major earthquake with a magnitude of 9.1-9.3 that occurred just north of the island of Sumatra. It caused a giant wave up to 15 meters high, which spread in all directions of the ocean and hundreds of meanings from the face of the Earth. settlements, as well as world-famous seaside resorts.

The tsunami covered coastal areas in Indonesia, India, Sri Lanka, Australia, Myanmar, South Africa, Madagascar, Kenya, Maldives, Seychelles, Oman and other states on the Indian Ocean. Statisticians counted more than 300 thousand dead in this disaster. At the same time, the bodies of many could not be found - the wave carried them into the open ocean.

The consequences of this disaster are enormous. In many places infrastructure was never fully restored after the 2004 tsunami.

Eyjafjallajökull volcano eruption

The hard-to-pronounce Icelandic name Eyjafjallajokull became one of the most popular words in 2010. And all thanks to the volcanic eruption in the mountain range with this name.

Paradoxically, not a single person died during this eruption. But this natural disaster seriously disrupted business life throughout the world, primarily in Europe. After all, a huge amount of volcanic ash thrown into the sky from the Eyjafjallajökull vent completely paralyzed air traffic in the Old World. The natural disaster destabilized the lives of millions of people in Europe itself, as well as in North America.

Thousands of flights, both passenger and cargo, were cancelled. The daily losses of airlines during that period amounted to more than $200 million.

Earthquake in China's Sichuan province

As in the case of the earthquake in Haiti, a huge number of victims after a similar disaster in the Chinese province of Sichuan, which occurred there on May 12, 2008, is due to the low level of capital buildings.

As a result of the main earthquake of magnitude 8, as well as smaller concussions that followed it, more than 69,000 people died in Sichuan, 18,000 were missing, and 288,000 were injured.

At the same time, the government of the People's Republic of China severely limited international assistance in the disaster zone, it tried to solve the problem with its own hands. According to experts, the Chinese thus wanted to hide the real extent of what happened.

For publishing real data about the dead and destruction, as well as for articles about corruption, which led to such huge numbers of losses, the PRC authorities even imprisoned the most famous contemporary Chinese artist, Ai Weiwei, for several months.

Hurricane Katrina

However, the scale of the consequences of a natural disaster does not always directly depend on the quality of construction in a particular region, as well as on the presence or absence of corruption there. An example of this is Hurricane Katrina, which hit the Southeast coast of the United States in the Gulf of Mexico in late August 2005.

The main impact of Hurricane Katrina fell on the city of New Orleans and the state of Louisiana. The rising water level in several places broke through the dam protecting New Orleans, and about 80 percent of the city was under water. At that moment, entire areas were destroyed, infrastructure facilities, transport interchanges and communications were destroyed.

The population who refused or did not have time to evacuate fled on the roofs of houses. The famous Superdom stadium became the main gathering place for people. But it turned into a trap at the same time, because it was already impossible to get out of it.

During the hurricane, 1,836 people died and more than a million were made homeless. The damage from this natural disaster is estimated at 125 billion dollars. At the same time, New Orleans has not been able to return to a full-fledged normal life in ten years - the city's population is still about a third less than in 2005.

March 11, 2011 in the Pacific Ocean east of the island of Honshu, shocks with a magnitude of 9-9.1 occurred, which led to the appearance of a huge tsunami wave up to 7 meters high. She hit Japan, washing away many coastal objects and going deep into the tens of kilometers.

In different parts of Japan, after the earthquake and tsunami, fires broke out, infrastructure, including industrial ones, was destroyed. In total, almost 16 thousand people died as a result of this disaster, and economic losses amounted to about 309 billion dollars.

But this turned out to be not the worst. The world knows about the 2011 disaster in Japan, primarily because of the accident at the Fukushima nuclear power plant, which occurred as a result of the collapse of a tsunami wave on it.

More than four years have passed since this accident, but the operation at the nuclear power plant is still ongoing. And the settlements closest to it were permanently settled. So Japan got its own.

A large-scale natural disaster is one of the options for the death of our Civilization. We have collected .

Catastrophes have been known since ancient times - these are volcanic eruptions, and powerful earthquakes, and tornadoes. In the last century, there have been many disasters on the water and terrible nuclear disasters.

Worst water disasters

Man has been sailing on sailboats, boats, ships across the vastness of the oceans and seas for hundreds of years. During this time, there have been a huge number of disasters, shipwrecks and accidents.

In 1915, a British passenger liner was torpedoed by a German submarine. The ship sank in eighteen minutes, being at a distance of thirteen kilometers from the coast of Ireland. One thousand one hundred and ninety-eight people died.

In April 1944, a terrible disaster occurred in the port of Bombay. It all started with the fact that when unloading a single-screw steamer, which was loaded with gross violations of safety regulations, there was a strong explosion. It is known that the ship had one and a half tons of explosives, several tons of cotton, sulfur, wood, gold bars. After the first explosion, there was a second. The burning cotton scattered in a radius of almost a kilometer. Almost all ships, warehouses were burning, fires started in the city. It took only two weeks to put them out. As a result, about two and a half thousand people ended up in hospitals, and one thousand three hundred and seventy-six people were killed. The port was restored only after seven months.

The most famous of the disasters on the water is the death of the Titanic. Colliding with an iceberg during the first voyage, the ship sank. More than one and a half thousand people died.

In December 1917, near the city of Halifax, the French warship Mont Blanc collided with the Norwegian ship Imo. There was a strong explosion, which led to the destruction of not only the port, but also part of the city. The fact is that Mont Blanc was loaded exclusively with explosives. About two thousand people died, nine thousand were injured. This powerful explosion pre-nuclear era.

Three thousand one hundred and thirty people died on a French cruiser after a torpedo attack by a German submarine in 1916. As a result of the torpedoing of the German floating hospital "General Steuben", about three thousand six hundred and eight people died.

In December 1987, a Philippine passenger ferry named Dona Paz collided with the tanker Vector. Four thousand three hundred and seventy-five people died in the process.

In May 1945, a tragedy occurred in the Baltic Sea, which claimed the lives of about eight thousand people. The cargo ship "Tilbek" and the liner "Cap Arkona" came under fire from British aircraft. As a result of the torpedoing of the Goya ship by a Soviet submarine in the spring of 1945, six thousand nine hundred people died.

"Wilhelm Gustlov" - the so-called German passenger liner, sunk by a submarine under the command of Marinesco in January 1945. The exact number of victims is unknown, approximately - it is nine thousand people.

The worst disasters in Russia

There are several terrible catastrophes that have occurred on the territory of Russia. So, in June 1989, one of the largest railway accidents in Russia occurred near Ufa. There was a massive explosion as two passenger trains passed. An unlimited cloud of fuel-air mixture exploded, which was formed due to an accident on a nearby pipeline. According to some sources, five hundred and seventy-five people died, according to others - six hundred and forty-five. Another six hundred people were wounded.

The death of the Aral Sea is considered the worst environmental disaster in the territory of the former USSR. For a number of reasons: soil, social, biological, the Aral Sea has almost completely dried up in fifty years. Most of its tributaries in the sixties were used for irrigation and some other agricultural purposes. The Aral Sea was the fourth largest lake in the world. Since the influx fresh water decreased significantly, the lake gradually died.

In the summer of 2012, a massive flood occurred in the Krasnodar Territory. It is considered the most major disaster on Russian territory. For two days in July, a five-month rainfall fell. The city of Krymsk was almost completely washed away by water. Officially, 179 people were declared dead, of which 159 were residents of Krymsk. More than 34 thousand local residents suffered.

The worst nuclear disasters

A huge number of people are exposed to nuclear disasters. So in April 1986, one of the power units of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant exploded. Radioactive substances released into the atmosphere settled on nearby villages and cities. This accident is one of the most devastating of its kind. Hundreds of thousands of people took part in the liquidation of the accident. Several hundred people died or were injured. A thirty-kilometer exclusion zone has been formed around the nuclear power plant. So far, the scale of the disaster has not been clarified.

In Japan in March 2011, an explosion occurred at the Fukushima-1 nuclear power plant during an earthquake. Because of this, a large amount of radioactive substances entered the atmosphere. At first, officials hushed up the scale of the disaster.

After Chernobyl disaster The most significant nuclear accident is considered to have occurred in 1999 in the Japanese city of Tokaimura. An accident occurred at a uranium processing plant. Six hundred people were exposed to radiation, four people died.

The worst disaster in human history

The explosion of an oil platform in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010 is considered the most destructive catastrophe for the biosphere in the entire history of mankind. The platform itself went under water after the explosion. As a result, a huge amount of oil products got into the oceans. The spill lasted one hundred and fifty-two days. The oil film covered an area equal to seventy-five thousand square kilometers in the Gulf of Mexico.

In terms of the number of victims, the largest disaster is considered to be that in December 1984, the year occurred in India in the city of Bhapol. There was a chemical leak at one of the factories. Eighteen thousand people died. Until now, the causes of this catastrophe have not been fully elucidated.

It is impossible not to say about the most terrible fire that occurred in London in 1666. The fire spread at lightning speed throughout the city, about seventy thousand houses were destroyed, about eighty thousand people died. The fire continued for four days.

Terrible are not only disasters, but also entertainment. The site has a rating of the scariest rides in the world.
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Man-made disasters often occur as a result of natural disasters, but also because of worn-out equipment, greed or inattention. Their memory serves important lesson for humanity, because natural disasters can harm us, but not the planet, but 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 a story that took place 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 largest accident in the history of 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.