4 Strangest Disasters in History

These are some of the strangest disasters we’ve ever heard about!

Until now, we’ve talked about deadly tornadoes, hurricanes, earthquakes, plane crashes, and other terrible occurrences. Now it is time to look at the more bizarre part of the disaster world and discuss a little bit about some of the strangest disasters in history.

Maybe we are expecting fires and storms, but the things we are about to share with you in this article are disasters no one ever thought about. They are as deadly as your regular disasters, but they have some interesting circumstances that the world has never encountered until that moment.

Ready to find out what the strangest disasters are?

1. The Great Smog of London

London is a notorious place for mist and fog. But since the Industrial Revolution started, smoke started to combine with the fog, and this is how the smog, or yellow fog, was born. Most of the time, smog was as harmful as usual air pollution, but things were a little bit different in the late fall of 1952.

The cold weather, combined with the fog and coal smoke resulting from factories, created the deadliest smog ever recorded in London. Actually, this was the only instance when smog was deadly, and we are about to tell you more about it.

Starting on December 5, London was covered by thick smog for four days. This smog managed to claim the lives of 4,000 to 12,000 people and also almost destroyed the whole Smithfield cattle market. Most of the people who were affected by the effects of the deadly smog were very young children and seniors who died of bronchial asthma attacks or pneumonia.

This is undoubtedly one of the strangest disasters that ever happened, and we hope it will never be repeated.

2. Carrington Event

At this point in time, we know about solar flares, and we are well aware of their effects. They happen when too much magnetic energy accumulates on the sun’s surface and simply explodes, creating a blast of radiation. The force of the explosion is incredibly powerful, and it can be the equivalent of millions of hydrogen bombs.

The resulting solar storms can disturb the Earth’s atmosphere, and we can easily see these effects. This is also what happened in late August and early September of 1859. The planet has witnessed one of the largest solar storms ever recorded.

Known as the “Carrington Event,” named after the British astronomer Richard Carrington, it surprised the whole world because it made the sky glow with incredible auroras all around the world. For example, in Colorado, the light was so strong that people were able to read books outside at night without any additional light.

The light shows were beautiful, but the geomagnetic disturbances were fatal for the telegraph systems and broke them down. To better understand the situation, people from that time said that sparks started to come out of the telegraph machines, and this started many fires.

This was one of the strangest disasters ever recorded, and if something similar happened today, expats say that telecommunications systems would surely be affected, causing trillions of dollars in damages.

3. Boston’s Great Molasses Flood

This is definitely one of the strangest disasters in history because no one would expect to die drowning in molasses. But this actually happened on January 15, 1919, in Boston, when a molasses storage tank burst and created a deadly molasses wave.

The wave had a diameter of 15 to 40 feet and a height of 160 feet! It also had a speed of approximately 35 miles per hour and had no problem knocking down buildings, horses, automobiles, or pedestrians.

Because the temperatures were low during that time since it was winter, the molasses solidified rather quickly, and because of this, people remained trapped underneath it. This is how 21 people died of suffocation. Another 150 were injured by the wave.

4. The Tunguska Event

It was June 30, 1908, at 7 a.m. when a blinding light was seen across the sky of Siberia. Once the light arrived over the Podkamennaya Tunguska River, it exploded. This explosion was so big that the power of the shock wave could be comparable to that of 10 megatons of TNT!

Since it happened in the middle of nowhere, there were no human victims, but almost 500,000 acres of forest were destroyed. People could feel the shock wave from 40 miles away, and some of them were even swayed off their feet.

The effects of the explosion were noticed worldwide. Atmospheric and seismic devices detected something as far as England, and for the next few nights, people living in Asia were able to read outside because there was so much light.

Scientists believe that a meteor caused it, but there was no evidence found. Despite there being no sign of impact, experts still believe the event was the result of a space rock hitting the Earth.

If you want to see how people managed to survive one of the biggest disasters in America, this book might be perfect for you: The Buffalo Creek Disaster: How the Survivors of One of the Worst Disasters in Coal-Mining History Brought Suit Against the Coal Company- And Won 

You should also read: 7 Shocking Disasters in the Americas You Had No Idea About