Natural Disasters & Environment
Natural disasters and changes in the environment—from the Krakatoa eruption to climate change—have profoundly shaped human history. Explore both the sudden and long-term impacts of natural and human-made disasters and phenomena.
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Carson's 1962 bestseller first warned the public about the devastating effects of chemical pesticides—and started a revolution.
These violent storms have had far-reaching consequences that altered the course of history in surprising ways.
Hurricane Katrina, and subsequent levee failures and flooding, led to widespread death and destruction in New Orleans and the Gulf Coast.
Railway tracks buckled, people slept in parks, hundreds died, while others tried to die as the heat and humidity became unbearable.
How a Camping Trip Created our National Parks
How a Camping Trip Created our National Parks
When John Muir and Teddy Roosevelt spent three nights in Yosemite, it would soon pave the way for a National Park Service.
3 Fires That Changed History
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A powerful El Niño triggered devastating droughts and famines around the world, leaving millions dead.
Experts suspect the massive event that flattened forests was caused by an exploding asteroid. Could it happen again?
Cuneiform tablets reveal that Noah-like flood stories circulated in Mesopotamia centuries before the biblical account.
The spring equinox, or vernal equinox, occurs each March. Saturday March 20, 2027, marks the first day of spring in the Northern Hemisphere.
The Great Molasses Flood of 1919 occurred when a steel tank burst, flooding Boston with 2.3 million gallons of molasses, killing 21 people.
The winter solstice is the shortest day and longest night of the year. In 2026, in the Northern Hemisphere, it takes place on December 21.
The fall equinox is the first day of autumn in the Northern Hemisphere. Arriving in September, the day has spawned rituals in many cultures.
During the Great London Fire of 1666, a massive inferno ripped through London for 4 days, reducing much of the city to a smoldering ruin.
Extreme heat plagued the United States for three months during the summer of 1936.
These celestial events, whether solar or lunar, inspired fear, aided armies and helped confirm groundbreaking theories.
Fire lookout towers rose across North America in the early 1900s in response to catastrophic wildfires like the infamous 1910 Big Blowup.
Hurricane Katrina was a powerful storm that made landfall on the Gulf Coast on August 29, 2005. The storm triggered catastrophic flooding, especially in New Orleans, and caused at least 1,200 deaths.
Americans have long relied on the sturdy oak tree.
The phrase has nothing to do with panting pooches.
Millions of children pack their bags each year and head to camps ranging from the rustic to the super-luxurious. But it was not always so.
In the summer of 1816, the Northern Hemisphere was plagued by a weather disruption of seemingly biblical proportions. Following a relatively ordinary early spring, temperatures in the eastern United States plunged back below freezing, and communities from New England to Virginia experienced heavy snowfalls and crop-killing frost during June, July and August. Europe also found […]
