What was the one natural disaster in the world that claimed the most lives?

robboy

This one, again, is my favorite. Personally, I believe it was an asteroid impaction rather than volcanic action, but whatever it was happened about 65 million years ago and decimated virtually all life on earth. http://www.cotf.edu/ete/modules/msese/dinosaur.html Jul 18 04, 11:36 AM

Arpeggionist

If you're refering to the most human lives, it would be the explosion of Mt. Tambora in 1815(?). Somewhere in the area of 95,000 people lost their lives as a direct result of the explosion of that volcano. Jul 18 04, 12:35 PM

kevinatilusa

There have been worse. A 1201 earthquake in Egypt killed 1.1 million, according to http://www2.worldbook.com/wc/popup?path=features/earthquakes&page=html/mostdeadly.htm&direct=yes and I wouldn't be too surprised if some flood did even worse. [Jul 18 04 7:59 PM] kevinatilusa writes: http://across.co.nz/ChineseNoah.htm gives that a 1931 Chinese flood killed 3.7 million. There may be worse before the 20th century. [Jul 20 04 12:03 AM] kevinatilusa writes: Still thinking about this... In large part the answer could also depend on what constitutes a disaster (time span, etc.). The Spanish Flu around the time of WWI killed 20,000,000 or so, and the Black Death of the 14th century probably killed a comparible amount. I think even the China figure I cited above includes those killed in the famine resulting from the flood. Jul 18 04, 6:57 PM