Cross^->5=3

You can find the words you need to fill in thiscrossword on the pages given after each clue.

rr 2 3 4 5

6

7

8 9

10 11 12

1

i

13 14

15

16

17

T^3

Can you recognizethese places? j

1TJ

_sc

1

7

ROSSThe British too experienced contaminationfrom the Chernobyl nuclear accident (5) (page 86)Some industrial materials such as asbestos cancause illnesses with much (4) (page 84)An eruption of Mt caused the greatest-everdeath toll from a volcanic eruption (5) (page 32)

8 After a volcanic eruption, the people of Armero inColombia were told to keep (4) (page 34)

10 Fire extinguishers are used to flames (5)(general)

14 The Nowruz oilfield, scene of a blowout in 1983,is off the coast of (4) (page 83)

15 Cape where the Spanish Armada met fierce storms;also The Grapes of , a novel about the DustBowl (5) (pages 49 & 72)

16 A meteorite is a fragment of (4) (page 10)17 A layer of gas in the stratosphere that filters out

radiation (5) (page 96)DOWN1 The Challenger shuttle exploded seventy-

three seconds after lift-off (5) (page 105)2 Rabbits in Australia damaged s by burrowing

(5) (page 69)4 This earthquake in China killed 830,000 (6) (p. 15)5 At any time (4) (general)

9 After an eruption lava or rock pours out of

a volcano (6) (page 28)1

1

A type of fungus that caused an outbreak of foodpoisoning in France in 1816 (5) (page 61)

12 Oil spillages can damage wildlife such as the sea..... (5) (page 83)

13 The town of Laguna disappeared under floodwater after Hurricane Fifi hit (4) (page 43)

8

t^

Answers to both puzzles can be found on page I I I at the back of the book

DISASTERS

Michael Pollard

Grolier EducationalSHERMAN TURNPIKE, DANBURY, CONNECTICUT 06816

BR BRREFD24.A221997

Published 1997Grolier EducationalDanbury, CT 06816

Published for the school and library marketexclusively by Grolier Educational

Dragon's World Ltd, 1995

Set ISBN 0-7172-7691-0Volume ISBN 0-7172-7684-8

Library of Congress

Cataloguing in Publication Data

100 Greatest Disasters,

p. cm.

Includes index.

Summary: Presents brief descriptions of the

world's greatest disasters, including the Yucatan

asteroid strike, Mount St. Helens, Chernobyl

nuclear accident, and the Challenger space

shuttle explosion.

ISBN 0-7172-7684-81. Disasters--Juvenile literature.

[1. Disasters.]

D24.A22 1997

904'.7-dc21

96-38056

CIPAC

No part of this book may be reproduced ortransmitted in any form or by any means,electronic or mechanical, including photocopy,recording, or any information storage andretrieval system, without permission in writingfrom Grolier Educational, except by a reviewerwho may quote brief passages in a review.

All rights reserved.

Editor:

Designer:Picture Research:

Art Director:

Editorial Director:

Printed in Italy

Kyla BarberMel RaymondJosine MeijerJohn StrangePippa Rubinstein

I ContentsIntroduction 6

i

. Permian extinctions 8

The Yucatan asteroid strike 9

HUJ

Barringer Crater 10Z< The plagues of Egypt 1 1

UAigle meteorite shower 12tU

Tunguska fireball 13

i

, The Antioch earthquake 14

Shensi Province earthquake 15

The Lisbon earthquake 16

The New Madrid earthquake 17The San Francisco earthquake 18

Valparaiso earthquake 19

Messina earthquake 20

enKanto earthquake 21

!

' ^ W

?T -r-r-

argest target ever sunk by a submarines the Shinano, a Japanese aircraft carrier of

994 tons. It went down on November 29,'44 when it was hit by the USS Archerfish,

commanded by Commander Joseph F. Enrightof the U.S. Navy.

1

A Le Surcouf tied up at Cherbourg, France, during aninspection by the French President in July 1 933.Thearmored turret is clearly visible toward the stern.

A submarine has an inner and anouter hull. To make the vessel sink, thespace between these is filled with water;to make it rise, water is emptied out. Ahole in the inner hull of a submarine willwreck it, as it would any other ship.The worst British disaster involving

a submarine occurred on June 1, 1939,when HMS Thetis was sunk during trialsin Liverpool, with the loss of 99 lives.

T Le Surcouf sails proudly out of harbor going outon patrol during the 1930s.

Travel 103

Paris air crash1974

The Turkish Airlines DC- 10 flight leftParis for London on March 3, 1974.After just a few minutes, the burningwreckage of the aircraft lay in the Forestof Ermonville, north of Paris. All 346passengers and crew were dead.

Eyewitnesses saw the aircraft flyingfast and low toward the forest before itwas torn apart in a massive fireball. Theburning wreckage tore a track almost 1mile long through the trees. Searchersdiscovered later that not all the wreckagewas in the forest. They found moredebris and bodies 7 miles away.

Investigations showed that the door tothe cargo hold had blown off in midair,causing the DC- 10 to crash and causingsome people to be sucked out.

A Priests of various denominations at the funeralservice for the 35 I victims of the Turkish Airlines

DC- 1 disaster At the time it was called "theworst air crash the world has yet known."

104 Travel

Tenerife airport crash1977

On March 27, 1977, an American PanAm Boeing 747 had been cleared fortake-off from Tenerife in the Canaries.It turned on to the main airport runway.Too late, the pilot realized that there wasanother Boeing 747, a Dutch KLMaircraft, on the runway ahead of him.Unable to stop in time, the taxiing Pan

Am jet smashed into the KLM Boeing,killing all 248 people on the Dutchaircraft. The fully loaded fuel tanks inthe wings of both aircraft exploded inflames. On the Pan Am plane, seventypeople survived, but most had horrificburns. The total death toll was 574.The disaster was the tragic result of

confusion, which had begun with abomb explosion at the airport at LasPalmas, the Canaries' other main island.Because of this emergency, both jumboshad been diverted to Tenerife. In thechaos that followed, the pilot of theKLM jet had tried to take off withoutclearance from air traffic control.

A Personal possessions of the crash victims werepiled up on the runway at Tenerife. The collisionwas the worst disaster in aviation history.

Spanish servicemen help to clear up the

wreckage of the two aircraft. There was no

hope of finding any survivors by this time.

The huge Boeing 747 made its firstappearance in 1970, and by 1973

there were 220 in regular service.The 747 can carry up to 500

passengers, cruising at 580 mph.

Travel 105

Challenger space shuttle1986

At noon on January 28, 1986, millions ofAmericans settled down to watch thelaunch of the space shuttle Challengeron television. It was the twenty-fifth

space shuttle flight, but this one wasspecial. The seven people on boardfivemen and two womenincluded ChristaMcAuliffe, a schoolteacher who hadvolunteered for the U.S. government's"citizens in space" program. Herhusband and children, with thefamilies of the other crew members,were among the television audience.

Just seventy-three seconds after lift-off, the viewers' smiles turned to cries ofhorror as they saw Challenger explode.There was no hope of saving the crew.The disaster was caused by a faulty sealon a booster rocket. The leak had ignitedshortly after lift-off and the flamesspread rapidly to the main fuel tank.

A Traveling at nearly 2,000 mph, Challengerexploded into a fireball. The remains of theshuttle fell into the Atlantic Ocean, where theywere later recovered by U.S. Navy divers.

106 Travel

The Philippines ferry collision1987

On December 21, 1987, the ferryI Dona Paz was carrying a full load of

passengers to Manila from Tacloban, inthe Philippines, for Christmas. It was adark, moonless night, but the weatherwas fine. The Dona Paz was only a fewhours' sailing from its destination when,in the dark of the early hours, it collidedwith the oil tanker Victor. The two shipsexploded in a ball of fire, and flamingoil burst over the sea. Both ships sankalmost at once.No one will ever know how many

ferry passengers died that night. Thepassenger list of the Dona Pazcontained about 1,550 names, but therewere many more on board

possiblyas many as 4,000. The Dona Pazcollision was certainly the world'sworst-ever shipping disaster.

A Philippines navy vessel scoured the area ofthe disaster looking for survivors. It found none,

but another boat picked up twenty-six people.

A Local people removed bodies from the waterafter the sinking of the Dona Poz. The number ofbodies suggested that the ship probably contained

twice as many people as she was licensed to carry.

The waters around the Philippine islands areamong the most dangerous in the world

because they are overcrowded with shippingand due to fierce storms that often occur thereBetween 1972 and 1987, there were eighty

reported collisions in the area and I 17 sinkings.

Travi-i 107

The Baltic ferry sinking1994

At 7 p.m. on September 28, 1994, the"roll-on roll-off" ferry Estonia leftTalinn in Estonia for the twelve-hourcrossing of the Baltic Sea to Stockholmin Sweden. Ninety minutes into thevoyage, the ship hit heavy seas, butcontinued at full speed. Many passengerswent to sleep.Four hours later, one of the ship's

engineers noticed water coming inthrough the bow doors. The pumpswere switched onbut were notpowerful enough to cope with theamount of water now pouring in. Atabout 2:00 a.m., the Estonia, hopelesslycrippled with the weight of water insideher, capsized. At least 910 peoplemostof them Swedishwere drowned.

T Rescue teams in military helicopters pickedup as many survivors as they could find.

A Passengers took to small life rafts as the shipcapsized. The disaster occurred when the doors atthe front of the ship broke away during the storm.

^"TTC

As a result of the Baltic ferry disaster

engineers have been reevaluating the designof roll-on roll-off ferries, so that these ships

can be made more stable in the event thatwater enters the lower decks.

WordStrings

There are four words in thisrectangle connected with disasters.Start at the bottom left corner andmove from here to any othertouching square (up, down,

sideways or diagonally) until youhave spelled out the words here:

M

P E P

T I L4U

\ u I T

/n K E

s\Q

N

There are three words in the snakeconnected with disasters. The words arejumbled together, but the letters in eachword are in the right order. Start at thesnake's head and see if you can find:

EA

POF_ PO_

Start in the middle of the windmill andwork outward to find three more words

connected with disasters. They are:

O E

N

Answers can be found on page I I I at the back of the book

109

Index

acid rain 93

AIDS 67air crashes: Paris 103

Tenerife airport 104

airship disasters:

Hindenburg 101R101 100

Akron 101Alvarez, Prof. Luis 9

Aral Sea 90asteroid strike,

Yucatan 9

Barringer Crater,Arizona 10

"Big Dry" 48"Big Muddy" 38Black Death 59Boeing 747 104Bouch, Sir Thomas 97

cannibalism 65Challenger Space Shuttle

105

chemical leak/spillage:Basle 85

Bhopal 84chemicals, "ozone

friendly" 96children, handicapped 74,

76

"China's sorrow" 36cholera 62, 65

cyclones:

Bangladesh: 1970 421991 46

Calcutta 40Caribbean season 43code names 43

dam bursts:Honduras 43Vaiont 77

Darwin 44see also hurricanes

DDT 73Defoe, Daniel 39deforestation:

African 94Amazon region 92European 68see also acid rain

dinosaurs,

extinction of 9

dioxin leak 80

diseases:

population control by69

see specific diseases

drought:American Midwest 72Australian 48Chinese 65Sahel 47

drugs see specific drugsDust Bowl, American 72duststorms:

American Midwest 72ancient Egyptian 1

1

Sahel 47

earthquakes:

Anchorage 22Antioch 14Armenian 24estimated yearly

deaths from 17Kanto 21Kobe/Osaka 25Koyna Reservoir 79Lisbon 16Messina 20Mount Etna 28New Madrid 1

7

San Francisco 18Shensi Province 15Tangshan 23Tokyo 21Valparaiso 19Eckener, Hugo 101Eddystone Lighthouse

39ergot poisoning 61explosions:

coal mine 70oil rig 87

Space Shuttle 105

extinctions, Permian 8"eye of the storm" 40

famine:

Chinese 65Irish 63see also drought

ferry disasters:

Baltic sinking 107

Philippines collision

106fireball, Tunguska 13

fires:

airship 100, 101

Antioch 14Australian bush 56Chicago 54Chinese forest 57Sao Paulo 55Tokyo 21see also bush fires;forest fires;

Great Fire

"flashover" 55

flies, plague of 1

1

floods:

Great 35

Huang He 36Mississippi 38

Mount St Helens 33North Sea 37see also dam bursts

food poisoning:mineral oil 61rye bread 61

"fossil" fuels, effects of

93

frogs, plague of 1

1

gas:

leak 80

poisoning by 52Gilgamesh, Epic of 35"global warming" 92Gorbachev, Mikhail 24grapevines, destruction of

64Great Fire of London 53

Heysel stadium 88Hillsborough 88Hindenburg airship 101HIV virus 67Hoover Dam, U.S. 79hurricanes:

Europe's October 45Fifi 43Galveston 41

Huskisson, William 99

influenza 66insecticide, "safe" 73

irrigation, subsidencefrom 71

Kyshtym, Siberia 75

leaks see chemicalleak/spillage; gas leak;

oil spills

Lindad del Carmen oilrig 82

locusts:

Cyprus swarm 50plague of 1

1

Machu Picchu 60McAuliffe, Christa 105McDonnell Douglas

DC-10 103mercury poisoning 76meteorite strikes:

Arizona 10France 12

Siberia 13

Michell, John 16Minoan civilization, end

of 26Mississippi River,

course of 17

mudslides, Armero 34myxomatosis 69

National HurricaneCenter, U.S. 44

Noah's flood 35nuclear accidents:

Chernobyl 86Kyshtym 75Three Mile Island 86

oil blowouts:Ixtoc 82

Nowruz 83oil rig disaster 87oil spills:

Amoco Cadiz 81Exxon Valdez 89

ozone layer, depletion of

96

Permian extinctions 8pesticides see DDTphylloxera 64Piper Alpha oil rig 87plague 65

Constantinople 58of ancient Egypt 1

1

20th-century 67see also Black Death

poisoning: by gas 52by pollution 76see also food

poisoning;salinization

pollution:

Aral Sea 90Minimata Bay 76

110 BRIGHTON BRANCH LIBRARYRiver Nile 1

1

salt 95

see also acid rain;

smogpotato blight 63

R101 airship 100rabbits, Australian

problem 69railway disasters:

bridge collapse 97first 99

rainforest clearance,

African 94rat flea 59reservoir tremors, Koyna

79

salinization 95

Sandoz chemical plant 85shipping disasters:

Titanic 98

see also ferry

disasters; oil spills

smallpox, in the

Americas 60

smog, great London 51Snijders, Martin 74Snow, John 62soccer disasters 88

soil erosion:

southern Italy 91

see also Dust BowlSolfatara 52

Spanish Armada, wreckof 49

SSI (nuclear weapon) 75St Paul's Cathedral,

London 53Steinbeck, John 72storm:

ancient Egyptian 1

1

Great 39submarine sinking 102subsidence: causes 71

San Joachin Valley 71"surge" 37

Tay Bridge 97thalidomide 74"Thirty Percent Club" 93tidal waves:

Bangladesh 42Knossos 26see also tsunami

Titanic 98

tsunami:Anchorage 22Krakatoa 31Lisbon 16Tambora 30Tokyo 21

Turner, J.M.W. 30

Union Carbide 84

vaccination against

disease 60, 66volcanic eruptions:

Armero 34Etna, Mount 28Herculaneum and

Stabiae 27Katmai, Mount 22Knossos 26Krakatoa 31Laki 29Nevado del Ruiz 34

Pelee, Mount 32Pompeii 27St Helens, Mount 33Santorini (Thera) 26sound of 31Surtsey 29Tambora 30Vesuvius, Mount 27see also gas

Vulcan (god of fire) 28

Waldsterben 93weather: satellite

monitoring 44volcanic eruptions and

30,31wind storms,

Australian 48Winstanley, Henry 39World Wide Fund for

Nature 83, 94

I

PictureAcknowledgments

a = above I = leftb - below r = rightArdea: 10a & b (FrancoisGohier), 9b (Mina Carpi),56a (D. Parer & E. ParerCook), 56b (Jean-PaulFerrero), 59a (John Clegg),Associated Press: 23a, 25a& b, 34a, 42a & b, 87a.Biofotos: 50a & b (AndrewHenley), 69a (G. Kinns),69b (Andrew Henley), 75a.Bridgeman Art Library:1 la & b (Victoria andAlbert Museum), 15b(O'Shea Gallery, London),27b (Musee des Beaux-Arts,Le Havre), 49a (PrivateCollection), 49b (PrivateCollection), 53b (GuildhallLibrary, Corporation ofLondon), 58 (Church of SanVitale, Ravenna).Camera Press: 3a & b, 24a& b (N. Blickov), 34b(Aeberli), 47a (AugustSycholt), 51b, 74a (RayHamilton) 74b (MartinPeternotte), 76a (ShiseiKuwabara), 80a & b (AdrianHeitmann), 81a & b & 83

%(Eulogio Munoz), 88a91a &b, 98b, 101a, 104ab, 107a &b (JonasLemberg/Pressens Bild).Corbis-Bettman: 16a, 18a&b, 20b, 41a & b, 47b, 72a& b; (Reuter) 52a & b;(UPI)2r, 21a &b, 22a & b,32a &b, 43a, 51a, 54a & b,66a & b., 67b, 70, 77a & b,78, 84a & b, 99a & b, 101,105a &b.E.T. Archive: 35a, 35b.Mary Evans PictureLibrary: 98aRobert Harding: 73a (IanGriffiths), 73b, 93b.Hulton Deutsch: 3a, 14b,16b, 20a, 23b, 26, 31a, 38b(Reuters), 39a & b, 44a & b,53a, 62b, 63a & b, 68b, 103a&b.Hutchison: 36a & b (SarahErrington), 46a & b (S.Errington), 48a, 48b (HillyJames), 55b, 57a (JohnRyle), 57b (Dr Nigel Smith),61 (Adrian Evans), 64a(Nancy Durrell McKenna),68a (Leslie Woodhead), 82,86a, 90a, b (V. Ivleva), 92b

ouse), 93a & bIntyre), 94b

t), 95a &b

&

nar

_

ah LrbUnratedcti&Li&a

offeri^: 37a &'%

tSUb I Ul\l KUtSLIU LltSI-lMI-ll

Answers 3 9999 03191 463 1Word Strings

&T^fv1

e ;e

M Es

PIE

; p

R

Did you recognizethese places?

n r-fL