Natural Disasters 2010

As we near the end of 2010, let us take a look at some of the natural disasters that had hit the world this year, the disasters which had killed so many people, that had made so many people homeless and some of them are still suffering. These natural disasters are something which is beyond our control, hence although sometimes we are warned by the scientists, most of the time, people are caught unawares and that is when the death toll increases. Like the past years, this year too had some of the worst natural disasters in store for us; the volcanic eruption in Iceland, the flood in Pakistan, the Haiti earthquake and so on were some of the major natural disasters in 2010.

Disasters that Occurred in 2010

There were quite a number of 2010 natural disasters, the aftermath of which people are still facing. There had been floods, there had been hurricanes, earthquakes, avalanches and what not.

Haiti Earthquake
The Haiti earthquake occurred around the 12th of January, 2010. This earthquake had a magnitude of 7.0 M_w and its epicenter was near the town of Leogane. Within the next 12 days i.e. within 24th of January, there were at least 52 aftershocks, each shock measuring around 4.5 and above on the Richter scale. Roughly 3 million people were affected and 230,000 people had died, 1,000,000 people were homeless and the loss to property was immense. All sorts of communication was hampered.

Pakistan Floods
Another 2010 natural disaster was the flood in Pakistan. In July 2010, due to heavy monsoons in the area of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Balochistan, Sindh and Punjab, in Pakistan, nearly one fifth of the total land area in Pakistan went under water. Around 2000 people lost their lives in the flood, the country's economy was affected, infrastructure and property were also destroyed. This was a recent natural disaster in 2010.

Northern Hemisphere Summer Heat Wave
The months of May, June, July and August, saw a massive rise in temperature in the areas of USA, Mongolia, Taiwan, China, North Africa, the whole of Europe, and some parts of Canada, Russia, Indochina, Japan and South Korea, due to the Northern Hemisphere Summer Heat Wave. The rise in temperature caused series of forest fires in China, that killed a number of people. Some areas also reported drought like situations, thus further increasing the death toll.

Iceland Volcanic Eruptions
Another natural disaster 2010 was the volcanic eruption in Iceland. On March 20, 2010, Mount Eyjafjallajökull in Iceland erupted and it erupted again on April 14, 2010, disrupting air traffic across the whole of Northern Europe, thus stranding many passengers and the aviation losses amounted to around millions of dollars due to the cancellation of the flights.

Mount Merapi Volcano Eruption, Indonesia
On October 25, 2010, Mt. Merapi erupted, killing around 386 people. The hot ashes, the gas clouds that were formed due to this eruption caused respiratory problems in people, hence, the increase in death toll.

These were some of the major 2010 natural disasters. Here's a list of some other disasters 2010 had in store.

• Salang avalanches, North of Kabul (Afghanistan) on February 8th and 9th
• Kohistan avalanches, NWFP (Pakistan) on February 17 killing around 100 people.
• Earthquake in Chile on February 27th, killing around 521 people. Richter scale shows 8.8 (higher than Haiti, but death toll lower than Haiti).
• Tropical storm Hubert in Madagascar on 12th March, killing 36 people and many injured.
• Papua earthquake in June 2010, killing 17 people
• North American Blizzard was one of the natural disasters in 2010 in the United States. Around 40 people were killed in this blizzard.
• Tropical storm Hermine, in September in Guatemala, killing around 100.
• Tibet earthquake killing nearly 2000 plus people
• Tropical cyclone Ului, in Australia from March 9th to 24th.

Many people lost their lives, many people became homeless, the affected countries suffered a lot economically, but one good thing happened out of these disasters, all countries, irrespective of the relation that they shared, stepped forward to help each other at the time of need.