The 1815 eruption of Mount Tambora, in what is now Indonesia, was followed the next year by what?

A "year without a summer" of crop failures across Europe and North America

A decade of unusually mild and wet winters

A prolonged drought confined to the tropics

A measurable rise in global sea level

The 1883 eruption of Krakatoa is remembered partly for which reason?

Its sound was reported thousands of kilometres away and its pressure wave circled the globe

It buried a Roman town under several metres of ash

It was the first eruption ever recorded on film

It created the island of Iceland

Most of the destruction in San Francisco in 1906 was caused by what?

The fires that broke out in the hours after the shaking

The collapse of the city's bridges

A tsunami sweeping into the bay

Landslides coming down from the surrounding hills

The Dust Bowl of the 1930s affected which region?

The southern Great Plains of the United States

The Bhola cyclone of 1970, among the deadliest tropical cyclones ever recorded, struck which region?

The Ganges delta, in what is now Bangladesh

The Johnstown Flood of 1889 in Pennsylvania was caused by what?

The failure of a poorly maintained dam in the valley above the town

A hurricane that tracked far inland before stalling

An ice jam breaking apart on the Ohio River

The rupture of the city's main water supply

The 1902 eruption of Mount Pelée on Martinique gave volcanology which term?

Nuée ardente, for a fast-moving cloud of scorching gas and ash

Caldera, for a collapsed summit crater

Tephra, for airborne volcanic fragments

The North Sea flood of 1953 led directly to which long-term response?

Major coastal defence programmes in the Netherlands and eastern England

The abandonment of low-lying farmland across northern Europe

An international ban on reclaiming land from the sea

The first satellite-based storm warning system

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Natural Disasters Hard ⚡ 10 Questions ⏱️ ~8 Mins +100 XP

Disasters That Changed History

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Some disasters are remembered for the destruction and some for what got built, banned or invented once the dust settled.

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About this topic

Catastrophes tend to leave two records: a body count and an institutional one. The Lisbon earthquake of 1755 flattened a European capital on a holy day and prompted a government survey of the damage that reads like the first piece of systematic seismology. The San Francisco earthquake of 1906 produced the elastic rebound theory of how faults store and release strain. The North Sea flood of 1953 produced the Dutch Delta Works and, in time, the Thames Barrier. Others changed the world through the atmosphere or through politics. Tambora's eruption in 1815 put enough sulfate into the stratosphere to give the northern hemisphere a summer of crop failures the following year. The Bhola cyclone of 1970 killed on a scale that turned a relief effort into a political crisis and then into a war of independence. The ten events here span three centuries, and the explanations concentrate on the consequences rather than the casualty figures.

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Disasters That Changed History: all 10 questions and answers

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1The great earthquake of 1755 that destroyed most of a European capital and helped launch the scientific study of earthquakes struck which city?
- A Marseille
- B Lisbon Correct
- C Naples
- D Seville
Answer: B. Lisbon

Why: It struck on All Saints' Day and was followed by a tsunami and a fire. The Marquis of Pombal's survey of the damage is often called the first seismological questionnaire.
2The 1815 eruption of Mount Tambora, in what is now Indonesia, was followed the next year by what?
- A A "year without a summer" of crop failures across Europe and North America Correct
- B A decade of unusually mild and wet winters
- C A prolonged drought confined to the tropics
- D A measurable rise in global sea level
Answer: A. A "year without a summer" of crop failures across Europe and North America

Why: Sulfate aerosols high in the atmosphere reflected sunlight for months. The dismal weather kept a house party indoors at Lake Geneva, where Mary Shelley began Frankenstein.
3The 1883 eruption of Krakatoa is remembered partly for which reason?
- A It buried a Roman town under several metres of ash
- B It was the first eruption ever recorded on film
- C It created the island of Iceland
- D Its sound was reported thousands of kilometres away and its pressure wave circled the globe Correct
Answer: D. Its sound was reported thousands of kilometres away and its pressure wave circled the globe

Why: Barometers as far off as Europe registered the pressure pulse several times over, and most of the deaths were caused by the tsunamis rather than the blast itself.
4The Great Fire of London in 1666 is generally held to have started in what kind of premises?
- A A shipyard
- B A brewery
- C A bakery Correct
- D A tannery
Answer: C. A bakery

Why: It destroyed most of the walled city while killing remarkably few people. Rebuilding in brick and stone followed, and so did the beginnings of the fire insurance business.
5Most of the destruction in San Francisco in 1906 was caused by what?
- A Landslides coming down from the surrounding hills
- B The fires that broke out in the hours after the shaking Correct
- C The collapse of the city's bridges
- D A tsunami sweeping into the bay
Answer: B. The fires that broke out in the hours after the shaking

Why: Broken mains left firefighters with almost no water for days. Study of the ruptured fault led Harry Fielding Reid to propose the elastic rebound theory.
6The Dust Bowl of the 1930s affected which region?
- A The southern Great Plains of the United States Correct
- B The Canadian Arctic coast
- C The Argentine pampas
- D The interior of Australia
Answer: A. The southern Great Plains of the United States

Why: Severe drought met soil that had been ploughed up for wheat and left bare. The response included planting shelterbelts and creating a federal soil conservation service.
7The Bhola cyclone of 1970, among the deadliest tropical cyclones ever recorded, struck which region?
- A The central Philippines
- B The southern islands of Japan
- C The north coast of Australia
- D The Ganges delta, in what is now Bangladesh Correct
Answer: D. The Ganges delta, in what is now Bangladesh

Why: Almost all the deaths came from storm surge across low-lying islands. Anger at the relief effort fed the crisis that led to independence the following year.
8The Johnstown Flood of 1889 in Pennsylvania was caused by what?
- A An ice jam breaking apart on the Ohio River
- B The rupture of the city's main water supply
- C The failure of a poorly maintained dam in the valley above the town Correct
- D A hurricane that tracked far inland before stalling
Answer: C. The failure of a poorly maintained dam in the valley above the town

Why: The lake behind the dam served a private fishing club whose members had altered and lowered the structure. No one was ever held legally liable for the failure.
9The 1902 eruption of Mount Pelée on Martinique gave volcanology which term?
- A Tephra, for airborne volcanic fragments
- B Nuée ardente, for a fast-moving cloud of scorching gas and ash Correct
- C Caldera, for a collapsed summit crater
- D Lahar, for a volcanic mudflow
Answer: B. Nuée ardente, for a fast-moving cloud of scorching gas and ash

Why: The flow reached the town of Saint-Pierre within minutes and there were only a handful of survivors. Such flows are now usually called pyroclastic density currents.
10The North Sea flood of 1953 led directly to which long-term response?
- A Major coastal defence programmes in the Netherlands and eastern England Correct
- B The abandonment of low-lying farmland across northern Europe
- C An international ban on reclaiming land from the sea
- D The first satellite-based storm warning system
Answer: A. Major coastal defence programmes in the Netherlands and eastern England

Why: The Dutch Delta Works and, later, the Thames Barrier came out of the reviews that followed. The surge struck at night, on a spring tide, with no warning system in place.

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