Update: New estimates place the Deepwater Horizon spill at 84 million gallons—enough to catapult it into 2nd place overall.

The World’s Ten Worst Oil Spills

Since one purpose of this site is to put disasters into perspective, I’ll note that in spite of all the hand-wringing about man-made oil spills, the worst culprit is nature herself. Natural oil leaks form the ocean floor annually spill many times more than the amount lost from broken tankers and destroyed rigs. Off the coast of Santa Barbara, for example, there is a naturally occurring leak that seeps 20 - 25 tons of oil each day, and has done so for several hundred thousand years. Department of Energy studies on this, and on other leaks, conclude that each year, more than 47 million gallons leak naturally into US waters. Compare that to the number eleven spill on this list, which was a one-time loss of 45 million gallons.

All that said, here are the Top Ten Worst Oil Spills.

1.
Arabian Gulf/Kuwait
January 1991
380 - 520 million gallons

Attempting to slow the Allied advance, Saddam Hussein’s Iraqi forces dumped an estimated 380 - 520 million gallons of oil into the Persian Gulf from offshore oil terminals.

2.
Deepwater Horizon
Gulf of Mexico
April 20, 2010 - ?
155 million gallons (estimated).

Following an explosion on the Deepwater Horizon rig that killed 11, the broken facility has leaked an estimated 155 million gallons from the ocean floor.

3.
Ixtoc 1 Oil Spill
Bay of Campeche, Ciudad del Carmen, Mexico
June 1979 - March 1980
140 million gallons

An offshore oil well blew and ignited, causing the drilling rig to collapse. Oil spilled out of the fissure into the Gulf of Mexico at a rate of 10,000 - 30,000 barrels a day until the well was capped. All told, an estimated 140 million gallons was spilled.

4.
Atlantic Empress Oil Spill
Trinidad and Tobago
July 19, 1979
90 million gallons

The Atlantic Empress oil tanker collided with another ship, the Aegean Captain and sprung a leak. Approximately 90 million gallons was spilled. Twenty six were killed.

5.
Fergana Valley
Uzbekistan
March 2, 1992
88 million gallons

An oil line leak released 88 million gallons in to Uzbekistan’s heavily populated Fergana valley.

6.
Kolva River Oil Spill
Kolva River, Russia
September 8, 1994
84 million gallons

A leak from an oil pipeline spilled 84 million gallons into the Russian Arctic region.

7.
Nowruz Oil Field
Iran
Feb 10 - Sept 18 1983
80 million gallons

An oil platform collapsed after being hit by a tanker, sending oil into the Persian Gulf. Eighty million gallons were spilled before it was capped. Delays were blamed on the first Gulf War. Eleven were killed trying to stop it.

8.
Castillo de Beliver Oil Spill
South Africa
August 6, 1983
79 million gallons

The Castillo de Beliver, a tanker, caught fire and broke in two, sending 79 million gallons into the Saldanha Bay northwest of Cape Town.

9.
Amoco Cadiz Oil Spill
France
March 16, 1978
69 million gallons

Caught by a winter storm, the Amoco Cadiz ran aground at Portsall, France. Breaking in two, it sent 69 million gallons into the ocean.

10.
ABT Summer Oil Spill
Angola
May 28, 1991
51 - 81 million gallons

Seven hundred miles off the coast of Angola, the ABT Summer exploded, releasing 51 - 81 million gallons into the ocean. Five crew were killed.

11.
M/T Haven Tanker Oil Spill
Genoa, Italy
April 11, 1991
45 million gallons

The oil tanker explosion killed six, sank the ship and leaked oil for twelve years. A total of 45 million gallons was released.

1.
New York, New York
September 11, 2001
4,500+ Casualties

The majority of the deaths here were, of course, on the ground, as Islamic terrorists flew two 767s into the World Trade Center buildings.

2.
Tenerife, Canary Islands
March 27, 1977
583 Casualties

583 people were killed when two Boeing 747s collided on a foggy runway.The KLM jet had departed without permission, and struck the Pan Am as it taxied on the same runway.

3.
Mount Fuji, Japan
August 12, 1985
520 casualties

A Japan Airlines 747 crashed near Mount Fuji shortly after takeoff. The crash was blamed on the rupture of a rear bulkhead. The crash wasn’t the end of the deaths, though. A maintenance supervisor later committed suicide over the incident.

4.
Delhi, India
November 12, 1996
349 casualties

Traveling from Kazakhstan, an Ilyushhin IL-76 Cargo plane collided with a Saudia 747. The collision was blamed on the Kazakhstan crew, which ignored instructions.

5.
Orly Airport, France
March 3, 1974
346 casualties

The cargo door of Turkish Airlines DC-10 burst open, causing de-pressurization, the failure of the airplane’s floor, and severing the control cables. The airplane crashed just outside of Paris.

6.
Irish Sea
June 23, 1985
329 killed

Sikh extremists planted a bomb on an Air India 757, which blew up over the Irish Sea enroute to Bombay. A second bomb, intended for another airliner, blew up in the luggage facility.

7.
Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
August 19, 1980
301 killed

The Saudia L-1011 made a safe emergency landing after an on board fire, then taxied to the end of the runway. Strangely, the plane did not evacuate, and the engines continued to run. Three minutes later, a flash fire ignited the airplane and all aboard were killed.

8.
Persian Gulf
July 3, 1988
290 killed

An Iran Air Airbus A300 is mistakenly shot down by a US Navy Destroyer

9.
Chicago O’Hare
May 25, 1979
273 killed

Until 9-11, the single largest loss of life in a US aviation incident. An engine fell off a DC-10, damaging the wing and rolling the airplane. Crashing a mile from the airport, it exploded in a huge fireball.

10.
Lockerbie, Scotland
December 21, 1988
270 killed

Libyan agents planted a bomb aboard Pan Am flight 103. Casualties included 11 on the ground.

The Feb. 27, 2010 earthquake in Chile has created worries about tsunamis across the Pacific. Here are the travel times for those fast moving bodies of water. Click on the map for a larger view.

(updated for Feb. 2010 Chile Earthquake)

1.
Chile
May 22, 1960
Magnitude: 9.5

2.
Prince William Sound, Alaska
March 28, 1964
Magnitude: 9.2

3.
Aleutian Islands
March 9, 1957
Magnitude: 9.1

4.
Kamchatka, Russia
Nov. 4, 1952
Magnitude: 9.0

5.
Sumatra, Indonesia
Dec. 26, 2004
Magnitude: 9.0

6.
Ecuador
Jan. 31, 1906
Magnitude: 8.8

Chile
February 27, 2010
Magnitude: 8.8

7.
Aleutian Islands
Feb. 4, 1965
Magnitude: 8.7

8.
Sumatra, Indonesia
March 28, 2005
Magnitude: 8.7

9.
India-China border
Aug. 15, 1950
Magnitude: 8.6

10.
Kamchatka, Russia
Feb. 3, 1923
Magnitude: 8.5

UPDATE: In snowfall, the Blizzard of 2010 now rivals the Knickerbocker Storm of 1922 for its impact on the Eastern Seaboard of the United States. Read on for more:

1.
The Great Blizzard of 1888 (the Great White Hurricane)
March 11 - 14, 1888
Eastern United States

Snowfall of 40 to 50 inches was recorded over New Jersey, New York, Massachusetts and Connecticut as sustained winds created drifts as much as 50 feet tall. Total deaths are thought to have exceeded 400. Most of the cities on the eastern seaboard were shut down for days, if not weeks.

2.
The Storm of the Century
March 11 - 15, 1993
Eastern United States

This massive cyclonic storm had arms that at one point reached from Canada to Central America. More than 300 were killed.

Alabama and Georgia were hit by as much as six inches of snow. Areas further south received up to 16 inches of rain. Tornadoes and thunderstorms broke out all over the South.

In the northeast, record low temperatures were accompanied by large amounts of snow; some affected areas received as much as 3.5 feet, while drifts piled as high as 35 feet. Storm surges as high as twelve feet were recorded.

3.
The Great Appalachian Storm of 1950
Eastern United States
November 24 - 30, 1950

Heavy winds, rain and blizzard conditions followed an extratropical cyclone as it moved through the Eastern United States. Deaths totaled 353, and US insurance companies ended up paying more for damages than for any previous storm. Record cold was recorded in Florida (24 degrees F), Georgia (3 degrees F), Kentucky (-2 degrees F) among others.

4.
The Great Lakes Storm of 1913 (The Big Blow)
Nov 7 - 10, 1913
Midwestern US and Ontario Canada

Also known as the Freshwater Fury and the White Hurricane, the Big Blow may have been the worst US winter storm on record. It killed more than 250, primarily from ships that were sink. Five of the twelve ships downed by the storm were never found.

Caused by the convergence of two storm fronts over the Great Lakes’ relatively warm waters, the storm generated 60-90 mph winds that lasted as long as 16 hours. Wind driven waves rose to 35 feet and whiteouts covered the region. The cyclonic system, with its counterclockwise winds, was, in fact, a hurricane.

The storm was of the same type—a November gale—that famously sank the Edmund Fitzgerald in 1975.

5.
The Schoolhouse Blizzard (aka The Schoolchildren’s or Children’s Blizzard)
January 12, 1888
Great Plains States

This blizzard gets its name from the many schoolchildren who died when trapped in one room school houses. More than 230 are said to have died.

The tragedy of this storm was created by its suddenness, and by the warm conditions that immediately preceded it. Lulled into complacency by a balmy day, people ventured from their houses to do chores and head to town. Many were improperly dressed. Then, an arctic front crashed into moisture laden air from the Gulf of Mexico, bringing sudden drops of temperature to as low as -40 F, as well as large amounts of snow.

This was the first of two major blizzards in 1888.

6.
Armistice Day Blizzard
Midwestern United States
November 11 - 12, 1940

The Armistice Day Blizzard was an early storm that encompassed Nebraska, South Dakota, Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan. Snowfall of up to 27 inches were combined with winds of 80 miles per hour, snow drifts of twenty feet and a fifty degree drop in temperature. The Blizzard surprised many hunters who were out for the beginning of duck season and had not prepared for such a storm. In Minnesota, twenty five hunters are said to have died. In all, 154 died in the storm, including 66 sailors on Lake Michigan.

7.
The Knickerbocker Storm
January 27 - 28, 1922
Upper South and Mid Atlantic States

This storm was named for the collapse of the Knickerbocker Theater in Washington, D.C., which killed 98 and injured 133. A storm cyclone which dropped as much as three feet of snow in Maryland, Virginia and Pennsylvania, the Knickerbocker affected 22,400 square miles of northeastern United States.

8.
Blizzard of 1999
Midwestern United States
January 2 - 4, 1999

With 22 inches of snow in Chicago, the Blizzard of 1999 was rated at the time by the National Weather Service as the second worse to hit the Midwest in the 20th Century. Temperature as low as -20 degrees fahrenheit were recorded. Storm related deaths totaled 73 persons.

9.
The Great Blizzard of 1899
February 11 - 14, 1899
Continental United States

From Georgia to Maine, temperatures dropped to record temperatures. Tallahassee reached -2 F; Minden, Louisiana, -16 F; Camp Logan, Montana, -61F; Washignton, D.C., -15 F. Snowfall began in Florida and moved rapidly north. Washington, D.C. recorded 20 inches in a single day; New Jersey, 34 inches—still a record.

10.
The Great Storm of 1975
January 9 - 12, 1975
Central and Southeast US

This storm system resulted in snow in the midwest and 45 tornadoes in the southeast, together killing a total of 70 people. It began in the Pacific, crossed the Rockies, and then collided with an arctic air front and tropical moisture from the Gulf of Mexico. It produced record low barometric pressures in the midwestern United States.

Strangely, while the storm produced huge amounts of snow in the upper midwest, it also produced record high temperatures. More than a foot of snow fell from Nebraska to Minnesota, while sustained winds of 30 - 50 mph produced 20 foot snowdrifts. Meanwhile, in Chicago, Indianapols and Indiana, record high temperatures were set.

The worst earthquakes in history, in terms of the death toll have occurred in China. In addition to lying along the earthquake prone “ring of fire”, China also has historically had a high population density. This virtually ensure that the highest earthquake casualties will be in China. It also is helpful that the Chinese have long had efficient bureaucracies, which were able to document the casualties as long ago as the 1500s.

UPDATE: Reports now are stating that the Haiti Earthquake of 2010 has killed at least 222,517, making it the fourth worse of all time.

1.
Shaanxi Province, China
January 23, 1556
Magnitude: approximately 8
Death Toll: 830,000

2.
Tangshan, China
July 28, 1976
Magnitude: 7.5
Death Toll: 242,000
The casualties in this may have been higher. The Chinese government is thought to have deliberately understated the numbers for political reasons.

3.
Aleppo, Syria
August 9, 1138
Magnitude: ?
Death Toll: 230,000

4.
Haiti
January 12, 2010
Magnitude: 7.0
Death Toll: 222,517

5.
Xining, China
May 22, 1927
Magnitude: 7.9
Death Toll: 200,000

6.
Damghan, Iran
December 22, 1856
Magnitude: unknown
Death Toll: 200,000

7.
Gansu, China
December 16, 1920
Magnitude: 8.6
Death Toll: 200,000

8.
Ardabil, Iran
March 23, 893
Magnitude: ?
Death Toll: 150,000

9.
Kwanto, Japan
September 1, 1923
Magnitude: 8.3
Death Toll 143,000

10.
Ashgabat, Turkmenistan, USSR
October 5, 1948
Magnitude: 7.3
Death Toll: 110,000

11.
Messina, Italy
December 28, 1908
Magnitude: 7.2
Death Toll: 100,000

1.
Blacksburg, Virginia, 2007
Seung-Hui Cho kills 32 on the campus of Virginia Tech. Commits suicide.

2.
Killeen, Texas, 1991
George Jo Hennard drove his truck into Luby’s diner, then killed 23 with a pair of pistols before committing suicide.

3.
San Ysidro, California, 1984
James Oliver Huberty killed 21 in a local McDonald’s with a submachine gun and rifle before being killed by police.

4.
Edmond, Oklahoma, 1986
Patrick Sherrill, an angry postal worker, killed 14 at the post office before killing himself.

5.
Austin, Texas, 1966
Charles Whitman kills 14 at the University of Texas with a rifle before being killed by a police sniper.

6.
Fort Hood - Killeen, Texas, 2009
Army Major Nidal Malik Hasan is accused of killing 13 and wounding 30 before bring brought down by a police officer.

7.
Camden, NJ, 1949
Howard Unreh, a WWII veteran, kills 13 with a captured Luger. He was arrested and committed to an asylum for the insane. He died in 2009. He is considered by some criminologists to be the first “spree” killer in modern US history.

8.
Littleton, Colorado, 1999
Eric Harris and Dylon Klebold shoot thirteen before killing themselves.

9.
Geneva County, Alabama, 2009
Michael McLendon kills ten, and then himself with a handgun and rifle.

10.
Red Lake, Minnesota, 2005
Jeff Wiese kills nine and then himself on the Red Lake reservation. Seven were killed at a school.

1.
Uiryong, South Korea, 1982
Woo Bom Kon kills 57 with rifles and grenades over an eight hour period outside Seoul. He blew himself up to end the rampage.

2.
Port Arthur, Australia, 1996
Martin Bryant Kills 35 and wounds 18 at a tourist attraction with semiautomatic rifles. Currently serving 35 life sentences.

3.
Blacksburg, Virginia, 2007
Seung-Hui Cho kills 32 on the campus of Virginia Tech. Commits suicide.

4.
Kaio, Japan 1938
Mutsuo Toi killed 30 with sword and shotgun after having been rejected for military service because of tuberculosis. Committed suicide.

5.
Bogota, Columbia, 1986
Campo Delgado killed his mother, seven people on the street and 22 more in a restaurant for a total of 30 dead and 12 wounded. Killed by police.

6.
Hebron, West Bank, 1994
Dr. Baruch Goldstein opened fire on a mosque, killing 29 and wounding 150. He was beaten to death by the crowd.

7.
Killeen, Texas, 1991
George Jo Hennard drove his truck into Luby’s diner, then killed 23 with a pair of pistols before committing suicide.

8.
Beijing, China, 1994
Tian Mingjian kills 23 with a rifle in Tiananmen square before being killed by a police sniper.

9.
San Ysidro, California, 1984
James Oliver Huberty killed 21 in a local McDonald’s with a submachine gun and rifle before being killed by police

10.
Dunblane, UK, 1996
Thomas Hamilton kills 17 at a primary school with pistols before committing suicide.

As fears of the 2009 Swine Flu outbreak increase, the inevitable comparisons are being made to the 1918 - 1919 outbreak which killed an estimated 50 - 100 million people.

The Great Influenza is a fascinating account of the 1918-1919 outbreak. Focusing on the American experience, author John Barry offers an exhaustive, yet still readable story. It begins with a look at the state of American medicine at the end of the 19th century and into the early 20th and examines how professors at Johns Hopkins worked to “modernize” the system. Unfortunately, that modernization was still in progress when the epidemic hit. Beginning with a few deaths in military camps, then spreading to urban centers, the pandemic quickly overwhelmed the public health system of the time. In a single week in Philadelphia, more than 4,500 died, and bodies were left in the streets for lack of a system to dispose of them.

One of the things that struck me about the 1918 - 1919 pandemic from reading this, and several other books, is that it occurred in what had to be the perfect environment for such a disease. Thanks to the war, millions of young men were densely packed into army camps; troop and supply transport moved the disease rapidly about; there were worldwide food shortages; sanitation in many areas was nonexistent. No one could have come up with a better environment for infectious disease than the trenches of Europe. and, with the Wilson administration totally focused on the war effort, what government agencies that did exist failed to respond unil it was too late.

It’s a terrific book, and important reading in these times.

Read more about the greatest epidemics and pandemics in history.

Tragedy too often strikes our schools and universities in the form of a crazed killer or killers. Here is a list of the worst school and university massacres, shootings and killings, both in the United States and around the world.

Beslan, Russia
September 1, 2004

The worst school massacre of all time took place when Cechen rebels took more than 1,100 hostage at School Number 1 in Beslan, an autonomous republic of the Russian Federation. After the third day of a standoff, Russian forces stormed the building; the rebels set off explosives and a gunbattle ensued. 334 hostages were killed, including 186 children.

Bath, Michigan
May 18, 1927

By far the worst school massacre in US history took place in the tiny town of Bath, Michigan in 1927. There, an angry school board member named Andrew Kehoe blew up the town’s school, killing 45 and wounding 58. Most of the victims were kindergarten through sixth grade students. A secondary explosion killed Kehoe and the school Superintendent.

April 16, 2007
Blacksburg, Virginia

A student gunman killed 33 in dorms and a nearby classroom building. He then killed himself.

April 26, 2002
Erfurt Germany

A former student kills 18, including himself at a school in eastern Germany.

March 13, 1996
Dunblane, Scotland

Sixteen children and a teacher are killed by a gunman, who then kills himself.

April 20, 1999
Littleton, Colorado

In what now is known as the Columbine Massacre, 13 are killed and 22 wounded by two gunmen.

August 1, 1966
Austin, Texas

From the observation deck of the University of Texas’ tower, Charles Whitman killed 16 and wounded 31 in a shooting rampage that lasted for 96 minutes.

March 21, 2005
Red Lake, Minnesota

A sixteen year old kills his grandfather and a friend, then heads to school where kills seven others. The massacre ends when he turns the gun on himself.

October 2, 2006
Nickel Mines, Pennsylvania

A gunman shot eleven Amish girls in a one-room schoolhouse, killing six.

January 1, 1989
Stockton, California

Five children are killed and 30 others wounded in a massacre at Cleveland Elementary. As is typical, the gunman also killed himself.

March 24, 1998
Jonesboro, Arkansas

A pair of boys, aged 11 and 13 shoot fifteen. A teacher and four students die.

November 1, 1991
Iowa City, Iowa

A Chinese graduate student, upset at being passed over for academic honors, kills five University of Iowa employees before turning the gun on himself.

April 15, 1995
San Diego, California

A 36-year-old graduate engineering student kills three professors while defending this thesis before a faculty committee.

***UPDATED***
2008 Burma Cyclone/Hurricane may top 100,000, making it the sixth worst recorded cyclone.

It is interesting to note that most of the deadliest hurricanes have occurred in southeastern Asia and India, where flooding from tropical cyclones have wreaked havoc on low-lying, highly populated areas. Note that hurricanes in the western world are called cyclones in the east.

1.
November 13, 1970
East Pakistan (now Bangladesh)

The deadliest hurricane on record struck East Pakistan, flooding the low lying areas. At least 500,000 deaths are blamed on the storm, with some estimates rising as high as 1 million. The storm also had historical consequences: the apparent indifference of Muslim West Pakistan to the plight of the East Pakistanis has been blamed in part for the eventual separation of East Pakistan, which now is Bangladesh.

2.
October 7, 1737
Bengal, India

This hurricane killed at least 300,000.

3.
1881
Haiphong, Vietnam

The Haiphong Hurricane killed approximately 300,000

4.
1876
Bengal, India

200,000 casualties.

5.
June 6, 1882
Bombay, India
At least 100,000

6.
May 3, 2008
Burma (Myannmar)
100,000?
The death toll still is being counted from Cyclone Nargis, but foreign diplomats now are saying the total is 100,000

7.
October 5, 1864
Calcutta, India

50,000 to 70,000

8.
June, 1965
East Pakistan

35,000 to 40,000

9.
October 16, 1942
Bengal, India

35,000

10.
May 28 - 29, 196
East Pakistan

22,000

11.
October 10 - 12, 1780
The Caribbean

This is another hurricane with historical consequences. The worst hurricane in Atlantic history, it killed more than 20,000 when it slammed into Martinique and the Barbados. It also severely damaged a British fleet in the area, shifting the balance of power to the French. This ultimately led to the defeat of the British fleet in the Battle of the Chesapeake and Washington’s victory at Yorktown.

May 21, 1976
Yuba City, California
28 are killed when a bus carrying the Yuba City High School choir plunges off a cliff.

May 14, 1988
Carrolton, Kentucky
Truck driver collides head on with a church bus. 27 died; 34 injured.

Feb. 28, 1958
Prestonsburg, Kentucky
A schoolbus with 46 students struck a wrecker and plunged into the Big Sandy River. 26 children and tbe bus driver drowned.

September 23, 2005
Wilmer, Texas
While fleeing from Hurrican Rita, 24 elderly people died when their bus caught fire and burned.

June 5, 1980
Jasper, Arkansas
A tour bus rolls off a highway and kills 22 while injuring 19.

May 9, 1999
New Orleans
When a tour bus crashes into a concrete wall, killing 22 and injuring 24.

May 30, 1986
Walker, California
A tour buss crashes into the West Walker river, killing 21 and injuring 19.

March 2, 2007
Atlanta, Georgia
A bus transporting the Bluffton University baseball team crashed through a barrier, killing 7.

October 25, 1995
Fox River Grove, Illinois
A school bus is struck by a commuter train, killing seven.

March 22, 1971
Congers, New York
Five were killed and 44 injured when a train hit a school bus that failed to stop at a crossing.