10 of the Deadliest Natural Disasters in the World Since 1980

A magnitude 6.5 earthquake rattled Iran’s Bam district and surrounding area in the southeast of the country. Most of the buildings in the area were leveled due to their mud-brick construction. The death toll was made worse because the earthquake struck early in the morning when people were still asleep indoors. Low wintertime temperatures made life difficult for the survivors who lost their homes, and heavy sandstorms at the time hampered relief efforts.

A magnitude 7.4 earthquake shook the Rasht-Qazvin-Zanjan area of northwestern Iran near the Caspian Sea in what the U.S. Geological Survey calls “one of the world’s most destructive earthquakes.” As with the quake that struck southeastern Iran in 2003, the death toll was made worse because it struck overnight while people were at home asleep. The quake leveled every building and killed every resident in one 80-mile stretch of the affected area. An aftershock the following morning burst a dam in the coastal city of Rasht, drowning large swaths of farmland.

Western Russia withered under an intense and fatal months-long heatwave that the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration called the most extreme heatwaves to hit the region on record. It was by far the worst of a larger weather trend that baked regions in several Northern Hemisphere countries that year. The weather event had far-reaching implications as it destroyed much of the country’s grain harvest in one of the world’s most important sources of wheat, on which many African and Middle Eastern countries depend.

The summer of 2003 baked Europe from Spain to the Czech Republic and from Germany to Turkey, with maximum temperatures topping 100º F multiple times from mid-July through August. Summer temperatures were as much as 30% above the seasonal average over much of the continent. On Aug. 10, Britain recorded its highest temperature on record of nearly 101º F. France suffered temperatures that hovered mostly above 100º F for two straight weeks, while Switzerland shattered its all-time high temperature record with a reading of nearly 107º F.

The 7.9-magnitude Great Sichuan Earthquake, struck the southwestern Chinese province of Sichuan, with an epicenter near the provincial capital of Chengdu. Tremors were felt more than 1,000 miles away in Shanghai. The quake induced massive landslides that toppled buildings, leaving millions of people homeless.