Natural Disasters Facts

A volcano has enough power to shoot ash as high as 50 km into the atmosphere.

The Niagara Falls moves upstream at an average rate of about 295ft a century!

The winter of 1912 was so cold that Niagara Falls partially froze, creating a massive ice bridge that tourists could walk across.

15 million gallons of wine were destroyed in the 1906 San Francisco earthquake.

Around 300 ft uphill from the highest water level reached by the 2011 Tōhoku tsunami sits a centuries-old stone marker that warns: “Do not build your homes below this point!”

A 5.2 magnitude earthquake shook San Diego on April 14, 2025. Elephants at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park felt it coming through their feet. Three mothers, Ndlula, Umngani, and Khosi, raced to surround two 7-year-old calves, facing outward with ears spread wide. They held the ring for several minutes, then formed it again during an aftershock.

Winnipeg was about to disappear under floodwater in the spring of 1997. Tens of thousands of volunteers, including students bused from their classrooms, filled more than 8 million sandbags by hand. Crews then raced to build a 26-mile wall of earth and sandbags across open farmland in just four days. The wall held, and the city stayed dry.