Dangerous natural phenomena on Russian territory.

In recent months, the earth has been hit by numerous storms, torrential rains in central Europe and parts of China, tornadoes in Australia, Montana and throughout the American midwest, and severe thunderstorms in the northeastern United States. Tropical Storm Bonnie has made landfall in Florida and is heading toward the Gulf of Mexico. Because of this, oil collection in the Gulf has been temporarily stopped and the final cleanup operation will be delayed by at least a week. All these natural phenomena were destructive and deadly, but at the same time, very beautiful.

This report contains photographs of thunderclouds, lightning flashes, and disasters that these formidable elements brought with them.

A flash of lightning lights up the sky above the 2,500-year-old Parthenon Temple on the Acropolis during heavy rainfall in Athens, Greece, June 28, 2010. (AP Photo/Petros Giannakouris)

A large storm cloud moves across a field between the towns of Ross and Stanley, North Dakota, on July 12, 2010. According to eyewitnesses, just a couple of minutes later a tornado appeared from the cloud. (AP Photo/The Forum, Dave Samson)

Flashes of lightning cut through the sky over Yakvoketa, Iowa on June 18, 2010. (AP Photo/Kevin E. Schmidt, Quad-City Times)

Lightning flashes over downtown Chicago on June 23, 2010. (AP Photo/Chicago Sun Times, Tom Cruze)

Storm clouds clear over Cook Inlet, 27 miles from Anchorage, Alaska, on July 5, 2010. The photo was taken at 9:48 pm, but the sun is still high above the horizon. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast)

A massive thunderstorm moves through thickets in Kentucky on July 19, 2010. This lightning struck near Maysville, Kentucky. (AP Photo/The Ledger Independent, Terry Prather)

A farmer drives a tractor in his field in southwest Wakini, Kansas, as ominous clouds gather over the field on June 20, 2010. Northwest Kansas was hit by heavy rain, wind, hail and even isolated tornadoes. (AP Photo/The Hays Daily News, Steven Hausler)

Chris Dickey of the Metropolitan Police Department shows hailstones the size of golf balls on May 26, 2010 in Commerce City, Colorado. (AP Photo/The Denver Post, Hyoung Chang)

This photo was provided by Harry Gilway, Kimball County Sheriff. It shows a windshield damaged by hail in Kimball, Nebraska on May 24, 2010. A severe thunderstorm with rain and hail hit Nebraska, North and South Dakota. (AP Photo/Kimball County Sheriff, Harry Gillway)

Thunderclouds gather over the skyscrapers of Bangkok, Thailand, July 22, 2010. (REUTERS/Chaiwat Subprasom)

A sinkhole forms near Grand Faulks International Airport on the evening of June 17, 2010. Tornadoes were reported in the Red River Valley in North Dakota and Minnesota. (AP Photo/The Grand Forks Herald, John Stennes)

Various debris was thrown into the air by a powerful tornado that struck the coastal town of Lennox Head in Australia on June 3, 2010. A funnel with a diameter of about 300 meters swept away everything in its path. The tornado demolished 12 and seriously damaged 30 houses, 6 people were injured or injured, and thousands of people were left without power. (ROSS TUCKERMAN/AFP/Getty Images)

An airplane view of the town of Woden, Minnesota, which was hit by a tornado. Filmed June 18, 2010. (AP Photo/The Wadena Pioneer Journal, Brian Hansel)

Heaps of assorted debris lie along Main Street in Millbury, Ohio on June 6, 2010. Thunderstorms and tornadoes that tore through the Midwest killed several people in Ohio, destroyed 50 homes and destroyed a high school where graduation was to take place on Sunday, authorities said. (AP Photo/Paul Sancy)

Storm surges engulf a commercial vessel off the coast of Valparaiso in Chile, 121 km northwest of Santiago, on July 6, 2010. (REUTERS/Eliseo Fernandez)

Flashes of lightning illuminate the city of Poyang, China on July 20, 2010. In much of China, people are suffering from floods and landslides caused by heavy rains. Since the beginning of the month, at least 146 people have died, and another 40 remain missing. (REUTERS/Aly Song)

A large funnel cloud hangs over western Elbert Lee, Minnesota, in the early evening of June 16, 2010. Several tornadoes ripped through southern Minnesota and northern Iowa, some causing widespread damage, authorities said. (AP Photo/The Globe-Gazette, Arian Schuessler)

Flashes of lightning illuminate the night sky over Roswell, New Mexico on July 14, 2010. (AP Photo/Roswell Daily Record, Mark Wilson)

Casino workers fresh from a tornado stand on Main Street in Billings as a new crater forms in the sky in Montana on June 20, 2010. Many buildings were seriously damaged after the tornado touched down near the city's main street. (AP Photo/Billings Gazette, Larry Mayer)

A tornado that struck Millbury, Ohio, slammed this child's bicycle into the wall of a house so hard that it was left hanging there, June 6, 2010. (AP Photo/Paul Sancy)

Darlene Shiey inspects the remains of her kitchen after her home was destroyed by a tornado. June 7, 2010, Millbury, Ohio. (AP Photo/J.D. Pooley)

Lightning flashes over the Houses of Parliament in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, May 26, 2010. (AP Photo/The Canadian Press, Pawel Dwulit)

A flash of lightning reflects at the Hilton Hotel during a hurricane in Mexico City, Mexico, May 23, 2010. (REUTERS/Daniel Aguilar)

The photo shows how a thunderstorm gathers over New York in the rays of the setting sun. June 17, 2010. (Alain Aguilar)

Several lightning bolts lit up the sky over New York City during a thunderstorm on May 2, 2010. The photo was taken from the western part of the city, from the New Jersey area, looking across the Hudson River. (Alain Aguilar)

Thunderclouds were photographed near the Eva community in Oklahoma on May 31, 2010. (AP Photo/The Guymon Daily Herald, Shawn Yorks)

Paul Verheyen inspects his home after it was damaged during a thunderstorm and possible tornado in Leamington, Ontario, Canada on June 6, 2010. As luck would have it, Verheijen and his family were not home at the time. An uprooted tree fell on the spot where his son's crib stands. (AP Photo/Dave Chidley, The Canadian Press)

Volunteers clear debris from a field brought in by a tornado that destroyed at least 50 homes in Millbury, Ohio. (AP Photo/J.D. Pooley)

Streaks of a rainbow appear over the Antelope Valley near Pearblossom in California on July 15, 2010. (AP Photo Mike Meadows)

Tropical storm clouds gather over Havana, Cuba, July 2, 2010. (REUTERS/Desmond Boylan)

Flashes of lightning illuminate the sky above Rosenblatt Stadium during an NCAA College World Series baseball game in Omaha, Nebraska, June 20, 2010. (AP Photo/Eric Francis)

A violent storm destroyed a home on Route 109 in Fulton County, Ohio, on June 6, 2010. The house caught fire after it was struck by lightning. (AP Photo/The Toledo Blade, Dave Zapotosky)

Lightning struck a high-rise building in Foshan in southern China's Guangdong province on June 21, 2010. (AP Photo)

An airplane flies past a rainbow overlooking Easter Island Bay, 3,700 km off the coast of Chile in the Pacific Ocean, July 12, 2010. (MARTIN BERNETTI/AFP/Getty Images)

Robert Morgan fishes amid lightning flashes in the shoreline reeds of Lake Boudreaux near Cocodrie, Louisiana, on May 28, 2010. (Win McNamee/Getty Images)

Life on earth is wonderful. But is nature always as magical and fabulous as it seems? Due to man's disrespectful attitude towards nature, in return she presents terrible surprises in the form of terrible cataclysms. This article will tell you which natural phenomenon is the most terrible and which of them claim hundreds of people’s lives.

Earthquakes are considered one of the most terrible natural phenomena that can claim millions of lives. It is characterized by tremors and vibrations of the earth's surface. The earth literally cracks, leaving huge crevices on its surface.

The causes of earthquakes are the movement of tectonic plates during the geological transformation of the planet.

Types of earthquakes:

• Volcanic. Occurs as a result of tension in the volcano. Although the strength of such earthquakes is small, they are very long lasting. Sometimes such earthquakes can last for weeks or even months.
• Technogenic. Such an earthquake causes displacement of the earth's plates.
• Landslides. Occur due to landslides, which in turn arise due to underground voids.
• Artificial. Occurs when a huge number of explosive objects explode at the same time.

The most powerful earthquake occurred in China. It happened in 1556 and claimed the lives of 830 thousand people. This cataclysm destroyed all buildings and formed large cracks on the earth's surface. Also included in the top five terrible earthquakes is the incident that happened in Ganja. It happened in 1139 and claimed 230 thousand people; the earthquake had a magnitude of 11.

In 1692, after terrible earthquakes in Jamaica, the city was destroyed and almost completely flooded by the sea.

The earthquake in Haiti that occurred in 2010 caused considerable losses. This terrible cataclysm claimed the lives of about 200 thousand people, 300 thousand were injured, and 800 thousand people went missing. The earthquake lasted about 60 minutes. The material consequences have been so great that Haitians are still in need of assistance, and the buildings have not yet been fully built.

One of the most significant earthquakes in Russia was the one that immediately wiped out the entire city of Neftegorsk. Material and human losses were so high that they simply decided not to rebuild the city. The damage of this cataclysm was estimated at an unaffordable amount, because almost all the houses were destroyed.

In a matter of seconds, the 1995 earthquake in Neftegorsk claimed the lives of more than two thousand people

And a huge number of such earthquakes have been recorded on earth. Every year more and more appear. You can’t run away or hide from it, and, finding yourself in the epicenter of a cataclysm, all you can do is pray, which is why an earthquake is the most dangerous natural phenomenon.

A tornado is considered an equally dangerous natural phenomenon. An atmospheric vortex that forms from a cumulonimbus cloud can lead to the most dire consequences. A tornado column stretches from the surface of the earth and goes high into the sky, sucking into its funnel everything that stands in its path. It is possible to hide from such a natural disaster only in durable reinforced concrete structures or in underground shelters and caves. A tornado can cause fires, destroy entire villages, and cut all power lines. It can also spin a person into itself, as a result of which he will die, falling from a deadly height. In shape, this natural disaster can resemble a barrel, a pipe, but most often a funnel.

The most powerful tornado in the world was recorded in the USA in a town in Texas. The disaster occurred in 1958, the wind speed was amazing and amounted to 450 km/h. This tornado had destructive power, moving heavy cars and entire houses, and blowing away the soil surface. A tornado, which also occurred in the United States in April 1964, caused enormous material losses. The damage from this natural disaster was estimated at $15 million. The tornado killed 7 people and injured more than a hundred people. And in the city of Irving in 1879, two tornadoes swept away an entire village with its inhabitants from the face of the earth. There have also been large tornadoes in Bangladesh and other countries around the world.

Tornadoes are most common in the United States, as well as in Africa and Australia.

This natural disaster is a consequence of an earthquake. In a matter of seconds, huge waves cover entire villages with their inhabitants and all their property.

The tsunami that happened in 2004 hit the world with the most terrible consequences. This natural disaster claimed the lives of more than 230 thousand victims.

It was the deadliest wave that has ever happened on Earth. It affected 14 countries surrounded by the Indian Ocean.

Waves that reached 30 meters in height flooded the shores in a matter of minutes. In some areas there was about 7 hours to evacuate.

The 2011 tsunami that occurred in Tohuku left people in shock. Waves that reached 40 meters covered and demolished everything in their path. The tsunami damaged most buildings, roads and the Fukushima 1 nuclear power plant. This natural disaster claimed the lives of about 25 thousand people and caused serious material losses.

Due to the lack of public warning systems in 2004, most coastal residents were not warned of the impending disaster

The tsunami that happened in 1964 brought terrible consequences. That year, on March 27 in Alaska, a severe natural disaster removed the western coast of North America from the earth. This tsunami killed more than 100 people. A thirty-meter high wave covered an entire village called Chenega.

In 2009, a tsunami occurred in the Samoan Islands. A huge fifteen-meter wave claimed the lives of 189 people, including children. But major consequences were avoided thanks to timely warning and evacuation of people.

These are not all the tsunamis that claimed lives, but they are the largest. Such a natural disaster happened in Valdivia, Java, Tumaco and other cities and countries around the world.

sandstorms

Sandstorms are also one of the most terrible natural phenomena. Such a natural disaster is characterized by the movement of particles of earth, soil and large amounts of sand using the wind. A sandstorm can be a whole wall of dust in which it is impossible to see anything. Such disasters most often occur in desert areas.

The most common place for sandstorms to occur is the Sahara Desert.

It is known that once a sandstorm claimed the lives of an entire army belonging to the Persian king. In 1805, a strong sand wave covered and took the lives of an entire caravan, consisting of 2 thousand people and an equal number of camels.

It is believed that all the most terrible natural phenomena are nature’s response to man to his terrible attitude towards himself. Therefore, it is necessary to protect the environment around us and treat it with respect. If people stop harming flora and fauna, polluting forests and rivers with garbage, fogging the air with gasoline fumes, building high-rise buildings, destroying the soil of the earth, then it is quite possible that nature will stop being capricious.

Nature is truly perfect and harmonious, but harmony does not always lie in tranquility. All over the globe, natural phenomena occur from time to time that cannot be called familiar.

Ball lightning

Ball lightning most often looks like red or yellow fireballs. They disprove the laws of physics by appearing completely unexpectedly in the cabin of a flying airplane or inside a house. Lightning floats in the air for several seconds, after which it disappears without a trace.

Brainicle or "Finger of Death"

In the Arctic, very unusual icicles hang underwater, posing a danger to the inhabitants of the ocean floor. Science has already figured out the formation of such icicles. Salt from glaciers rushes to the bottom in narrow streams, freezing the sea water around it. After a few hours, such a stream, covered with a thin ice crust, begins to resemble a stalactite.
Everything that Brynicle touches dies in a matter of minutes.

"Bloody rain"

The scary name of the natural phenomenon is fully justified. It was observed in the Indian state of Kerala for a month. Bloody rains terrified all local residents.
But the truth turned out to be almost funny. It's all about the red algae that the hurricane pulled out of the ocean.

"Black Day"

In September 1938, an inexplicable natural phenomenon occurred in Yamal, which remains unsolved to this day. Suddenly the day became as dark as night. Geologists who witnessed this phenomenon described it as sudden darkness with simultaneous radio silence. Having launched several signal flares, they saw that very dense clouds were hanging close to the ground, not allowing sunlight to pass through. This eclipse lasted no more than an hour.

"Black mist"

A fog with this name envelops London from time to time. At that time, almost nothing was visible on the streets; people could only move by holding onto the walls of houses.

fire tornadoes

These phenomena occur in places of fires, when scattered fires unite into a single large fire. The air above it heats up, its density decreases, because of this the fire rises upward. This pressure of hot air sometimes reaches hurricane speed.

Sandstorm

A sandstorm occurs due to strong air flow. At least forty million tons of sand and dust are transported annually from the Sahara Desert to the Nile Basin.

Tsunami

A natural phenomenon such as a tsunami is a consequence of an earthquake. Having formed in some place, a large wave moves at tremendous speed, sometimes reaching thousands of kilometers per hour. Once in shallow water, such a wave grows ten to fifteen meters. Having washed ashore at great speed, the tsunami takes thousands of lives and causes a lot of destruction.

Tornado

A funnel-shaped flow of air is called a tornado. Tornadoes occur more often in the United States, both over water and over land. article about tsunamis and other large and destructive waves From the outside, a tornado resembles a cone-shaped cloud column. The diameter can be tens of meters. The air moves inside it in a circle. Objects that fall inside also begin to move. Sometimes the speed of such movement reaches one hundred kilometers per hour.
Earthquake


Over the past decade, earthquakes have killed seven hundred and eighty thousand people. Shocks occurring inside the earth lead to vibrations of the earth's crust. They can spread over vast areas. As a result of the most powerful earthquakes, entire cities are wiped off the face of the earth and millions of people die.

Hazardous natural phenomena mean extreme climatic or meteorological phenomena that occur naturally at one point or another on the planet. In some regions, such hazardous events may occur with greater frequency and destructive force than in others. Dangerous natural phenomena develop into natural disasters when the infrastructure created by civilization is destroyed and people themselves die.

1. Earthquakes

Among all natural hazards, earthquakes should take first place. In places where the earth's crust breaks, tremors occur, which cause vibrations of the earth's surface with the release of gigantic energy. The resulting seismic waves are transmitted over very long distances, although these waves have the greatest destructive power at the epicenter of the earthquake. Due to strong vibrations of the earth's surface, massive destruction of buildings occurs.
Since there are quite a lot of earthquakes, and the surface of the earth is quite densely built up, the total number of people in history who died precisely as a result of earthquakes exceeds the number of all victims of other natural disasters and amounts to many millions. For example, over the past decade around the world, about 700 thousand people have died from earthquakes. Entire settlements instantly collapsed from the most destructive shocks. Japan is the most earthquake-affected country, and one of the most catastrophic earthquakes occurred there in 2011. The epicenter of this earthquake was in the ocean near the island of Honshu, according to the Richter scale, the magnitude of the shocks reached 9.1 points. Powerful aftershocks and the subsequent devastating tsunami disabled the nuclear power plant in Fukushima, destroying three of the four power units. Radiation covered a large area around the station, rendering densely populated areas so valuable in Japanese conditions uninhabitable. A colossal tsunami wave turned into a mess what the earthquake could not destroy. Only officially over 16 thousand people died, to which we can safely include another 2.5 thousand who are considered missing. In this century alone, destructive earthquakes occurred in the Indian Ocean, Iran, Chile, Haiti, Italy, and Nepal.

2. Tsunami waves

A specific water disaster in the form of tsunami waves often results in numerous casualties and catastrophic destruction. As a result of underwater earthquakes or shifts of tectonic plates in the ocean, very fast but subtle waves arise, which grow into huge ones as they approach the shores and reach shallow waters. Most often, tsunamis occur in areas with increased seismic activity. A huge mass of water, quickly approaching the shore, destroys everything in its path, picks it up and carries it deep into the coast, and then carries it into the ocean with a reverse current. People, unable to sense danger like animals, often do not notice the approach of a deadly wave, and when they do, it is too late.
A tsunami usually kills more people than the earthquake that caused it (most recently in Japan). In 1971, the most powerful tsunami ever observed occurred there, the wave of which rose 85 meters at a speed of about 700 km/h. But the most catastrophic was the tsunami observed in the Indian Ocean (source - an earthquake off the coast of Indonesia), which claimed the lives of about 300 thousand people along a large part of the Indian Ocean coast.

A tornado (in America this phenomenon is called a tornado) is a fairly stable atmospheric vortex, most often occurring in thunderclouds. He's visual...

3. Volcanic eruption

Throughout its history, humanity has remembered many catastrophic volcanic eruptions. When the pressure of magma exceeds the strength of the earth's crust at the weakest points, which are volcanoes, it ends in an explosion and outpouring of lava. But the lava itself, from which you can simply walk away, is not so dangerous as the hot pyroclastic gases rushing from the mountain, penetrated here and there by lightning, as well as the noticeable influence of the strongest eruptions on the climate.
Volcanologists count about half a thousand dangerous active volcanoes, several dormant supervolcanoes, not counting thousands of extinct ones. Thus, during the eruption of Mount Tambora in Indonesia, the surrounding lands were plunged into darkness for two days, 92 thousand inhabitants died, and cold temperatures were felt even in Europe and America.
List of some major volcanic eruptions:

• Volcano Laki (Iceland, 1783). As a result of that eruption, a third of the island's population died - 20 thousand inhabitants. The eruption lasted for 8 months, during which streams of lava and liquid mud erupted from volcanic fissures. Geysers have become more active than ever. Living on the island at this time was almost impossible. The crops were destroyed and even the fish disappeared, leaving the survivors hungry and suffering from unbearable living conditions. This may be the longest eruption in human history.
• Volcano Tambora (Indonesia, Sumbawa Island, 1815). When the volcano exploded, the sound of the explosion spread over 2 thousand kilometers. Even the remote islands of the archipelago were covered with ash, and 70 thousand people died from the eruption. But even today, Tambora is one of the highest mountains in Indonesia that remains volcanically active.
• Volcano Krakatoa (Indonesia, 1883). 100 years after Tambora, another catastrophic eruption occurred in Indonesia, this time “blowing the roof off” (literally) the Krakatoa volcano. After the catastrophic explosion that destroyed the volcano itself, frightening rumbles were heard for another two months. A gigantic amount of rock, ash and hot gases were thrown into the atmosphere. The eruption was followed by a powerful tsunami with wave heights of up to 40 meters. These two natural disasters together destroyed 34 thousand islanders along with the island itself.
• Volcano Santa Maria (Guatemala, 1902). After a 500-year hibernation, this volcano woke up again in 1902, beginning the 20th century with the most catastrophic eruption, which resulted in the formation of a one and a half kilometer crater. In 1922, Santa Maria reminded itself again - this time the eruption itself was not too strong, but the cloud of hot gases and ash brought the death of 5 thousand people.

4. Tornadoes

Throughout the history of mankind, powerful earthquakes have repeatedly caused colossal damage to people and caused a huge number of casualties among the population...

A tornado is a very impressive natural phenomenon, especially in the United States, where it is called a tornado. This is an air flow twisted in a spiral into a funnel. Small tornadoes resemble slender, narrow pillars, and giant tornadoes can resemble a mighty carousel reaching towards the sky. The closer you are to the funnel, the stronger the wind speed is; it begins to drag along increasingly larger objects, up to cars, carriages and light buildings. In the “tornado alley” of the United States, entire city blocks are often destroyed and people die. The most powerful vortices of the F5 category reach a speed of about 500 km/h at the center. The state that suffers the most from tornadoes every year is Alabama.

There is a type of fire tornado that sometimes occurs in areas of massive fires. There, from the heat of the flame, powerful upward currents are formed, which begin to twist into a spiral, like an ordinary tornado, only this one is filled with flame. As a result, a powerful draft is formed near the surface of the earth, from which the flame grows even stronger and incinerates everything around. When a catastrophic earthquake occurred in Tokyo in 1923, it caused massive fires that led to the formation of a fire tornado that rose 60 meters. The column of fire moved towards the square with frightened people and burned 38 thousand people in a few minutes.

5. Sandstorms

This phenomenon occurs in sandy deserts when strong winds rise. Sand, dust and soil particles rise to a fairly high altitude, forming a cloud that sharply reduces visibility. If an unprepared traveler gets caught in such a storm, he may die from grains of sand falling into his lungs. Herodotus described the story as 525 BC. e. In the Sahara, a 50,000-strong army was buried alive by a sandstorm. In Mongolia in 2008, 46 people died as a result of this natural phenomenon, and a year earlier two hundred people suffered the same fate.

Occasionally, tsunami waves occur in the ocean. They are very insidious - in the open ocean they are completely invisible, but as soon as they approach the coastal shelf, they...

6. Avalanches

Avalanches periodically fall from snow-capped mountain peaks. Climbers especially often suffer from them. During the First World War, up to 80 thousand people died from avalanches in the Tyrolean Alps. In 1679, half a thousand people died from snow melting in Norway. In 1886, a major disaster occurred, as a result of which the “white death” claimed 161 lives. The records of Bulgarian monasteries also mention human casualties from avalanches.

7. Hurricanes

In the Atlantic they are called hurricanes, and in the Pacific they are called typhoons. These are huge atmospheric vortices, in the center of which the strongest winds and sharply reduced pressure are observed. Several years ago, the devastating Hurricane Katrina swept over the United States, which particularly affected the state of Louisiana and the densely populated city of New Orleans, located at the mouth of the Mississippi. 80% of the city's territory was flooded, and 1,836 people died. Other famous destructive hurricanes include:

• Hurricane Ike (2008). The diameter of the vortex was over 900 km, and in its center the wind blew at a speed of 135 km/h. In the 14 hours that the cyclone moved across the United States, it managed to cause $30 billion worth of destruction.
• Hurricane Wilma (2005). This is the largest Atlantic cyclone in the entire history of weather observations. The cyclone, which originated in the Atlantic, made landfall several times. The damage it caused amounted to $20 billion, killing 62 people.
• Typhoon Nina (1975). This typhoon was able to breach China's Bangqiao Dam, causing the destruction of the dams below and causing catastrophic flooding. The typhoon killed up to 230 thousand Chinese.

8. Tropical cyclones

These are the same hurricanes, but in tropical and subtropical waters, representing huge low-pressure atmospheric systems with winds and thunderstorms, often exceeding a thousand kilometers in diameter. Near the surface of the earth, winds at the center of the cyclone can reach speeds of more than 200 km/h. Low pressure and wind cause the formation of a coastal storm surge - when colossal masses of water are thrown ashore at high speed, washing away everything in its path.

Environmental disasters have their own specifics - during them not a single person may die, but at the same time a very significant...

9. Landslide

Prolonged rains can cause landslides. The soil swells, loses stability and slides down, taking with it everything that is on the surface of the earth. Most often, landslides occur in the mountains. In 1920, the most devastating landslide occurred in China, under which 180 thousand people were buried. Other examples:

• Bududa (Uganda, 2010). Due to mudflows, 400 people died, and 200 thousand had to be evacuated.
• Sichuan (China, 2008). Avalanches, landslides and mudflows caused by an 8-magnitude earthquake claimed 20 thousand lives.
• Leyte (Philippines, 2006). The downpour caused a mudslide and landslide that killed 1,100 people.
• Vargas (Venezuela, 1999). Mudflows and landslides after heavy rains (almost 1000 mm of precipitation fell in 3 days) on the northern coast led to the death of almost 30 thousand people.

10. Ball lightning

We are accustomed to ordinary linear lightning accompanied by thunder, but ball lightning is much rarer and more mysterious. The nature of this phenomenon is electrical, but scientists cannot yet give a more accurate description of ball lightning. It is known that it can have different sizes and shapes, most often they are yellowish or reddish luminous spheres. For unknown reasons, ball lightning often defies the laws of mechanics. Most often they occur before a thunderstorm, although they can also appear in absolutely clear weather, as well as indoors or in an airplane cabin. The luminous ball hovers in the air with a slight hiss, then can begin to move in any direction. Over time, it seems to shrink until it disappears completely or explodes with a roar. But the damage ball lightning can cause is very limited.

The Earth is fraught with many unusual and sometimes inexplicable phenomena, and from time to time all sorts of phenomena and even cataclysms occur throughout the globe, most of which can hardly be called ordinary and familiar to humans. Some cases have completely understandable reasons, but there are also those that even experienced scientists have not been able to explain for many decades. True, this kind of natural disasters do not happen often, only a few times during the year, but, nevertheless, humanity’s fear of them does not disappear, but, on the contrary, grows.

The most dangerous natural phenomena

These include the following types of disasters:

Earthquakes

This is a dangerous natural phenomenon in the ranking of the most dangerous natural anomalies. Ground tremors of the earth's surface, arising in places of ruptures of the earth's crust, provoke vibrations that turn into seismic waves of considerable power. They are transmitted over considerable distances, but they become strongest near the immediate focus of shocks and provoke large-scale destruction of houses and buildings. Since there are a huge number of buildings on the planet, the number of victims runs into the millions. Over all time, earthquakes have affected many more people in the world than other disasters. In the last ten years alone, more than seven hundred thousand people have died from them in different countries of the world. Sometimes the tremors reached such force that entire settlements were destroyed in an instant.

Tsunami waves

Tsunamis are natural disasters that cause a lot of destruction and death. Waves of great height and strength that arise in the ocean, or in other words, tsunamis, are the result of earthquakes. These giant waves usually occur in areas where seismic activity is significantly increased. The tsunami moves very quickly, and once it gets aground, it begins to rapidly grow in length. Once this huge fast wave reaches the shore, it can destroy everything in its path in a matter of minutes. The destruction caused by a tsunami is usually large-scale, and people who are caught by surprise by the cataclysm often do not have time to escape.

Ball lightning

Lightning and thunder are common things, but a type such as ball lightning is one of the most terrible natural phenomena. Ball lightning is a powerful electric discharge of current, and it can take on absolutely any shape. Typically, this type of lightning looks like balls of light, most often reddish or yellow in color. It is curious that these lightning completely ignore all the laws of mechanics, appearing out of nowhere, usually before a thunderstorm, inside houses, on the street or even in the cockpit of an airplane that is flying. Ball lightning hovers in the air, and does so very unpredictably: for a few moments, then it becomes smaller, and then disappears altogether. It is strictly forbidden to touch ball lightning; moving when encountering it is also undesirable.

Tornadoes

This natural anomaly is also one of the most terrible natural phenomena. Typically, a tornado is an air flow that twists into a kind of funnel. Outwardly, it looks like a columnar, cone-shaped cloud, inside of which air moves in a circle. All objects that fall into the tornado zone also begin to move. The speed of air flow inside this funnel is so enormous that it can easily lift very heavy objects weighing several tons and even houses into the air.

sandstorms

This type of storm occurs in deserts due to strong winds. Dust and sand, and sometimes soil particles carried by the wind, can reach several meters in height, and in the area where the storm breaks out, there will be a sharp decrease in visibility. Travelers caught in such a storm risk death because sand gets into their lungs and eyes.

Blood rains

This unusual natural phenomenon owes its threatening name to a strong waterspout, which sucked out particles of red algae spores from the water in reservoirs. When they mix with the water masses of a tornado, the rain takes on a terrible red hue, very reminiscent of blood. This anomaly was observed by residents of India for several weeks in a row; rain the color of human blood caused fear and panic among people.

fire tornadoes

Natural phenomena and disasters are most often unpredictable. These include one of the most terrible - a fire tornado. This type of tornado is already dangerous, but , if it occurs in a fire zone, it should be even more feared. Near several fires, when a strong wind occurs, the air above the fires begins to warm up, its density becomes less, and it begins to rise upward along with the fire. In this case, the air flows twist into peculiar spirals, and the air pressure acquires enormous speed.

The fact that the most terrible natural phenomena are poorly predicted. They often come suddenly, taking people and authorities by surprise. Scientists are working to create advanced technologies that can predict upcoming events. Today, the only guaranteed way to avoid the “vagaries” of the weather is to move to areas where such phenomena are observed as rarely as possible or have not been recorded before.