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20th Century’s Deadliest Disasters

Khalid Elhassan October 26, 2020 32 min

1976 Tangshan earthquake - Tangshan — A bridge destroyed by the Tangshan Earthquake. China Underground

28. The Ancient World’s Most Famous Tragic Disaster

Eruption of Vesuvius in 79 AD. Australian National Maritime Museum

One of antiquity’s most famous and tragic natural disasters was Mount Vesuvius’ eruption around noon on August 24^th, 79 AD. It was one of Europe’s most powerful volcanic explosions. Vesuvius blew its top with a force 100,000 times greater than that of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic bombs. The eruption tossed deadly debris mixed with a cloud of poisonous gasses over 20 miles up into the air. As it spewed gasses into the skies, lava and hot pumice poured out of the volcano’s mouth at a rate of 1.5 million tons per second. The scorching mixture raced down Vesuvius’ side to devastate the surrounding region and destroy nearby towns, of which Pompeii and Herculaneum are the best known.

Still from movie depicting the Vesuvius eruption. Fans Pop

Pliny the Younger, a Roman author and magistrate, was 15 miles away at Cape Misenum, visiting his uncle, Pliny the Elder. The elder Pliny was a Roman admiral, who ended up losing lose his life during the course of rescue efforts. Pliny the Younger penned a detailed description of the events he saw and those told him by first-hand witnesses. Pliny’s account is the best-written and most thorough narrative of the event, and history is deeply indebted to him.

Written by

Khalid Elhassan

A lifelong history buff, I developed a particular passion for WW2 history as a child, when I spent hours listening to my grandfather, enraptured, as he recounted his wartime experiences in the British East African Campaign and with the British 8th Army in North Africa.

I graduated with a history BA from George Mason University, then went on to get a JD from the University of Virginia School of Law. After lawyering for a decade, I moved to sunny Rio de Janeiro and a less demanding career, opening a tourism agency in Copacabana.

A big chunk of my free time is spent blogging (you can follow me on Quora https://www.quora.com/profile/Khalid-Elhassan ) or freelance writing, mostly about my favorite subject, history.