What was the worst catastrophe ever

Natural catastrophes accounted for perils and 85 were man-made. Scales six and seven designate full meltdowns, where the nuclear fuel reactor core overheats and melts. Partial meltdowns, in which the fuel is damaged, are rated four or five. The Chernobyl accident in the former Soviet Union is the only other incident to rate a seven. The Chernobyl incident killed 56 people directly and thousands of others indirectly through cancer and other diseases. The incident released high amounts of radiation and caused widespread evacuations in affected areas but only one death to date.

Malalas attributed the disaster to the wrath of God and reported that fires destroyed everything in Antioch that the earthquake did not. According to a paper in The Medieval History Journal , the death toll was higher than it would have been at other times of the year because the city was full of tourists celebrating Ascension Day — the Christian feast that commemorates Jesus' ascension into heaven.

Related: How are earthquakes measured? The earthquake, which struck north central China's Haiyuan County on Dec. It was reportedly a 7.

There are also discrepancies in the number of lives lost. The USGS reported total casualties of ,, but according to a study by Chinese seismologists, the death toll could have been as high as , The region's high deposits of loess soils porous, silty sediment that's very unstable triggered massive landslides which were responsible for over 30, of these deaths, according to a study published in the journal Landslides. The hurricane's wind speeds and category are not known, as is the case for many storms that took place before the 20th century.

About 20, ships and vessels were destroyed, along with the lives of an estimated , people. Tying the Coringa cyclone as the sixth deadliest natural disaster is the typhoon that hit the port city of Haiphong in northeastern Vietnam on October 8. This storm is also believed to have killed an estimated , people. The catastrophic magnitude 7. Related: Haiti could be in new earthquake cycle, scientists say. Haiti's standing as one of the poorest countries in the Western Hemisphere and its limited history of large earthquakes left it extremely vulnerable to damages and loss of life.

As many as 3 million people were affected by the quake. As of now, the Chinese flood of the Yangzi and Huai rivers was the worst flood, killing somewhere between a million and 4 million people. Following a drought, the floodwaters took over an area about the size of England. Dangerous floods affected other waterways throughout the country, too.

There was an intense outbreak of illnesses, overcrowding, and a lack of food following the flood. The worst earthquake ever is yet another Chinese catastrophe, but this one happened way back in in Shaanxi province. In case you were wondering, on the other side of the globe, the worst hurricane ever was the Great Hurricane of In more recent history, the worst was Hurricane Mitch in The deadliest tsunami in history was the Indian Ocean tsunami in , which smashed over areas such as the Nicobar Islands, Burma, Indonesia, and parts of Sri Lanka.

In , the earthquake in Haiti killed , people. In that event, an estimated , people were killed though other estimates suggest higher death tolls. Second deadliest was the earthquake that affected Haiti in January There were , fatalities reported in that event. The earthquake in Haiti in was also the deadliest earthquake to occur between and , according to a ranking of great earthquakes by death toll published by the United States Geological Survey USGS.

It was the worst earthquake to hit the Caribbean in years, with a magnitude of 7. High population density was also to blame for the fatalities. In response to the earthquake, Haiti received , pounds of food aid from the United States in The United States donated 1.

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