Devastating Disasters

This earthquake, magnitude 7.2, was a rare event for anywhere in California. It was caused by subduction on the part of the Gorda Tectonic Plate. On June 15, 2005, a 7.2 magnitude earthquake struck the center of the Gorda...

Hurricane Katrina was both the deadliest and the costliest hurricane in U.S. history. Hurricane Katrina was the costliest and one of the deadliest hurricanes in the history of the United States. It was the sixth strongest Atlantic hurricane ever...

Both the mountainous location and the political setting of the earthquake led to delays and massive transportation problems. An earthquake of magnitude 7.6 struck Pakistan on October 8, 2005, and, because the epicenter as well as most of the...

A sequence of disruptions to communications because of this earthquake closed down business activities for a time in many parts of Asia and North America. The 2006 Taiwan earthquake of magnitude 7.1 occurred on December 26, 2006, with an...

This devastating Greensburg tornado was an F5 tornado, rarely seen, and not previously experienced in Kansas for decades. This tornado was four miles wide at touch down and it devastated 95 percent of Greenburg. The first EF-5 tornado in...