Weirdest Natural Disasters in the Earth's History

Bright Side

Earth's history has seen some truly bizarre natural disasters. Take the Tunguska event in 1908, for example, where a massive explosion flattened 800 square miles of Siberian forest, likely caused by a meteor airburst. Then, there was a "Year Without a Summer" in 1816, caused by the eruption of Mount Tambora, which led to global cooling, crop failures, and food shortages. There were more weird disasters in the history of our planet that could be called weird - let's learn more about them.   Credit: Philip Plait: By ensceptico CC BY 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/deed.en https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Philip_Plait_2007.jpg Sunspots: By NASA https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sunspots_1302_Sep_2011_by_NASA.jpg https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/sunearth/news/News092511-ar1302.html Animation is created by Bright Side.  ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Music from TheSoul Sound: https://thesoul-sound.com/   Check our Bright Side podcast on Spotify and leave a positive review! https://open.spotify.com/show/0hUkPxD34jRLrMrJux4VxV   Subscribe to Bright Side: https://goo.gl/rQTJZz ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Our Social Media: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/brightside Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/brightside.official TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@brightside.official?lang=en   Stock materials (photos, footages and other): https://www.depositphotos.com https://www.shutterstock.com https://www.eastnews.ru ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  For more videos and articles visit: http://www.brightside.me  ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This video is made for entertainment purposes. We do not make any warranties about the completeness, safety and reliability. Any action you take upon the information in this video is strictly at your own risk, and we will not be liable for any damages or losses. It is the viewer's responsibility to use judgement, care and precaution if you plan to replicate.

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00:00Back in the day, from 774 to 775, Earth got hit with a mega blast of radiation.

00:08This crazy burst of energy left its mark.

00:11Three rings from that year show way too high levels of radioactive stuff.

00:16But what exactly caused it?

00:19Scientists are inclined to think that the reason was a solar flare.

00:23Some folks think maybe a massive supernova caused the radiation blast.

00:28But astronomer Phil Plait says that if that had been the case,

00:32it would have had to be less than a thousand light years away and would have been crazy bright.

00:37But there's no record of that happening.

00:40No bright shiny death star in sight.

00:43After looking at the radioactive carbon and beryllium in tree rings,

00:47scientists ruled out a bunch of other possibilities.

00:50At first, they considered that it was a smash-up between neutron stars or a neutron star and a black hole.

00:57These types of crashes produce a super quick blast of gamma rays without any light show,

01:03which lines up best with the evidence.

01:06But these kinds of collisions are super rare.

01:09Plait thinks it's kinda unlikely that this is the answer.

01:13He figures we should only see one of these events in our galaxy about once every million years.

01:19So having one just 1,200 years ago seems pretty wild.

01:23Scientists are seriously worried about these rare events.

01:26If one happened closer to Earth, it could seriously mess up life on our planet.

01:31Even if it was thousands of light years away,

01:34a similar event today could cause chaos with all the fancy electronic systems we've come to rely on.

01:40So it's a good thing those gamma ray bursts are so rare,

01:44because if they were more common, Earth might be in for a rough ride.

01:49You may think that if our planet could withstand mega radiation blasts,

01:53it can easily withstand something less frightening.

01:56Let's say grasshoppers.

01:58Sorry to say that, but it's not exactly true.

02:01Back in 1874, during a hot summer in Kansas, things took a strange turn.

02:08Grasshoppers, or should I say locusts, invaded the Great Plains like nobody's business.

02:14They came down like a storm, blanketing houses, trees, and even poor trains passing by.

02:20These bugs were on a mission to cause chaos.

02:24Farmers had to scramble to protect their wells and just about anything else worth saving.

02:30Locusts landed everywhere, wreaking havoc on everything in sight.

02:35Even poor sheep lost their wool.

02:37Locusts even stripped paint off wagons and handles off pitchforks.

02:42This is how destructive they were.

02:45Livestock tried to fight back by eating them, but there were just too many of these insects.

02:50That year, those critters caused about $200 million in crop damage.

02:55The locust invasion was so tough, even the U.S. Army stepped in to help.

03:00In the end, locusts began to disappear, sparing the plains from further devastation.

03:07Natural disasters can be even more unexpected than radiation blasts from space and locust invasions.

03:14Check this out.

03:15Back in June 2017, a reindeer herder up in northwest Siberia was minding their own business

03:21when they suddenly heard a crazy loud blast and saw smoke shooting up from the ground.

03:27If that happened to me, I'd need to change my pants. Sorry.

03:32Later on, they found this huge hole that was like 23 feet wide and nearly 65 feet deep

03:38and was surrounded by chunks of ice and dirt.

03:41It turned out that there were over 17 such black holes in the area.

03:46They were filled with peaty water and shrouded in mystery.

03:50Some folks thought those were sinkholes.

03:52Others were sure they were left by top-secret device tests or even a bunch of meteorites.

03:59Now, the latest idea is that these holes are actually craters caused by the Arctic warming up and melting the frozen ground.

04:06The theory states that as the ground thaws, gas pockets trapped beneath the surface burst through, creating such dramatic holes.

04:15Apparently, these eerie craters have been showing up in specific spots in Siberia

04:21where ancient geological faults have been leaking out hot natural gas for ages.

04:26Combine that with some leftover methane from old lake sediments,

04:30and you've got a recipe for some explosive surprises as the planet heats up.

04:36Not scared yet? Alright, maybe you're afraid of darkness, huh?

04:40If so, you wouldn't like it back in 536.

04:44It's the year when the world went through a crazy 18-month period of darkness.

04:50A mysterious fog covered Europe, the Middle East, and parts of Asia, blocking out the sun and causing chaos.

04:58It was like the Dark Ages, but for real.

05:01It turns out that the main culprit behind this fog was a volcanic eruption in Iceland.

05:07This eruption spread ash across the northern hemisphere, causing temperatures to drop and crops to fail.

05:14People were freezing and starving. It was a mess.

05:19Historians from back in the day even talked about how weird it was.

05:23The sun looked like the moon, summers were freezing cold, and even China had summer snow.

05:29It was all because of the volcanic ash blocking out the sun.

05:33And to make things even worse, this period of darkness sparked the beginning of the bubonic plague in 541.

05:42Talk about a rough time to be alive!

05:46Let's go back to Siberia real quick.

05:49Back in 1908, way out in the wilds of Siberia, an asteroid dropped for an unexpected visit.

05:56Today, we know it as the Tunguska asteroid, but it didn't get its name instantly.

06:02Local folks only caught a glimpse of the show.

06:05A bright fireball streaking across the sky, followed by a massive boom!

06:11Trees went flying, fires blazed, and animals weren't too happy about it either.

06:17But since the area was so remote, not many folks took notice.

06:22For almost two decades, nobody bothered to check out the Tunguska site.

06:27People had too much on their plates back then.

06:29But then, scientists finally made it out there and found evidence of the asteroid's shenanigans.

06:35Later, in expeditions, they found some spacey microparticles.

06:40Fast forward to now, and NASA has a whole planetary defense thing going on.

06:45They even sent a mission to test out asteroid-deflecting tech.

06:49Because who knows when the next cosmic rock will come knocking on our door, right?

06:54In the middle of the 19th century, there was one more epic solar storm called the Carrington event.

07:01It may not sound like a big deal to you, but it had pretty rough consequences.

07:06The next day after the storm, Earth was hit with this insane geomagnetic storm that threw telegraphs off the rails and brought auroras to the tropics.

07:16And it's the place where they normally never show up.

07:20Turns out, all this space weather madness started with weird stuff happening on the sun's surface, like sunspots.

07:27From these spots, solar flares and other crazy electromagnetic stuff can pop out and mess with our technology.

07:35Massive solar storms like this one can shoot out from the sun at speeds of up to 1,800 miles per second.

07:42They can contain billions of tons of solar material, complete with a sassy little magnetic field that loves to mess with Earth's magnetic field when they meet.

07:52Now, listen closely. We're getting close to the next solar maximum in 2025, so it's a good time to check out the history of the worst solar storms like the Carrington event and take notice.

08:05Imagine if a similar storm hit today. An internet apocalypse anyone?

08:10Businesses would be sent offline and we'd be facing some serious damages.

08:15Luckily, these mega solar storms don't happen very often.

08:19But, hey, space weather is tricky to predict, so who knows when the next one will hit?

08:26That's it for today. So, hey, if you pacified your curiosity, then give the video a like and share it with your friends.

08:32Or, if you want more, just click on these videos and stay on the Bright Side!

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