Obscure disasters (formerly "Ever hear of Texas City Disaster...?) - Page 5

Quicksilvre · #41 09-09-2007, 07:23 PM

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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.

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There are studies that suggest this was the cause of a wave of migration from New England to (what is now) the Midwest.

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Do you have a link to this? I've heard of the famine, but I thought that it was related to the Tambora volcano eruption.

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Ummmm, yes. BigPoppa's post was about the eruption, which caused the 'Year Without a Summer', which spurred migrations west and south.

link

link

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Oh oh oh...sorry, I misread it. I thought he said that the migrants caused the climate shift [img]/images/graemlins/blush.gif[/img]

youtalkfunny · #42 09-10-2007, 04:50 AM

Did you say a "250-metre high wave"???

I keep trying to imagine that, and I can't do it. It literally defies my imagination.

It's like that Chaplin mask illusion that somebody posted in LOL. You know what you SHOULD see, but you can't convince your brain to do so. Same thing here, when I try to imagine a wave as tall as Hoover Dam, GOING OVER HOOVER DAM. I just can't conjure an image.

Big Bend · #43 09-10-2007, 05:32 AM

I've certainly heard of the Texas City Disaster. My grandfather, who farmed South of Houston, had to go to the highschool in Tx City, which was being used as a morgue, to identify his brother who was killed in the 2nd explosion. The History Channel TV special about the event showed the long lines of mourners looking for loved ones. So many people living in the South Houston to Galveston area were affected.

Here is another one, the Bhopal India Disaster, which killed 20000 people. An uncle of mine worked for Union Carbide at the time and they were quite distraught.

Good thread.. BB

daveT · #44 09-10-2007, 06:22 PM

I saw a video of This explosion on TV, but they took it off YouTube.

But its still a great read.

Tonding · #45 09-10-2007, 08:33 PM

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Did you say a "250-metre high wave"???

I keep trying to imagine that, and I can't do it. It literally defies my imagination.

It's like that Chaplin mask illusion that somebody posted in LOL. You know what you SHOULD see, but you can't convince your brain to do so. Same thing here, when I try to imagine a wave as tall as Hoover Dam, GOING OVER HOOVER DAM. I just can't conjure an image.

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It is really unimaginable.
Just like the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake, it is also a tsunami, but on a lake this situation is even more "unreal".

thirddan · #46 09-10-2007, 09:41 PM

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I saw a video of This explosion on TV, but they took it off YouTube.

But its still a great read.

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link no worky...

daveT · #47 09-10-2007, 10:19 PM

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I saw a video of This explosion on TV, but they took it off YouTube.

But its still a great read.

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link no worky...

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http://www.damninteresting.com/?p=800

slamdunkpro · #48 09-10-2007, 10:26 PM

I think a lot of people have forgotten about the 1980 MGM fire in Las Vegas

daveT · #49 09-10-2007, 10:34 PM

Yet another good commitment from the Cleveland area. This is why doors open outward in buildings:

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

Myrtle · #50 09-10-2007, 10:39 PM

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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.

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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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Ho-leeee [censored]!

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.....and to this day, each year the city of Halifax sends a very large balsam fir to the city of Boston to be used as Boston's official Christmas tree in thanks for the aid sent by Boston to Halifax after the disaster.