tsunami

The 1931 China floods killed an estimated 1 to 4 million people — the single most lethal natural disaster in recorded human history. The 1815 eruption of Mount Tambora cooled the entire planet and triggered crop failures across three continents, adding tens of thousands of deaths to the 71,000 who died directly from the volcano. The 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami killed 227,898 people in 14 countries within hours. These events share a common thread: the science of how Earth releases stored energy intersects with human vulnerability in ways that transform geological processes into humanitarian catastrophes.