13 Of The Most Bizarre Disasters In History
![13 Of The Most Bizarre Disasters In History](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/5/9/6/789596_320x180.jpg)
There are numerous accounts in history of devastating earthquakes, floods, plane disasters, and other calamities. History also contains tales of genuinely bizarre events. Occasionally, truly incredible things happen in life, and ordinary natural forces mix with the bad luck to cause disastrous effects. Even a small portion of history's unusual calamities are highlighted in the list below. Thankfully, not all of them were fatal.
When life hands you lemons, you simply sell them to spend on new skin once your old one is burned away by a river of toxic waste. Researchers can, at the very least, approximate the number of deaths associated with calamities that occurred throughout the classic period according to historical documents and journals. The accompanying natural catastrophes, sorted from lowest to the greatest estimated death toll, are the worst of all time to such records. (In times of calamities with a death toll range, every disaster is rated according to the highest estimate.)
![THE YEAR WITHOUT SUMMER CRACKED.co COM Indonesia's Mt. Tambora exploded in April 1815, killing tens of thousands of people and sending an ash cloud into the stratosphere. As the cloud moved over the globe, it blocked the sun and sent temperatures down by 3 degrees, causing droughts, floods, and snow that disrupted areas from Southeast Asia to the United States.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/6/1/0/789610.jpg)
Source: Smithsonian Magazine
![AFRICA'S POISON CLOUD CRACKED.co COM A landslide, or perhaps volcanic activity, brought a dangerous cloud of CO2 gas to the surface of Lake Nyos. Over the span of just a few minutes, this 0.3 cubic mile cloud suffocated animals, livestock, and killed 1,700 people.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/6/0/9/789609.jpg)
Source: Forbes
![THE GREAT MOLASSES FLOOD CRACKEDO COM A burst molasses storage tank in Boston, 1919, created a 40 foot high wave of syrup. This was far from a slow drip; this sticky, sweet disaster flooded Boston at 35 miles per hour, covering property and horses, and killing 21 people.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/6/0/6/789606.jpg)
Source: Britannica
![SKIN-BURNING SLUDGE LIVELY GRACKED COM A waste reservoir retaining wall failed in Hungary and released 38 million cubic feet of toxic material. The caustic sludge rolled downhill to the low-lying villages in the Marcal River valley, killing 10 and causing 120 to sustain injuries when they made contact with the skin-burning slurry.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/6/0/8/789608.jpg)
Source: NASA
![DUST VEIL OF 536 A.D. CRACKED COM Most likely due to a massive volcanic eruption in EI Salvador, or a meteor strike, a cloud of dust blocked the sun for several years in the-mid 6th century. This dust veil caused drought, crop failures, and famine around the world, and made 536 A.D. the worst year to be alive by some medieval historians.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/6/0/2/789602.jpg)
Source: Science Magazine
![THE TUNGUSKA EVENT CRACKED.co COM 5.3 miles overhead in a remote area of Siberia in 1908, a falling meteorite exploded in the atmosphere and leveled 800 square miles of forest and flattened 80 million trees in a radial pattern. This explosion is estimated to be a thousand times greater than the atomic blast which destroyed Hiroshima in 1945.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/6/0/5/789605.jpg)
Source: NASA Science
![DUBLIN'S FLAMING WHISKEY RIVER CRACKED.co 5,000 barrels of whiskey caught fire in the storehouse of a Dublin malt house in 1875, sending a 2 foot wide, half a foot deep river of flaming liquor down the street. Afraid of spreading the fire with water, firefighters eventually stopped the blaze by smothering it with manure. Dublin probably smelled great after this.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/6/0/4/789604.jpg)
Source: Irish Times
![NORWAY'S CHEESE FIRE CRACKED.co .com In 2013, a truck carrying 30 tons of caramelised brown goat cheese, called Brunost, suddenly erupted into flames under the Brattli Tunnel at Tysfjord, Norway. The cheese is SO high in sugar and fat that it acts like gasoline when it burns, causing smoldering toxic gasses that slowed the recovery for 5 days.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/6/0/1/789601.jpg)
Source: BBC
![CARRINGTON SOLAR FLARE CRACKED.co COM In 1895 a solar flare with the energy of 10 billion atomic bombs hit the Earth and caused telegraph communications to fail around the globe. Colorful auroras lit up the nighttime sky like it was day, and telegraph machine circuits dripped with liquid fire due to the increased electrical current.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/5/9/8/789598.jpg)
Source: History
![TAPIOCA THREATENS TO SINK SHIP CRACKEDO COM In 1972, a ship docked in Wales when the crew couldn't seem to put out a wood and rubber fire that smoldered for a solid month at sea. As firefighters drenched the ship in water, the heat and moisture caused the other cargo, 1,500 pounds of dry tapioca, to cook and expand to the point of almost bursting the steel plates of the ship's hull.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/5/9/9/789599.jpg)
Source: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
![POISON GRAIN IN IRAQ VARIEDAD SIETE CERROS CRIBABA Y TRATABA PO UNION OF GREAT S.A.DE C.V. ERNOSILLO, SONORA AT ENDABAM SUSARLA PARA AL LIMENTO CRACKED.CO With the threat of famine looming, the Baghdad government purchased drought resistant wheat grains from Mexico, which were coated in a mercury-based fungicide for their long voyage by sea. The fungicide made the grains safe to plant but not eat, a fact that was marked on the sacks in English and Spanish - but not Arabic. The grains arrived at Lebanon too late to plant, so unknowing farmers ate the grains, causing hundreds of deaths and thousands](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/6/0/7/789607.jpg)
Source: NY Times
![LONDON'S GREAT SMOG OF 1952 CRACKEDG COM A mixture of the usual fog and thousands of tons of diesel exhaust and soot from smokestacks, automobiles and coal fireplaces turned into a 30-mile wide mass of yellowish brown smog that blanketed London on December 5, 1952. Around 000 deaths were directly caused by the event, due to the effects of inhaling the smog or accidents caused by low visibility.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/6/0/3/789603.jpg)
Source: History
![PEPSI FRUIT JUICE FLOOD CRACKEDo COM On April 25, 2017 the roof of a Pepsi-owned facility in Russia, housing storage containers of a variety of juices, collapsed unexpectedly. This resulted in the release of 176,000 barrels, or 7.4 million gallons, of fruit and vegetable juices into the streets and the Don River.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/6/0/0/789600.jpg)
Source: CBS