Natural Threat
…Some telegraph stations that used chemicals to mark sheets reported that powerful surges caused telegraph paper to combust.… When American Telegraph Company employees arrived at their Boston office at 8 a.m., they discovered it was impossible to transmit or receive dispatches. The atmosphere was so charged, however, that operators made an incredible discovery: They could unplug their batteries and still transmit messages to Portland, Maine, at 30- to 90-second intervals using only the auroral current. Messages still couldn’t be sent as seamlessly as under normal conditions, but it was a useful workaround. …
…Instances of volcanic eruptions are their highest for 300 years and scientists fear a major one that could kill millions and devastate the planet is a real possibility.
Experts at the European Science Foundation said volcanoes – especially super-volcanoes like the one at Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming, which has a caldera measuring 34 by 45 miles (55 by 72 km) - pose more threat to Earth and the survival of humans than asteroids, earthquakes, nuclear war and global warming. …The chance of such as eruption happening at one of the major volcanoes within 80 years is put at five to ten per cent by the experts.…
…For the last 9 months or so I have heard chatter and rumors from people amongst the YouTube community who say that there is an impending asteroid strike off the coast of Venezuela this coming September.…
H5N1 avian influenza has killed 60% of the 650 humans known to be infected since it was identified in Hong Kong 17 years ago… Dutch researchers have found that the virus needs only five favorable gene mutations to become transmissible through coughing or sneezing… The altered virus was much less deadly than the natural version. Only two of the ferrets in the study died, but neither death was caused by the flu….
suggest a magnitude-7 earthquake occurs every 2,000 to 3,000 years in the basin, and that the largest fault in the basin, West Tahoe, appears to have last ruptured between 4,100 and 4,500 years ago.
Very few people think of Illinois and its midwestern neighbors as the sites of such disasters. But, records of earthquakes that have either occurred or been felt in the past indicate that Illinois may be just as susceptible to these catastrophes as any other place on the globe.
findings of a two-year study on the impact of a 7.7 magnitude earthquake on states in the New Madrid Seismic Zone... areas within the NMSZ would experience widespread and catastrophic physical damage, negative social impacts, and economic losses. ... total economic impact of a series of NMSZ earthquakes is likely to constitute the highest economic losses due to a natural disaster in the United States. ...