Monday, September 10, 2012

The Great Flood of 1931 - China

Ariel view of the flood


The deadliest natural disaster ever recorded occurred through the winter, spring, and summer of 1931 in central China. There are three major rivers draining this area, the Yangtze, the Yellow, and the Huai. All three flooded catastrophically, because the winter snowstorms were particularly heavy in the mountains around the river basins, and when spring began, all this snow melted and flowed into the rivers.
Then the spring brought particularly heavy rains. Then the cyclone season, which usually brings only 2 storms per year, brought 10, 7 of them in July. All this water swelled the three major rivers, especially the Yellow River, and because they drain a very large, very flat area of China, somewhere between 3.7 and 4 million people were drowned or starved.
Map of the flood's disatrous path
Nanjing City, China’s capital at the time, became an island surrounded by over 100,000 square kilometers of water, more area than the state of Indiana, or all of Portugal.
Aftermath of the Great Flood
During the flood, over 140,000 Chinese drowned, 3.7 million were killed in the 9 months that followed and not less than 70,000 square miles flooded, often over 10-15 feet deep for periods of 3 -6 months. Here is a video about the flood and its massive impact on the nation. 

Tuesday, September 4, 2012

Kilauea Volcano, Hawaii

The Kilauea is the youngest and southeastern most volcano on the Big Island of Hawaii. It has been active since 1983 and labeled the most dangerous volcano in the United States. It has sixty-one historical eruptions not including the continuous lava-lake activity in its crater. In 2010-2011 some of its lava destroyed many houses near the crater causing alarm for the safety of citizens of the Big Island. Also, rising emissions of sulfur dioxide have led to increased levels of volcanic smog and air quality concerns.