CATaclysms and Other CATastrophes Quiz

Answer: Volcanic Eruption, 1815

Mount Tambora erupted in Indonesia on April 10, 1815 and caused the death of over 71,000 people in the surrounding areas as far away as Bali. It is considered the most deadly of all volcanic eruptions in recorded history for more than 200 years after it happened, and the only one with a confirmed Volcanic Explosion Index (VEI) value of 7.

The effects of the eruption were so CATastrophic worldwide, that 1816 was known as "The Year Without Summer" due to the dense fog that covered the northern hemisphere, over a year after the eruption itself. I'm sure many cats used up one of their lives in this one!

Answer: Deadly Blizzard, 1972

When you think of blizzards, you don't normally think of Iran. Nevertheless, from February 3-9, 1972, while the people of Iran were already battling a serious flu epidemic, the country was hit with what would prove to be the worst blizzard up to the beginning of the 21st century. Over 4,000 people died when an area bigger than the US state of Wisconsin (itself no stranger to blizzards) was covered in heavy snows.

Despite the efforts of rescue workers to dig survivors out, and the gifts of two tons of loaves of bread that were air-dropped on the affected area in the hope that people would have food when they finally dug themselves out, very few were able to survive the sub-zero (-13 F / -25 C) temperatures. Being a cool cat is one thing, but a frozen one is quite another!

Answer: Great Earthquake, 1556

It's surprising that as early as January 23, 1556 there could be scientific documentation confirming to modern-day experts that this earthquake that it was the worst in history. The Shaanxi Earthquake, or the Jiajang Great Earthquake (as it is also known), is the deadliest on record, killing 830,000 to 1,000,000 people in the initial quake and the aftershocks, which continued for six months after the event. Though Beijing and Shanghai were far away from the epicenter, some buildings were damaged in those cities, even at that distance.

The CATaclysmic quake destroyed an area of 520 square miles, in which up to 60% of the population was killed. I doubt many lizards, dogs, fish or cats survived this one.

Answer: Devastating Floods, 1931

Poor China! After suffering a terrible drought for two years, they had the worst flooding that humankind has recorded in history. Depending on the source, the death toll of this CATastrophic flood, which occurred from July to November in 1931, is estimated at between almost half a million people to up to four million.

The cause of the unusual flooding was a combination of ice and snow melting in the highland regions along with unusually heavy spring rains. This extra supply of water to the middle Yangtze River resulted in massive evacuations and loss of life and property.

The world community rallied around the Chinese people, with the League of Nations sending aid. Even Charles Lindbergh did aerial surveys of the affected area, which covered the equivalent of England and Scotland combined, almost 70,000 sq. miles.

The Chinese government eventually remedied the flooding problems by constructing an amazing series of dams along the Yangtze. Necessity is the mother of invention, right? I wonder if she was a cat?

Answer: Great Famine, 1959-1961

I guess because China has the most people (and cats), it also has the highest toll in terms of lives lost and otherwise affected by natural disasters. in this case, the famine had a death toll of between 15 and 43 million. Admittedly, human decisions exacerbated this disaster, but droughts and bad weather conditions also contributed. Mao Zedong, the leader of the People's Republic of China and the person behind the "Great Leap Forward" after the revolution in 1949, had instituted a number of changes in agricultural policy and practices that ended up having devastating consequences on that country. Because there was no private ownership of agricultural resources, people who had provided their own sustenance were now cultivating the land under a series of policies and practices (including "close planting", thought to allow greater production in a smaller area, and "deep planting", which was thought to take advantage of the richer sub-soils, but which actually resulted in more crop failures due to overcrowded and suffocated cultivation), which in the end did not allow the land to produce what it had before.

When the droughts, floods and other natural disasters came, public policy intensified them by what the Chinese government now accepts as 70%. To be fair, famine had been a problem in China for a while. There had been another terrible famines in 1876-1879 and 1906. After the Great Famine, the infrastructure projects pursued by the Chinese government have been largely successful at avoiding this type of famine going forward.

Answer: Meteor shower, 1490

Although this CATaclysmic event happened before the advent of scientific exactitude, it is still the largest recorded meteor shower with large loss of life ever recorded. The event is in the records of the Ming Dynasty, which are generally considered to be reliable.

In March or April of 1490, in the area surrounding Ching'yaung, up to 10,000 people lost their lives due to stones falling from the sky that weighted up to ten pounds each. Some have speculated that this meteor shower must have been the result of an asteroid disintegrating on contact with the earth's atmosphere, resulting in a shower of deadly debris.

This is probably as much as we will ever be able to determine about this disaster.

Answer: Wildfires, 1871

The Peshtigo fire was a forest fire that was the deadliest in American history. It covered an area bigger than the US state of Rhode Island and resulted in a loss of life of between 1,500-2,500 lives. Some speculate that this fire was started by an asteroid landing, but most accept that an unexpected and severe cold front that entered a slash and burn area just got out of control.

In a strange turn of events, the US government studied the conditions leading up to the Peshtigo fire to design fire bombs that caused horrific destruction when Dresden was bombed during the second world war, and were also used to calculate the extent of the damage that would be caused by the bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Those were some pretty cold-hearted cats!

Answer: Deadly avalanche, 1970

Mount Huascaran has been the site of horrible avalanches several times, but the worst of all came after an earthquake on May 31, 1970. The deluge of rocks and snow that came off of the mountain as a result of the seismic activity caused a death toll of over 20,000, the most that have been recorded in an avalanche. Because Mount Huascaran still has glacial ice, the resulting avalanche picked up an enormous amount of rocks, ice and glacial debris that showered the area with almost 100 million metric tons of water, mud and rocks. CATastrophic without a doubt.

Answer: Heat Wave, 2003

Though it may not be the worst heat wave of all time, because death tolls are hard to calculate in the absence of modern recording standards and the presence of health care data, the European Heat Wave of 2003 is one of the worst of its kind since at least 1540. France paid an exceptionally high price, and deaths all over the continent that were attributed to the disaster hit 70,000. Sustained high temperatures ranging from 103-107 degrees Fahrenheit (39.6-41.7 degrees Celsius) took a huge toll in terms of human and animal life as well as crop damage.

It even affected the life in the sea with higher oceanic and current temperatures. CATaclysmic climate change!

Answer: CATastrophic Cyclone, 1970

The Bhola Cyclone is widely accepted as the deadliest on record up to the 20th century. It claimed 500,000 lives, and resulted in inestimable property damage in the space of ten days, from formation on November 3 to the end of its rampage on November 13, 1970. Though it didn't make landfall until November 12, it wreaked havoc.

The government of East Pakistan tried to minimize the damage to the world community because of the elections that would soon be underway. When the truth got out, there were humanitarian efforts all over the world to aid those affected by the tragedy, including concerts by George Harrison and Ravi Shankar for disaster relief. Very uncool cats those politicians!