We can watch online terrible disasters The video is not for the faint of heart. Man-made, air, natural, cataclysms, accidents, marine and much more on the topic of catastrophic events around the world are waiting for fans of terrible shots.
No one is safe from emergencies, in every country, in every city, under water and on land, something incredible can happen that can even claim the lives of thousands of people. A person considers himself the conqueror of the four elements, but nature has its own opinion on this matter and it does not miss a chance to prove it.
Here we have collected from YouTube videos of disasters from around the world, you can watch online. You will not find such terrible shots anywhere else. You can find a large list of videos not for the faint of heart with us for free. Each video is available without registration and especially without a virus. All content is in Russian. You must understand that these scary shots will change your mood and look at a safe life. Plane crashes, train accidents, explosions at nuclear power plants, natural disasters - we have it all.
Watch all the most terrible disasters in Russia and around the world online. No one is immune from such complex life situations. This is usually referred to as force majeure. All the freshest and newest published for you. On our resource you can watch YouTube videos with disasters. And these shots will give you the creeps.
It is difficult to enjoy watching scary emergencies, but to find useful information You can still. Both on land and in the air, danger is everywhere. And not always it depends on the human factor. We trust our lives to professionals, and sometimes some of us are unlucky.
We recommend watching the online video of the disaster, not for the faint of heart, in order to understand the fragility and price of our life. On our resource, this can be done absolutely free of charge, and only here you will find the most popular and most relevant YouTube videos about the most incredible cataclysms, emergencies and incidents in the world.
You don't have to wait for a TV show with the most breaking news, you will find all the most popular and exciting and shocking videos of disasters with us.
Watch videos of emergencies. The most impressive maritime emergencies and accidents on land will show you how helpless a person can be in such situations.
If you are afraid to fly on planes and ride trains, then we recommend watching free videos of shipwrecks and railway catastrophes another time. Well, for the most daring and fearless, we have a selection of the most terrible tragedies and plane crashes in which people and animals suffered.
If you think that by refusing to fly and travel by transport, you can protect yourself from trouble, then you are very mistaken in this. To make sure that this is true, we suggest you watch videos about natural anomalies and natural disasters without registration and you will understand that the world is very dangerous.
It is terrible to realize how much evil man has done to himself and the planet on which he lives. Most of the damage has been done by large industrial corporations that don't think about the level of danger of their activities in order to make a profit. And it is especially scary that the catastrophes also occurred as a result of tests of various types of weapons, including nuclear ones. We offer 15 of the biggest disasters in the world caused by man.
15. Castle Bravo (March 1, 1954)
The United States conducted a nuclear test in March 1954 at Bikini Atoll, off the Marshall Islands. It was a thousand times more powerful than the explosion on Hiroshima, Japan. This was part of an experiment by the US government. The damage caused by the explosion was catastrophic for the environment over an area of 11265.41 km2. 655 representatives of the fauna were destroyed.
14. Disaster in Seveso (July 10, 1976)
An industrial disaster near Milan, Italy, was caused by the release of environment toxic chemicals. During the production cycle, when receiving trichlorophenol, a dangerous cloud of harmful compounds entered the atmosphere. The release instantly had a detrimental effect on the flora and fauna of the territory adjacent to the plant. The company concealed the fact of leakage of chemicals for 10 days. Cases of cancer have increased, as was later proven by studies of dead animals. Residents small town Seveso began to experience frequent cases of cardiac pathologies, respiratory diseases.
The meltdown of part of a nuclear reactor on Three Mile Island, Pennsylvania, USA, released an unknown amount of radioactive gases and iodine into the environment. The accident was due to a series of human errors and mechanical failures. There was much debate about the scale of pollution, but the authorities withheld specific figures so as not to raise a panic. They argued that the release was insignificant and could not harm the flora and fauna. However, in 1997, the data was re-examined, and it was concluded that those who lived near the reactor had 10 times more manifestations of cancer and leukemia than others.
12. Oil spill from the tanker Exxon Valdes (March 24, 1989)
An accident on an Exxon Valdez tanker released a huge amount of oil into the ocean off Alaska, polluting 2,092.15 km of coastline. As a result, irreparable damage to the ecosystem was caused. And to date, it has not been restored. In 2010, the US government claimed that 32 species were harmed. wildlife and only 13 species have been restored. Could not restore the subspecies of killer whales and Pacific herring.
Explosion and flooding oil platform Deepwater Horizon in the Gulf of Mexico at the Macondo field led to the fact that there was a leak of oil and gas in the amount of 4.9 million barrels. According to scientists, this accident was the largest in US history and claimed 11 lives of platform workers. The inhabitants of the ocean were also harmed. Until now, violations of the ecosystem of the bay are noted.
10 Love Canal Disaster (1978)
In Niagara Falls, New York, about a hundred houses and a local school were built on the site of an industrial and chemical waste dump. Over time, the chemicals seeped into the upper layers of the soil and water. People began to notice that some black swampy spots appeared near the houses. When they did the analysis, they found the content of eighty-two chemical compounds, eleven of which were carcinogenic. Among the diseases of the inhabitants of the Love Canal, such serious diseases as leukemia began to appear, and 98 families had children with serious pathologies.
9. Chemical pollution in Anniston, Alabama (1929-1971)
In Anniston, in the area where the agricultural and biotech giant Monsanto first produced cancer-causing substances, they were inexplicably released into Snow Creek. The population of Anniston suffered greatly. As a result of exposure, the percentage of diabetes and other pathologies has increased. In 2002, Monsanto paid $700 million in damages and rescue work..
During the military conflict in the Persian Gulf in Kuwait, Saddam Hussein set fire to 600 oil wells to create a poisonous smoke screen for as much as 10 months. It is believed that between 600 and 800 tons of oil burned daily. About five percent of the territory of Kuwait was covered with soot, livestock died from lung disease, and the number of cancer cases increased in the country.
7. Zilin chemical plant explosion (November 13, 2005)
There were several powerful explosions at the Zilin Chemical Plant. A huge amount of benzene and nitrobenzene, which has a detrimental toxic effect, was released into the environment. The disaster resulted in the death of six people and the injury of seventy.
6 Pollution Times Beach, Missouri (December 1982)
The spraying of oil containing toxic dioxin led to the complete destruction of small town in Missouri. The method was used as an alternative to irrigation to keep dust off the roads. The situation worsened when, as a result of flooding the city with the waters of the Meremek River, toxic oil spread along the entire coast. Residents were exposed to dioxin and reported immune and muscle problems.
For five days, smoke from coal burning and factory emissions covered London in a dense layer. The fact is that cold weather has come and the residents massively began to heat the stoves with coal to warm the houses. A combination of industrial and public air emissions resulted in thick fog and poor visibility, and 12,000 people died from inhaling toxic fumes.
4 The Poisoning Of Minamata Bay, Japan (1950s)
In 37 years of plastics production, the petrochemical company Chisso Corporation has dumped 27 tons of the metal mercury into the waters of Minamata Bay. Because the inhabitants used it to fish, unaware of the chemical spills, the mercury-poisoned fish caused serious health damage to babies born to mothers who ate fish from the Minamata, and killed more than 900 people in the region.
3. Bhopal Disaster (December 2, 1984)
On radiation contamination as a result of a nuclear reactor accident and a fire at Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Ukraine the whole world knows. It has been called the worst disaster in the world nuclear power plant in history. About a million people died due to the consequences of a nuclear disaster, mainly from cancer and due to exposure to high level radiation.
After the 9-magnitude earthquake and tsunami that hit Japan, the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant was left without power and lost the ability to cool nuclear reactors. This led to radioactive contamination large area and water areas. About two hundred thousand residents were evacuated due to fear of serious illnesses as a result of exposure. The disaster once again made scientists think about the dangers of atomic energy and the need to develop
Humanity will never forget about the accident on the Deepwater Horizon oil platform. The explosion and fire happened on April 20, 2010, 80 kilometers from the coast of Louisiana, at the Macondo field. The oil spill was the largest in US history and effectively ruined the Gulf of Mexico. We remembered the largest man-made and environmental disasters in the world, some of which are almost worse than the Deepwater Horizon tragedy.
Could the accident have been avoided? Technogenic disasters often occur as a result of natural disasters, but also because of worn-out equipment, greed, negligence, inattention ... The memory of them serves as an important lesson for humanity, because natural disasters can harm people, but not the planet, but technogenic threaten absolutely the whole world around.
15. Explosion at a fertilizer plant in the city of West - 15 victims
On April 17, 2013, an explosion occurred at a fertilizer plant in West Texas. The explosion occurred at 19:50 local time and it completely destroyed the plant, which belonged to the local company Adair Grain Inc. The explosion destroyed a school and a nursing home located next to the plant. About 75 buildings in the city of West were seriously damaged. The explosion killed 15 people, about 200 people were injured. Initially, there was a fire at the plant, and the explosion happened at the moment when firefighters were trying to cope with the fire. At least 11 firefighters have died.
According to eyewitnesses, the explosion was so strong that it could be heard about 70 km from the plant, and the US Geological Survey recorded ground vibrations of magnitude 2.1. "It was like an explosion atomic bomb", - eyewitnesses said. Residents of a number of areas near West were evacuated due to the leakage of ammonia used in the production of fertilizers, the authorities warned everyone about the leakage of toxic substances. A no-fly zone was introduced over West at an altitude of up to 1 km. The city resembled a war zone. ..
In May 2013, a criminal case was opened on the fact of the explosion. The investigation revealed that the company had been storing the chemicals that caused the explosion in violation of safety requirements. The U.S. Chemical Safety Committee found that the company had failed to necessary measures to prevent fire and explosion. In addition, at that time there were no regulations that would prohibit the storage of ammonium nitrate near populated areas.
14. Flooding of Boston with molasses - 21 victims
The molasses flood occurred in Boston on January 15, 1919, after a giant molasses tank exploded in Boston's North End, sending a wave of sugary liquid through the streets of the city. high speed. 21 people died, about 150 were hospitalized. The disaster occurred at the Purity Distilling Company distillery during Prohibition (fermented molasses was widely used to produce ethanol at the time). On the eve of the introduction of a complete ban, the owners tried to have time to make as much rum as possible ...
Apparently, due to metal fatigue in an overflowing tank with 8700 m³ of molasses, sheets of metal connected by rivets dispersed. The ground trembled, and a wave of molasses up to 2 meters high poured into the streets. The pressure of the wave was so great that it moved the freight train off the tracks. Nearby buildings were flooded to a meter high, some collapsed. People, horses, dogs got stuck in a sticky wave and died from suffocation.
A Red Cross mobile hospital was deployed in the disaster zone, a US Navy unit entered the city - the rescue operation lasted a week. The molasses was removed with sand, which absorbed the viscous mass. Although the factory owners blamed the anarchists for the explosion, the townspeople secured payments totaling $600,000 (today about $8.5 million) from them. According to Bostonians, even now, on hot days, a sugary smell of caramel emanates from old houses ...
13. Explosion at the Phillips chemical plant in 1989 - 23 victims
The explosion at the Phillips Petroleum Company chemical plant occurred on October 23, 1989, in Pasadena, Texas. Due to the oversight of employees, a large leak of combustible gas occurred, and there was powerful explosion equivalent to two and a half tons of dynamite. A tank of 20,000 gallons of isobutane gas exploded and the chain reaction caused 4 more explosions.
During scheduled maintenance, the air ducts on the valves were accidentally closed. Thus, the control room displayed that the valve was open, while it was as if it were closed. This led to the formation of a cloud of steam, which exploded from the slightest spark. The initial explosion was recorded as 3.5 on the Richter scale and fragments of the explosion were found within a radius of 6 miles from the explosion.
Many of the fire hydrants failed, and the water pressure in the remaining hydrants dropped dramatically. It took firefighters more than ten hours to bring the situation under control and completely extinguish the flames. 23 people died and 314 were injured.
12. Fire at the pyrotechnic factory in Enschede in 2000 - 23 victims
On May 13, 2000, as a result of a fire at the pyrotechnic factory S.F. Fireworks in the Dutch city of Enschede (Enshede) was an explosion, killing 23 people, including four firefighters. The fire started in the central building and spread to two full containers of fireworks illegally stored outside the building. Several subsequent explosions occurred with the largest explosion felt as far away as 19 miles.
During the fire, a significant part of the Rombek district burned down and was destroyed - 15 streets were burned, 1,500 houses were damaged, and 400 houses were destroyed. In addition to 23 deaths, 947 people were injured and 1,250 people were left homeless. Fire crews arrived from Germany to help fight the fire.
When S.F. Fireworks built a pyrotechnic factory in 1977, it was located far from the city. As the city grew, new low-cost housing surrounded the warehouses, causing horrendous destruction, injury, and death. Most of the locals had no idea that they lived in such close proximity to the fireworks warehouse.
11. Explosion at a chemical plant in Flixboro - 64 victims
An explosion occurred in Flixborough, England on June 1, 1974, killing 28 people. The accident happened at the Nipro plant, which was engaged in the production of ammonium. The disaster caused material damage for a whopping £36 million. British industry has never known such a catastrophe. The chemical plant in Flixboro has practically ceased to exist.
A chemical plant near the village of Flixborough specialized in the production of caprolactam, the starting product for synthetic fiber.
The accident happened like this: the bypass pipeline connecting reactors 4 and 6 broke, and steam began to escape from the outlets. A cloud of cyclohexane vapors was formed, containing several tens of tons of the substance. The source of ignition of the cloud was probably a torch hydrogen plant. Due to an accident at the plant, an explosive mass of heated vapors was thrown into the air, for which the slightest spark was enough to ignite. 45 minutes after the accident, when the mushroom cloud reached the hydrogen plant, there was a powerful explosion. The explosion in its destructive power was equivalent to the explosion of 45 tons of TNT, detonated at a height of 45 m.
About 2,000 buildings outside the enterprise were damaged. In the village of Amcotts, across the River Trent, 73 out of 77 houses were badly damaged. In Flixboro, located at a distance of 1200 m from the center of the explosion, 72 out of 79 houses were destroyed. 64 people died from the explosion and subsequent fire, 75 people at the enterprise and outside were injured of varying severity.
Under pressure from the owners of the Nipro company, plant engineers often deviated from the established technological regulations and ignored safety requirements. The sad experience of this disaster showed that it is necessary for chemical plants to have a high-speed automatic system fire extinguishing system, which allows to eliminate the combustion of solid chemicals no later than 3 seconds.
10 Hot Steel Spill - 35 Victims
On April 18, 2007, 32 people died and 6 were injured when a ladle containing molten steel fell at the Qinghe Special Steel Corporation plant in China. Thirty tons of liquid steel heated to 1500 degrees Celsius fell from the overhead conveyor. Liquid steel broke through the doors and windows into the adjacent room, where the shift workers were.
Perhaps the most horrifying fact that the study of this catastrophe uncovered is that it could have been prevented. The immediate cause of the accident was the misuse of substandard equipment. The investigation concluded that there were a number of safety deficiencies and breaches that contributed to the accident.
When emergency services reached the crash site, they were stopped by the heat of the molten steel and were unable to reach the victims for a long time. After the steel began to cool, they found 32 victims. Surprisingly, 6 people miraculously survived this accident, and with severe burns were taken to the hospital.
9. The collapse of the train with oil in Lac-Megantic - 47 victims
The explosion of the train with oil occurred on the evening of July 6, 2013 in the town of Lac-Megantic in Quebec, Canada. A train owned by The Montreal, Maine and Atlantic Railway, carrying 74 tanks of crude oil, has derailed. As a result, several tanks caught fire and exploded. It is known about 42 dead, 5 more people are missing. As a result of the fire that engulfed the city, approximately half of the buildings in the city center were destroyed.
In October 2012, epoxy materials were used on the GE C30-7 #5017 diesel locomotive during engine repair in order to complete the repair as soon as possible. In subsequent operation, these materials collapsed, the locomotive began to smoke heavily. Leaking fuels and lubricants accumulated in the turbocharger housing, which led to a fire on the night of the crash.
The train driver was Tom Harding. At 23:00 the train stopped at Nantes station, on the main track. Tom contacted the dispatcher and reported problems with the diesel, strong black exhaust; the solution of the problem with the diesel locomotive was postponed until the morning, and the driver left to spend the night in a hotel. The train with the diesel locomotive running and dangerous goods was left overnight at an unattended station. At 23:50, the 911 service received a message about a fire on the lead diesel locomotive. The compressor was not working in it, and the pressure in the brake line was decreasing. At 00:56, the pressure dropped to such a level that the hand brakes could not hold the cars and the uncontrolled train went down the slope towards Lac Megantic. At 00:14, the train derailed at a speed of 105 km/h and ended up in the city center. Cars derailed, explosions followed, and burning oil spilled along the railroad.
People in a nearby cafe, feeling the tremors of the earth, decided that an earthquake had begun and hid under the tables, as a result, they did not have time to escape from the fire ... This railway accident became one of the deadliest in Canada.
8. The accident at the Sayano-Shushenskaya HPP - at least 75 victims
The accident at the Sayano-Shushenskaya hydroelectric power station is an industrial man-made disaster that occurred on August 17, 2009 - a "rainy day" for the Russian hydropower industry. As a result of the accident, 75 people died, serious damage was caused to the equipment and premises of the station, and electricity production was suspended. The consequences of the accident affected the ecological situation in the water area adjacent to the HPP, social and economic spheres region.
At the time of the accident, the HPP was carrying a load of 4100 MW, out of 10 hydroelectric units, 9 were in operation. At 8:13 local time on August 17, hydroelectric unit No. 2 was destroyed, with significant volumes of water flowing through the shaft of the hydroelectric unit under high pressure. The power plant personnel, who were in the engine room, heard a loud bang and saw the release of a powerful column of water.
Streams of water quickly flooded the engine room and the rooms below it. All HPP hydraulic units were flooded; short circuits(their flashes are clearly visible in the amateur video of the disaster), which disabled them.
The non-obviousness of the causes of the accident (according to the Minister of Energy of Russia Shmatko, “this is the largest and most incomprehensible hydropower accident that has ever been in the world”) caused a number of versions that were not confirmed (from terrorism to a water hammer). The most likely cause of the accident is fatigue damage studs that arose during the operation of hydroelectric unit No. 2 with a temporary impeller and an unacceptable level of vibration in 1981-83.
7. Explosion on the "Piper Alpha" - 167 victims
On July 6, 1988, the Piper Alpha oil platform in the North Sea was destroyed by an explosion. The Piper Alpha platform, installed in 1976, was the largest structure on the Piper site, owned by the Scottish company Occidental Petroleum. The platform was located 200 km northeast of Aberdeen and served as the site's oil production control center. The platform included a heliport and accommodation for 200 oilmen working in shifts. On July 6, an unexpected explosion occurred on the Piper Alpha. The fire that engulfed the platform did not even give the staff the opportunity to send an SOS signal.
As a result of a gas leak and subsequent explosion, 167 people out of 226 who were on the platform at that moment died, only 59 survived. It took 3 weeks to extinguish the fire, with strong winds (80 mph) and 70 foot waves. The final cause of the explosion could not be established. According to the most popular version, there was a gas leak on the platform, as a result of which a small spark was enough to start a fire. The accident on the Piper Alpha platform led to serious criticism and subsequent revision of the safety standards for oil production in the North Sea.
6. Fire in Tianjin Binhai - 170 victims
On the night of August 12, 2015, two explosions broke out at a container storage area in the port of Tianjin. At 22:50 local time, reports of a fire began to arrive at the warehouses of the Zhuihai company, which transports hazardous chemicals, located in the port of Tianjin. As investigators later found out, it was caused by spontaneous combustion of dried and heated summer sun nitrocellulose. Within 30 seconds of the first explosion, a second one occurred - a container of ammonium nitrate. The local seismological service estimated the power of the first explosion at 3 tons of TNT equivalent, the second at 21 tons. Firefighters arrived at the scene for a long time could not stop the spread of fire. The fires raged for several days and there were 8 more explosions. The explosions created a huge crater.
The explosions resulted in the death of 173 people, 797 injured, and 8 people are missing. . Thousands of Toyota, Renault, Volkswagen, Kia and Hyundai vehicles were damaged. 7,533 containers, 12,428 vehicles and 304 buildings were destroyed or damaged. In addition to death and destruction, the damage amounted to $ 9 billion. It turned out that three apartment buildings were built within a radius of one kilometer from the chemical warehouse, which is prohibited by Chinese law. Authorities have charged 11 officials from the city of Tianjin in connection with the bombing. They are accused of negligence and abuse of power.
5. Val di Stave, dam burst - 268 victims
In northern Italy, over the village of Stave, the Val di Stave dam collapsed on July 19, 1985. The accident destroyed 8 bridges, 63 buildings, 268 people died. After the disaster, during the investigation it was found that there was a bad Maintenance and a small margin of operational safety.
In the upper of the two dams, rainfall made the drainage pipe less efficient and clogged. Water continued to flow into the reservoir and the pressure in the damaged pipe increased, which also caused pressure on the coastal rock. The water began to seep into the soil, liquefy into mud, and weaken the banks until, finally, erosion occurred. In just 30 seconds, water and mud flows from the upper dam broke through and poured into the lower dam.
4. The collapse of the waste heap in Nambii - 300 victims
By the 1990s, Nambiya, a mining town in southeast Ecuador, had a reputation for being an "aggressive eco-environment". The local mountains were pitted with miners, riddled with holes from mining, the air is humid and filled with chemicals, toxic gases from the mine and a huge waste heap.
On May 9, 1993, much of the coal slag mountain at the end of the valley collapsed, killing about 300 people in a landslide. 10,000 people lived in the village on an area of about 1 square mile. Most of the city's houses were built right at the entrance to the mine tunnel. Experts have long warned that the mountain has become almost hollow. They said that further coal mining would lead to landslides, and after several days of heavy rains, the soil softened, and the worst predictions came true.
3. Texas explosion - 581 victims
A man-made disaster happened on April 16, 1947 in the port of Texas City, USA. A fire aboard the French ship Grandcamp detonated about 2,100 tons of ammonium nitrate ( ammonium nitrate), which led to a chain reaction in the form of fires and explosions on nearby ships and oil storage facilities.
The tragedy killed at least 581 people (including all but one of the fire brigade Texas City), more than 5,000 people were injured, 1,784 were hospitalized. The port and a significant part of the city were completely destroyed, many enterprises were razed to the ground or burned down. More than 1,100 vehicles were damaged and 362 freight cars were wrecked - property damage was estimated at $100 million. These events sparked the first class action lawsuit against the US government.
The Court found the Federal Government guilty of criminal negligence committed by government agencies and their representatives involved in the production, packaging and labeling of ammonium nitrate, aggravated by gross errors in its transportation, storage, loading and fire fighting measures. 1,394 compensations were paid out, totaling about $17 million.
2. Bhopal disaster - up to 160,000 victims
This is one of the worst man-made disasters in the Indian city of Bhopal. As a result of an accident at a chemical plant owned by the American chemical company Union Carbide, and producing pesticides, the poisonous substance methyl isocyanate was released. It was stored at the factory in three tanks partially dug into the ground, each of which could hold about 60,000 liters of liquid.
The cause of the tragedy was an emergency release of methyl isocyanate vapor, which heated above the boiling point in the factory tank, which led to an increase in pressure and a rupture of the emergency valve. As a result, on December 3, 1984, about 42 tons of toxic fumes were released into the atmosphere. A cloud of methyl isocyanate covered the nearby slums and the railway station, located 2 km away.
The Bhopal disaster is the largest in terms of the number of victims in modern history, resulting in the immediate death of at least 18 thousand people, of which 3 thousand died on the day of the accident, and 15 thousand in subsequent years. According to other sources, the total number of victims is estimated at 150-600 thousand people. The large number of victims is explained high density population, untimely informing residents about the accident, lack of medical staff, as well as adverse weather conditions - a cloud of heavy vapors was carried by the wind.
Union Carbide, responsible for the tragedy, paid the victims $470 million in an out-of-court settlement in 1987 in exchange for a waiver of claims. In 2010, an Indian court recognized seven former leaders Union Carbide India for negligence resulting in loss of life. The convicts were sentenced to two years in prison and a fine of 100,000 rupees (approximately $2,100).
1. Tragedy at the Banqiao Dam - 171,000 dead
The designers of the dam cannot even be blamed for this catastrophe, it was designed for severe floods, but this one was completely unprecedented. In August 1975, a typhoon broke through the Banqiao Dam in western China, killing about 171,000 people. The dam was built in the 1950s to generate electricity and prevent floods. Engineers have developed it with a margin of safety for a thousand years.
But on those fateful days in early August 1975, Typhoon Nina immediately produced over 40 inches of rain, more than the area's annual rainfall total in just one day. After a few more days heavy rains, the dam could not resist and was washed out on August 8.
The break of the dam caused a wave 33 feet high, 7 miles wide, which traveled at a speed of 30 miles per hour. In total, more than 60 dams and additional reservoirs were destroyed due to the destruction of the Banqiao Dam. The flood destroyed 5,960,000 buildings, killed 26,000 people immediately and another 145,000 died later as a result of famine and epidemics due to natural disaster.
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 is the most powerful explosion of the 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. Exact amount the victims are 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 most terrible environmental catastrophe within the territory of former USSR considered the death of the Aral Sea. 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 in Krasnodar Territory there was a huge flood. It is considered the largest disaster in Russia. 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 exploded Chernobyl nuclear power plant. 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 number of radioactive substances released into 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 terrible fire that took place 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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Major disasters of the 20th century. Titanic and Wilhelm Gustlow
Perhaps the most famous maritime disaster of the last century was the shipwreck of the Titanic cruise ship in 1912. As a result, 1,523 people died.
However, this disaster is far from the biggest if you look at the number of deaths. The greatest maritime disaster that has ever happened can be called the sinking of the Wilhelm Gustlov liner by a Soviet submarine during World War II (in January 1945).
According to the most conservative estimates, the losses amounted to about 9,500 people.
Holifax's Atomic Bomb
December 6, 1917. That morning, the French military transport Mont Blanc entered the harbor of the Canadian port city of Halifax, en route from New York to Bordeaux. While entering the port, the Mont Blanc collided with the Norwegian cargo steamer Imo, which was just leaving Halifax.
In the holds of the French transport was ... 3,000 tons of explosives intended for the war with Germany! As a result of the collision, a strong fire broke out on the Mont Blanc.
After unsuccessful attempts to put out the fire, the crew began to hastily evacuate the ship.
And on the embankment of the city, crowds of people who came to stare at the fire were already gathering.
At 9 o'clock in the morning there was an explosion, which the world did not know before the advent of the atomic bomb. The explosion to the bottom exposed the bay - the water under the ship seemed to part.
Dozens of ships in the port sank. Almost all port and coastal facilities within a radius of five hundred meters were literally blown away by the shock wave. More than 3,000 people died that day, 2,000 were missing, and about 9,000 people were injured.
All that remains of the bomb ship is a 100-kilogram piece of the hull that flew as far as 22 kilometers!
The only photograph of the explosion in the port of Halifax on December 6, 1917. The picture was taken from a distance of 20 km.
Major disasters of the 20th century. G Orc Hour "Maxim Gorky"
On May 18, 1935, the largest aircraft of that time, the Maxim Gorky, took off from the Moscow airfield at Khodynskoye Pole. This celestial giant was built as the flagship of a special propaganda air squadron.
The plane was amazing. Length - more than 30 meters, wingspan - 63 meters, 8 motors. The aircraft could take on board 72 passengers and crew members, which was a record figure for the aviation of those years.
On that day, 11 crew members and 36 passengers were on board the plane - employees of a Moscow aviation institute with their families. A few minutes after takeoff, an escort fighter crashed into Maxim Gorky.
The fighter pilot made a mistake in performing a complex maneuver. He was ordered specifically for the press to perform a “dead loop” around a giant aircraft ... The window dressing cost the lives of 47 people.
Major disasters of the 20th century. Superfire on a superairship
May 6, 1937 in New Jersey (USA) there was a catastrophe of the German super-airship "Hindenburg". The airship had unimaginable dimensions: length - 245 meters, diameter - about 40 meters, volume - 200 thousand cubic meters of hydrogen!
It was the biggest aircraft throughout the history of aviation.
He took on board about a hundred passengers and crew members, developed a speed of up to 140 kilometers per hour and could stay in the air for several days. The Hindenburg was on its 18th transatlantic flight from Frankfurt to New York. The landing site was Leyhurst, a suburb of New York. However, during landing, a fire broke out on the airship. The flame in 34 seconds completely destroyed the "pride and greatness of Germany." The tragedy claimed the lives of 35 people. With this catastrophe began the rapid decline of the era of passenger airships.
The airship caught fire while docking with the mooring mast.
Major disasters of the 20th century. Admiral's death
But still biggest disaster in the history of aeronautics took place on April 4, 1933. During a storm in the Atlantic Ocean, the Akron airship, which belonged to Naval Forces USA. Of the 76 people on board, 73 were killed.
Akron was one of the largest airships in the world.
So he could carry five aircraft. As Akron flew past the Barnegat Lighthouse in New Jersey, a strong wind picked up. The airship sank and collapsed on impact with the water. 73 people died. Only three managed to escape. This disaster was the end point of the service of airships in the fleet. After all, the main supporter of this, Admiral Moffet, died on the Akron.
Major disasters of the 20th century. Mercedes victims
The biggest accident in the history of motor racing occurred in 1955 at Le Mans (France). A Mercedes-Benz driven by famous racer Pierre Levegh crashed into the stands at high speed and exploded. 83 people died, including Pierre Levegh.
Major disasters of the 20th century. Boeing to Boeing
On March 27, 1977, two Boeing 747s collided at Tenerife Airport (Canary Islands), killing 583 people. This plane crash was the largest in terms of the number of victims in the history of civil aviation.
And the largest plane crash in the history of Soviet aviation occurred on July 10, 1985. As a result of a crew error, the Aeroflot Tu-154 went into a tailspin and crashed near the city of Uchkuduk (Uzbekistan). All 200 people on board were killed ...
Major disasters of the 20th century. 73 seconds of Challenger
On January 28, 1986, the largest catastrophe in the history of astronautics occurred. On that day, from the spaceport at Cape Canaveral (Florida, USA) launched spaceship Challenger with seven astronauts on board. This event involved Special attention. TV broadcasters broadcast this launch directly from the cosmodrome.
The crew included two women. One of them, teacher Krista McAuliffe, was supposed to teach a geography lesson for the first time in the history of mankind while in low Earth orbit. In addition to thousands of spectators, President Ronald Reagan and his wife were also present at Cape Canaveral.
At the 73rd second of the flight, at an altitude of 17,000 meters, due to a malfunction in the engines, the Challenger exploded. Several hundred tons of rocket fuel incinerated the ship in the blink of an eye, leaving the astronauts no chance of salvation.
Fifteen years later, on February 1, 2003, another American space shuttle, the Shuttle Columbia, broke apart while returning from orbit. All seven crew members on board were killed.
Major disasters of the 20th century. Disappeared area
On June 4, 1988, a powerful deafening explosion was heard on the northwestern outskirts of the city of Arzamas.
Three wagons of freight train No. 3115 exploded, en route to Arzamas-16 from Dzerzhinsk. The wagons contained about 118 tons of explosives intended for mining enterprises. As a result of an explosion of monstrous force, 1530 residential buildings, a huge funnel with a diameter of 52 meters and a depth of 26 meters (the height of a nine-story building) was formed.
The blast wave lifted into the air everything in the region of half a kilometer from the epicenter. In a matter of seconds, a whole neighborhood of Zheleznodorozhnikov was wiped off the face of the earth.
According to the most rough estimates, 1,500–2,000 people suffered that day.
Major disasters of the 20th century. deadly cloud
On June 4, 1989, the largest railway accident in the history of Russia and the USSR occurred near Ufa. At the time of the passage of two passenger trains, there was an explosion of gas that oozed from the pipe of a nearby pipeline.
According to official data, 573 people died (according to other sources - 645), 623 became disabled, having received severe burns and bodily injuries. There were 181 children among the dead. The power of the explosion was estimated at 300 tons of trinitrotoluene. The fire caused by the explosion covered an area of about 250 hectares.
PS.
It is impossible not to mention another catastrophe that occurred on September 11, 2001. On the morning of this day, a group of 19 terrorists captured 4 aircraft at once. Two of them were aimed at the towers of the World shopping center, which led to the complete destruction of skyscrapers. A third plane crashed into the Pentagon near Washington, and another crashed near Shanksville, Pennsylvania. Then 246 people died in the planes. In total, as a result of the global attack of terrorists, 2977 people became victims. Footage of those events spread around the world.