Obscure disasters (formerly "Ever hear of Texas City Disaster...?)

[youtalkfunny]

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Bath School Disaster

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WOW! I had no idea.

[KotOD]

Is the Halifax Harbor explosion obscure enough? I know it's in the fore of Canadian history, but few people in my circle know about it.

http://www.cbc.ca/halifaxexplosion/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halifax_Explosion

http://www.damninteresting.com/?p=389#more-389

A boat carrying
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* 223,188 kilograms benzol
* 56,301 kilograms of nitrocellulose (guncotton)
* 1,602,519 kilograms of wet picric acid
* 544,311 kilograms of dry picric acid (highly explosive, and extremely sensitive to shock, heat and friction)
* 226,797 kilograms of TNT


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Runs into another and catches fire. The resulting explosion

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cubic mile of air was consumed by the terrific explosion, whose force was sufficient to annihilate the Mont-Blanc and push the sea away, exposing the harbor floor for an instant. An estimated 1,000 people were killed instantly by the blast,

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From 13 miles away:


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Two and a half square kilometers of Halifax was completely flattened by the blast.

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While it is unknown exactly how many deaths resulted from the disaster, a common estimate is 2,000...an additional 9,000 injured, of whom 6,000 were seriously injured. 1,630 homes were completely destroyed in the explosion and ensuing fires, with 12,000 more houses damaged, leaving roughly 6,000 people homeless and without shelter, and 25,000 without adequate housing. The dockyard and industrial sector was in large part gone

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The disaster had damaged buildings and shattered windows as far away as Sackville and Windsor Junction, roughly 16 kilometres (10 mi) away. Buildings shook noticeably and items fell from shelves as far away as Truro and New Glasgow, 100 kilometres (62 mi) and 126 kilometres (78 mi) away respectively. The explosion was felt and heard in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, roughly 215 kilometers (135 mi) north, and as far away as North Cape Breton, 360 kilometers (225 mi) east.

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And, with any disaster involving indomitable human beings, selfless heroism in the face of death:

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The death toll could have been worse if not for the self-sacrifice of an Intercolonial Railway dispatcher, P. Vincent (Vince) Coleman, operating at the Richmond Railway Yards. He and his co-worker learned of the danger from the burning Mont-Blanc from a sailor and began to flee. Coleman remembered, however, that an incoming passenger train from Saint John, New Brunswick was due to arrive at the rail yard within minutes, and he returned to his post to send out urgent telegraph messages to stop the train.
“ Stop trains. Munitions ship on fire. Approaching Pier 6. Goodbye boys. ”

The train is believed to have heeded the warning and stopped a safe distance from the blast at Rockingham, saving the lives of about 300 railway passengers. Furthermore, Coleman's message was heard by other stations all along the Intercolonial Railway helping railway officials to respond immediately. The rescued train was later used to carry injured and homeless survivors to Truro, Nova Scotia. Coleman was killed at his post as the explosion ripped through the city.

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[BigPoppa]

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I started to get curious when during the coverage of the Virginia Tech shootings I heard several announcers call it the worst school shooting, but not the worst incidence of school violence in US history. Wikipedia provides us with the answer of what was the worst and I had never heard of it


Bath School Disaster

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How do we not not hear about this?

[BigPoppa]

Most people have heard of Krakatoa, but I don't think many have heard of Mount Tambora, which exploded in 1815 and killed at least 71,000 people.

Dust clogged the atmosphere worlwide to the point that 1816 was called The Year Without a Summer and the Norther Hemisphere suffered the biggest famine of the 19th century.

[samsdmf]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Nyos

Lake Nyos seems to fit the bill

"a limnic eruption occurred at Lake Nyos which triggered the sudden release of about 1.6 million tonnes of CO2. The gas rushed down two nearby valleys, displacing all the air and suffocating up to 1,800 people within 20 km of the lake, mostly rural villagers, as well as 3,500 livestock. About 4,000 inhabitants fled the area, and many of these developed respiratory problems, burns, and paralysis as a result of the gases."

[KotOD]

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I'd heard of the Lake Peigneur incident as well, from Modern Marvels (Engineering Disasters). I honestly think that one has got to be the sickest disaster ever, given that no one died and the bizarre effects of it--turning canals around, sucking may acres of land in, creating temporary waterfalls and geysers, etc.

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The video is ridiculous. I don't understand why this isn't common knowledge - They turned a 10 foot deep pond into a 1300 foot deep salt water lake!

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Another one: it wasn't until very recently that I learned what shape the Aral Sea is in.

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I knew that it was almost gone, I didn't realize that they have started to save it. I can't stop reading about this now.

[LeapFrog]

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The video is ridiculous. I don't understand why this isn't common knowledge - They turned a 10 foot deep pond into a 1300 foot deep salt water lake!


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Not exactly a pond...

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Though the freshwater lake covered 1,300 acres of land, it was only eleven feet deep


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Very crazy though especially all the barges sucked in. Great thread.

[KotOD]

Reading about the Aral Sea now leads me to Lake Chad

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Lake Chad, which once straddled the borders of Chad, Niger, Nigeria and Cameroon, has shrunk by an estimated 95% since the mid 1960s, due to the growth of agriculture and declining rainfall.

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Once it was a huge inland sea, and just 40 years ago there was 15,000 square miles of water. Now the latest satellite pictures put it at just over 500 square miles, and falling.

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[KotOD]

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Not exactly a pond...



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Compared to the new body, it was a pond [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

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Very crazy though especially all the barges sucked in. Great thread.

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As the canal refilled the crater over the next two days, nine of the sunken barges popped back to the surface like corks, though the drilling rigs and tug were left entombed in the ruined salt mine.

[FlyWf]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clevela..._Gas_Explosion

"The resulting gas leak, explosion and fires killed 130 people and destroyed a one square mile area on Cleveland, Ohio's east side."

It's mindboggling how much the media affects our perception of the world. They canceled baseball games, threw piles of federal money at the whole state, etc. over the I35 thing which killed 13 people. Before this thread most of us had never heard of disasters that killed 600.