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After studying the history of our planet, you can see that life on Earth was on the verge of destruction hundreds of times - sometimes it's even surprising how humanity managed to survive to the 20th century, writes FOCUS, with reference to Ancient Origins.
Chicxulub Crater and the Mass Extinction
Perhaps it is worth starting with the catastrophe that literally changed everything on Earth - the fall of an asteroid and mass extinction. Traces of that ancient disaster are located on the Mexican Yucatan Peninsula and are the massive Chicxulub crater, 80 km wide and 20 km deep, which crashed into the Earth about 66 million years ago.
Researchers believe that the asteroid that wiped out the dinosaurs and many others from the face of the Earth was about 10 kilometers in diameter. If you think that this is not such a big asteroid, consider how fast it was moving and collided with our planet - it happened with the power of more than a billion atomic bombs. Scientists believe that at that moment shock waves were felt all over the surface of the planet.
Millions of tons of ash, gases and debris filled the atmosphere, blocking out the sun, and winds of over 900 kilometers per hour blew everything in its path. Scientists believe that behind the explosion there was a global cooling, while the fragments of the meteorite scattered across the Earth and were so hot that they caused massive forest fires.
As a result, 75% of all life was wiped off the face of the Earth.
North Sea Tsunami
About 8 years ago, between northern Scotland, Denmark and the Channel Islands, there were islands known as Doggerland. This place became a refuge for various Mesolithic tribes and was described as a prehistoric Garden of Eden.
Research shows that about 20 years ago, the release of meltwater from the glacial Lake Agassiz in North America led to a rise in sea level, which is believed to have risen by about 60 centimeters. As a result, Doggerland sank under water and only a few isolated islands remained.
People still lived on these islands and everything was fine until a massive landslide occurred not far from modern Norway, which threw about 3 thousand cubic kilometers of land into the water. This triggered a massive tsunami that wiped out the remains of the islands along with all their inhabitants. Scientists believe that the scale of the tsunami at that time can be compared to the height of the wave that devastated some areas of Japan in 2011.
Damgan earthquake
On December 22, 856 AD, a strong earthquake with a magnitude of 7,9 occurred in the territory of modern Iran. Researchers believe that the epicenter of the earthquake was under the then capital of Damgan, and the earthquake itself spread over a record 320 kilometers.
The cause is known to be the Alpine earthquake belt, which is a geological force that once helped create the Alps mountain range and is considered one of the world's most seismically active regions.
Then a terrible earthquake took the lives of about 200 thousand people and became the fifth largest earthquake in history. Researchers believe that this disaster wiped not only Damgan from the face of the Earth, but also severely damaged the cities of Akhevanu, Astan, Tash, Bastam and Shahrud.
The scientists also found that the earthquake destroyed a system of canals and springs, and landslides blocked streams — causing those who didn't die immediately to die because of a lack of water supply.
Antonine plague
Between 165 and 180, the Roman Empire was struck by a terrible plague called the Antonine Plague after one of its victims, Marcus Aurelius Antonius. In addition, it is also called the plague of Galen after the Greek doctor who first documented the disease.
Researchers studied the work of Galen and came to the conclusion that the cause of the plague was a particularly dangerous form of smallpox and measles. The disease is believed to have been brought into the country by Roman soldiers returning home from battles in the East.
It is known that the plague spread quickly throughout the territory of the Roman Empire and even went beyond its borders - some tribes in the north were affected. Researchers believe that the Antonine Plague killed about 5 million people. For example, according to the records of the historian Dio Cassius, about 2 thousand people died every day in Rome alone. Scientists estimated that the death rate from this plague was about 25%, that is, every fourth infected person died.
Eruption of Vesuvius
This is probably one of the most famous volcanic eruptions in the history of mankind. It is known that in 79 AD, Vesuvius even gave "warning signs" to the local population, which, unfortunately, they ignored. As a result, a deadly cloud of superheated gas shot into the sky and rose 33 kilometers - molten rock, pumice and hot ash fell from the sky, and hot currents rushed down, sweeping away everything in its path.
In the shadow of Vesuvius hid two cities: Pompeii, only 8 kilometers away, and Herculaneum, which was even closer. As a result, the inhabitants of these two cities suffocated from the dust, burned alive or were suffocated by debris and solidified lava. It is known that the total population of both cities was about 20 thousand people - until now, scientists do not know how many people died as a result of the eruption of Vesuvius, but the remains of about 1,5 thousand people were found at the site of the disaster in each of the cities.
For centuries, Pompeii was forgotten until it was rediscovered in 1631 AD after another eruption in the area. And only in the 20th century, during excavations, scientists were able to study the scale of the eruption of Vesuvius. Due to the fact that the lava moved very quickly, it literally buried the bodies of the victims, who later rotted, but left cavities. As a result, scientists filled these spaces with plaster and were able to obtain terrible statues of the victims of the eruption of Vesuvius.
Plague of Justinian
This plague struck the Eastern Roman Empire from 51 to 549 AD. It was so large-scale that it covered the Mediterranean, Europe and the Middle East, including the Sassanid and Byzantine empires, and Constantinople was at the epicenter of the Justinian plague.
This plague was named after the Byzantine emperor Justinian I, who was in power at the time. Historians believe that the emperor was one of the few who managed to survive after being infected with this plague.
Researchers believe that the plague destroyed a fifth of the population of Constantinople, from where it moved to Roman Egypt in 541 AD and persisted in Europe until 549. The exact death toll from Justinian's plague is unknown, but it is estimated that about 5 people died in Constantinople per day. Researchers also believe that this plague was caused by the same bacteria as the bubonic plague in 1347-1351.
Wars of the Three Kingdoms
This period covers 220–280 AD. This time is known as the Three Kingdoms - China was then divided into the three dynastic states of Cao Wei, Shu Han, and Eastern Wu. This period is believed to be one of the bloodiest periods in human history.
During this period, hostilities in the region almost did not stop, and the losses were colossal:
- Qin unification wars — about 2 million people died;
- The uprising of the yellow bands — from 3 to 7 million people died;
- Mass battles in which armies of more than 500 inhabitants took part.
According to historians' calculations based on censuses, the discrepancy between the data at the beginning of this period and at the end is almost 40 million people. However, scholars tend to think that around 12 million people actually died during the battles. However, they explain that such a demographic decline could depend on several factors at once:
- military actions;
- hunger;
- epidemic
