1864 Calcutta Cyclone | |
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| Total costs | N/A |
| Deaths | 60000 |
On October 5, 1864, most of the areas of Calcutta (present-day Kolkata), India was inundated and destroyed by a tropical cyclone. Dubbed the 1864 Calcutta cyclone, the storm caused over 60,000 fatalities in its wake. The cyclone crossed the coast of West Bengal to the south of Hooghly River, one of the streams that are included in the Ganges River Delta. The majority of the deaths were from drowning and the others from sicknesses prevailing before the storm. The said river overflowed due to a storm surge and as the water rushed inland, everything in its course were washed away. The city, the other surrounding areas, and some harbors had to be rebuilt after the cyclone. There was also fundraising event established, but it failed. The total damages from the said storm were at Rs 99,200.
Source: Wikipedia 1257 Mount Samalas | |
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| Total costs | N/A |
| Deaths | 20000 |
In 1257, a catastrophic eruption occurred at the Samalas volcano on the Indonesian island of Lombok. The event had a probable Volcanic Explosivity Index of 7, making it one of the largest volcanic eruptions during the current Holocene epoch. It created eruption columns reaching tens of kilometres into the atmosphere and pyroclastic flows that buried much of Lombok and crossed the sea to reach the neighbouring island of Sumbawa. The flows destroyed human habitations, including the city of Pamatan, which was the capital of a kingdom on Lombok. Ash from the eruption fell as far as 340 kilometres (210 mi) away in Java; the volcano deposited more than 10 cubic kilometres (2.4 cu mi) of rocks and ash. The eruption was witnessed by people who recorded it on the Babad Lombok, a document written on palm leaves. It left behind a large caldera that contains Lake Segara Anak. Later volcanic activity created more volcanic centres in the caldera, including the Barujari cone, which remains active. The aerosols injected into the atmosphere reduced the solar radiation reaching the Earth's surface, causing a volcanic winter and cooling the atmosphere for several years. This led to famines and crop failures in Europe and elsewhere, although the exact scale of the temperature anomalies and their consequences is still debated. The eruption may have helped trigger the Little Ice Age, a centuries-long cold period during the last thousand years. Before the site of the eruption was known, an examination of ice cores around the world had found a large spike in sulfate deposition around 1257, providing strong evidence of a large volcanic eruption having occurred somewhere in the world. In 2013, scientists linked the historical records about Mount Samalas to these spikes.
Source: Wikipedia
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