Image via Complex Original
After seeing these images, you might agree that we use the term "disaster" a little too loosely. So much of disaster photography is abstracted from the reality of everyday life, emphasizing the sublime, unbounded power of nature — a crashing waterfall, a bright bolt of lightning, or a thunderous wave crashing on a pristine beach.
In the 20th and 21st centuries, however, disasters are never simply pure, majestic moments of disturbing beauty or colossal majesty. With seven billion people on Earth, every tremor and breeze has a distinctive human impact. The growing world population is a key factor in the following list of unthinkable, bizarre, and tragic disaster photographs.
Keep in mind that we tried our best to credit each respective photographer and the number of casualties when that information was made available. Additionally, the "fame" of each photograph is highly relative, so consider the list for the most part unranked.
From the Titanic in 1912 to the rapture in 2012, here is the Complex list of The 50 Most Famous Disaster Photographs.
1991 Mt. Pinatubo Eruption
1991 Mt. Pinatubo Eruption
Disaster: Volcano eruption
Photographer: Alberto Garcia
Year: 1991
Location: Mt. Pinatubo, Luzon, Philippines
Casualties: 800
This picture is straight out of a disaster movie, but don't be fooled, this isn't a Hollywood studio. It's a real vehicle running from the real eruption of Mt. Pinatubo in the Philippines in 1991. Eruptions went from small to large in over two weeks, culminating in several eruptions 13 or more miles high. The ash cloud left Luzon in total darkness and contributed to reducing the temperature of the entire Northern Hemisphere over the following years.
The Good Friday Earthquake
The Good Friday Earthquake
Disaster: Earthquake/Avalanche
Photographer: USGS
Year: 1964
Location: Alaska, United States
Casualties: 143
The second largest recorded quake hit Alaska in 1964 at a magnitude of 9.2. Subsequent damage overturned the road, created power outages, and caused avalanches, which left a total of 143 dead. Aftershocks lasting over a year were powerful enough to sink fishing boats as far away as Louisiana.
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1920 Haiyuan Earthquake
1920 Haiyuan Earthquake
Disaster: Earthquake
Year: 1920
Location: Haiyuan, China
Casualties: 236,000
The sheer amont of rubble in the photo shows how much damage was done to the region's structure alone; as for its people, this was the 2nd deadliest earthquake of the century and the 5th deadliest of all time. Aftershocks from the quake continued for 3 years.
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1976 Tangshan Earthquake
1976 Tangshan Earthquake
Disaster: Earthquake
Year: 1976
Location: Tangshan, China
Casualties: 250,000
The Chinese countryside was bent, dented, and up-heaved in the Great Tangshan earthquake of 1976. Its 7.8 magnitude isn't the largest recorded, but it was enough to take more lives than any other earthquake in the century, with almost a quarter million dead.
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2010 Kalapana Lava Disaster
2010 Kalapana Lava Disaster
Disaster: Lava
Photographer: Bruce Omori/EPA
Year: 2010
Location: Kalapana, Hawaii, United States
Lava has been slowly oozing through Kalapana, Hawaii, for about thirty years. Its residents choose to live there in full awareness that one day, their house will be engulfed in flames, like this one was in 2010.
The Cloquet Fire of 1918
The Cloquet Fire of 1918
Disaster: Wildfire
Year: 1918
Location: Cloquet, Minnesota, United States
Casualties: 453
The Cloquet fire of 1918 is the worst natural disaster in Minnesota history to date, killing 453 and injuring over 50,000 more (the town's population was only 9,000). It also caused $73 million in damages. In 1918 especially, this was an astronomical sum. It turned the region into a desolate wasteland, shown above, that better resembles an ancient ruin than a city that was standing only days prior. Eventually, the fire was blamed on flying sparks from trains igniting dry grass and wood along its tracks.
Boston Molasses Flood
Boston Molasses Spill
Disaster: Molasses flood
Year: 1919
Location: Boston, Massachusetts, United States
Casualties: 21
In a bizarre twist of events, a storage tank holding over two million gallons of molasses broke and poured into the north end of Boston. The sticky ooze rose waist-deep in the streets. Rescuers walked in slow-motion to retrieve survivors, but it still crushed and smothered twenty-one victims. Take note that this is not your grandmother's molasses; the molasses stored in the tank, owned by the Purity Distilling Company, was used to make rum, ethanol, and ammunition. It was not rebuilt after the mishap.
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2010 Hungary Disaster
2010 Hungary Disaster
Disaster: Toxic
Photographer: AP/Bela Szandelszky
Year: 2010
Location: Hungary
Casualties: 10
Toxic red sludge blasted Hungary when a reservoir burst at an aluminum plant in 2010. The pressure was so strong that it overturned a car, moved it 100-feet, and lifted another vehicle onto a fence. People and animals were smothered and burned by the highly acidic and caustic waste.
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2010 Haiti Earthquake
2010 Haiti Earthquake
Disaster: Earthquake
Year: 2010
Location: Haiti
Casualties: 316,000
The recent earthquake in Haiti caused catastrophic deaths and injuries, made a million citizens homeless, and left the country in shambles. The very poor suffered greatly, but not even the wealthy were spared, evidenced by the collapase of the National Palace, as if it had been made out of sugar cubes.
The Great Smog
The Great Smog
Disaster: Smog cloud
Year: 1952
Location: London, U.K.
Casualties: 12,000
The Great Smog was a period of severe air pollution that loomed over London. A specific series of weather patterns collected pollutants from coal burning and issued them back into the atmosphere. Because the city is typically gray and foggy, the poisonous clouds went unnoticed until thousands of people had already died. The haze was so thick that bus drivers had to walk in front of their vehicles so they wouldn't hit anything. I'm sure the tourists on board were not too happy that their view of Big Ben was obscured.
1950 Alps Avalanches
1950 Alps Avalanches
Disaster: Winter of Terror
Year: 1950
Location: The Alps, Austria/Switzerland
Casualties: 265
The winter of 1950-1951 saw a record number of avalanches in the Swiss and Austrian Alps and became known as the Winter of Terror. On one extreme day, the Swiss town of Andermatt endured six avalanches and lost thirteen people in just one hour. The city of Vals, seen above, was buried.
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2010 Queensland Floods
2010 Queensland Floods
Disaster: Flood
Photographer: Associated Press
Year: 2010
Location: Queensland, Australia
Casualties: 35
The floods that soaked Queensland, Australia, in 2010 have been described as "biblical." Almost the entire state was declared a disaster zone and its residents were forced to evacuate. This lonely wallaby was stranded on a haybail. Luckily, wallabies can swim.
Cyclone Nargis
Cyclone Nargis
Disaster: Hurricane
Photographer: WFP/Eddie Gerald
Year: 2008
Location: Burma
Casualties: 138,000
That umbrella was top-tier protection against the second deadliest cyclone of all time.
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2007 Guatemala Sinkhole
2007 Guatemala Sinkhole
Disaster: Sinkhole
Year:2007
Location: Guatemala City, Guatemala
Casualties: 3
Out of nowhere, a dozen homes in Guatemala City disappeared into a sinkhole thirty stories deep. The bodies of two teenagers and their father were found floating around in the sludge. The existence of sinkholes means that you are never safe, because no matter what, the earth can just open up and swallow you whole.
2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami
2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami
Disaster: Earthquake/Tsunami
Year: 2004
Location: Sumatra, Indonesia
Casualties: 250,000
The Indian Ocean tsunami, Sumatra-Andaman earthquake, and/or Boxing Day tsunami began with the 3rd-largest recorded earthquake by magnitude at 9.3. It is left to guess whether those people survived that wave behind them.
The End of the World
The End of the World
Disaster: End of days
Year: 2012
Location: Everywhere
Casualties: Everyone
Ancient Mayans, Nostradamus, and radical Christians have all predicted 2012 as the end of days. By December 21st, the earth might collide with another planet or a black hole. It may reverse its polarity and cause epic storms and floods, or we may all burn in the hellfires of damnation (the righteous may or may not be lifted to heaven). In any case, it seems that photographs of the event will finally be irrelevant, as there will be no one left to see them. Get afraid, get prepared, or get down while you still can.
2011 Tohoku Earthquake and Tsunami
2011 Tohoku Earthquake and Tsunami
Disaster: Tsunami/Earthquake
Photographer: Yomiuri Shimbun AFP/Getty Images
Year: 2011
Location: Tohoku, Japan
Casualties: 16,000
The 9.0 magnitude Tohoku earthquake was the largest in Japan, and the accompanying tsunami ripped much of the island to shreds. Towns and cities were rearranged like children's blocks. The boat stacked on top of the house shows an incredible instance of the disruption.
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1998 Quebec Ice Storm
1998 Quebec Ice Storm
Disaster: Ice Storm
Year: 1998
Location: Quebec, Canada
Casualties: 35
Hard, unforgiving ice, not soft, powdery snow, battered Ontario, Quebec, and parts of New England in 1998. Electrical pylons were grotesquely bent and twisted in the storms, leaving millions without power for weeks.
The 1938 Yellow River Flood
1938 Yellow River Flood
Disaster: Flood
Year: 1938
Location: Yellow River, China
Casualties: 500,000-900,000
Anything but a natural disaster, the Yellow River flood of 1938 has been called the largest act of environmental warfare ever. The Central Chinese government ordered and induced it by bombing dikes in the Yellow River as a strategy to keep Japanese troops from advancing during the Second Sino-Japanese War. The tactic may have succeeded, but it took the lives of thousands of Chinese civilians, as well.
1939 NYC Fire
1939 NYC Fire
Disaster: Fire
Photographer: Weegee
Year: 1939
Location: New York City, United States
Photographer Arthur Fellig, better known as Weegee, became famous for his disaster photography in New York City during the '30s and '40s. He built his portfolio of gritty urban scenes, particularly disasters, by listening in on a police radio and following their vehicles to emergency sites. He built a darkroom in his car so he could process his photos quickly and sell them to the media. As he became known for this process, crowds would gather at fires and wrecks to gawk at him as much as the emergency. This photo plainly shows a group of bystanders watching the photographer in action.
2011 Sindh Floods
2011 Sindh Floods
Disaster: Spiders
Photographer: Russell Watkins
Year: 2011
Location: Sindh, Pakistan
The 2011 floods in Pakistan drove creatures of all kinds up onto the ever-shrinking land masses. With nowhere else to go, millions of spiders made their homes in trees, covering them in webs like giant sticks of cotton candy.
2011 Puyehue-Cordón Caulle Earthquake
2011 Puyehue-Cordón Caulle Earthquake
Disaster: Earthquake
Photographer: Federico Grosso/Associated Press
Year: 2011
Location: Puyehue-Cordón Caulle, Chile
An earthquake on the Western coast of Chile caused an eruption from the long-dormant Puyehue volcano. Ash covered expansive areas of Chile and Argentina, creating a landscape that looks almost animated, as seen above. Within days the gigantic ash cloud had travelled as far as New Zealand.
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1991 Stampede at Mecca
1991 Stampede at Mecca
Disaster: Stampede
Year: 1990
Location: Mecca, Saudi Arabia
Casualties: 1,426
The Hajj, the Islamic ritual pilgrimage to Mecca, has about 3,000,000 visitors to the city every year. As one might imagine, the crowds are dense and fervent. It is tragic but not uncommon for people to be crushed by their fellow worshippers in the tight crowds. One stampede in 1991 was the deadliest, passing through the Al-Ma'asim Tunnel. People panicked when the ventilation system went out, and 1,426 were trampled or suffocated in the hysteria.
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1971 North Vietnam Flood
1971 North Vietnam Flood
Disaster: Flood
Photographer: B. Felton
Year: 1971
Location: Red River, North Vietnam
Casualties: 100,000
Because this epic flood occurred in the midst of the Vietnam War, few records or accounts were kept. However, damages to property and agriculture certainly exacerbated the existing devastation, additionally kiling 100,000 people.
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1989 San Francisco Earthquake
1989 San Francisco Earthquake
Disaster: Earthquake
Photographer: Otto Greule Jr.
Year: 1989
Location: San Francisco, California, United States
Casualties: 63
The Oakland A's and the San Francisco Giants were matched up for the third game of the 1989 World Series, when one of America's worst earthquakes struck both of their hometowns. A section of the bridge that linked the cities also collapsed, and houses and buildings on both sides of the Bay were shaken so violently that they appeared melted. Media coverage of the baseball game meant that the quake was the first to be recorded on live television.
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Lake Nyos Outgassing
Lake Nyos Outgassing
Disaster: Outgassing
Photographer: M.L. Tuttle, USGS
Year: 1986
Location: Lake Nyos, Cameroon
Casualties: 1,700
The deadly cloud of carbon dioxide that came over Cameroon in 1986 was undetectable until people and livestock began to fall dead around Lake Nyos. The lake sits atop a dormant volcano and emitted gasses built up over hundreds of years. The lake's once-blue water turned muddy red.
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The Armero Tragedy
The Armero Tragedy
Disaster: Volcano eruption
Photographer: Frank Fournier
Year: 1985
Location: Nevado Del Ruiz, Colombia
Casualties: 25,000
The Nevado Del Ruiz volcano's relatively small eruption in Colombia caused massive lahars (volcanic mudslides). Mud and debris traveled at highway speeds and flowed into the rivers, engulfing the town of Armero. This deeply disturbing image was taken of 13-year-old Omayra Sanchez, who died after being trapped in debris for 3 days. The shocking photo brought international attention and controversy to the event.
1981 Winter Park Sinkhole
1981 Winter Park Sinkhole
Disaster: Sinkhole
Year: 1981
Location: Winter Park, Florida, United States
The stuff of nightmares came true in Winter Park, Florida, when a friendly neighborhood corner simply gave way to a sink hole the size of a football field. It swallowed an entire two-story house, most of a car dealership, and a public pool. Investigators attempted to attribute the hole to instability caused by leaks from the pool, though the theory was never confirmed. The city has since turned the sinkhole into a man-made lake, Lake Rose.
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Mt. St. Helens Volano Eruption
Mt. St. Helens Volano Eruption
Disaster: Volcano eruption
Photographer: USGS
Year: 1980
Location: Mt. St. Helens, Washington
Casualties: 57
The enormous Mt. St. Helens eruption spewed lava over 15 miles high in the air and spread ash over 11 of the United States. As far as 9 miles away from the mountain, the heat was intense enough to melt the dashboard of this truck into a strange, almost surrealist object.
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1948 Ashgabat Earthquake
1948 Ashgabat Earthquake
Disaster: Earthquake
Year: 1948
Location: Ashgabat, Iran (Turkmen SSR)
Casualties: 110,000 - 176,000
Not much is known about the quake, nor are many photos available, as the Soviet Union censored such disasters in its records. What does remain shows a catastrophic scene. Imagine the earth splitting open in front of you, as in the picture above. It's been calculated that this earthquake is the 12th worst of all time. Casualties are estimated to be above 100,000, which was about 10% of the country's population at the time.
1970 Mt. Huascaran Avalanche
1970 Mt. Huascaran Avalanche
Disaster: Avalanche
Year: 1970
Location: Mt. Huascaran, Peru
Casualties: 70,000
The epic 1970 avalanche that crashed down from the top of Mt. Huascaran in Peru occurred when huge areas of ice and snow were dislodged by the Ancash/Great Peruvian earthquake. The snow took the entire city of Yungay and its 20,000 residents in its clutches. Even the photo looks like a giant hand of ice smothering the city.
1999 Vargas Floods
1999 Vargas Floods
Disaster: Storm, floods, landslides
Photographer: Nicola Rocco
Year: 1999
Location: Vargas, Venezuela
Casualties: 20,000
Storms, floods, and landslides brought entire towns to their muddy burial under 10 feet of sludge. Whole houses were shoved out to sea in Venezuela.
1960 Valdivia Earthquake
1960 Valdivia Earthquake
Disaster: Earthquake
Year: 1960
Location: Valdivia, Chile
Casualties: 2,200 - 6,000
Reaching a magnitude of 9.5 on the Richter scale, the Valdivia earthquake in 1960 was the largest to ever be recorded by a seismograph. It caused multiple tsunamis with waves over eighty feet high. One traveled more than 6,000 miles to wreak havoc on Hilo, Hawaii, as well.
1972 Iran Blizzard
1972 Iran Blizzard
Disaster: Blizzard
Year: 1972
Location: Iran
Casualties: 4,000
Little is known of what is believed to be the deadliest blizzard in history. It claimed the lives of entire villages, totaling 4,000 casualties under as much as 26 feet of snow.
Superstorm
Superstorm
Disaster: Storm
Photographer: Getty Images
Year: 1993
Location: East Coast, United States
Casualties: 310
The Storm of the Century, or Superstorm, was a winter of record snows, winds, and waves along the East Coast. Over 200 people died in the snowstorms, 48 were lost at sea, and at least 18 houses dropped into the ocean on Long Island. This guy did not seem to grasp the gravity of the situation, shielding his head with only a pizza box, although desperate times do call for desperate measures.
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The Central China Floods
The Central China Flood
Disaster: Flood
Photographers: Charles and Anne Lindbergh
Year: 1931
Location: Central China
Casualties: 4,000,000
The Central China Flood is probably the deadliest natural disaster in history. The Yellow, Yangtze, and Huai rivers all flooded, resulting in up to 4 million deaths (in perspective, 4 million is the entire population of Los Angeles).
The Bhola Cyclone
The Bhola Cyclone
Disaster: Cyclone
Year: 1970
Location: Bangladesh
Casualties: 500,000
The Bhola cyclone over Bangladesh and India was both the deadliest cyclone ever and is still one of the worst recorded natural disasters. At first, the photo looks like a nice aerial view of a tropical island, until you notice the uprooted palm tree laying in the middle of the pond.
Black Sunday Dust Storms
Black Sunday Dust Storms
Disaster: Dust storms
Year: 1935
Location: Kansas, United States
Some twenty dust storms or "black blizzards" swept through the prairie lands of Oklahoma, Kansas, and Texas in just one day. Powerful winds carried ominous clouds of dust and soil all over the country, blocking the sun, and covering everything in up to six feet of black powder. That day, April 15, 1935, became known as Black Sunday. Because the sky turned dark midday, chickens on many farms thought it was night and went to sleep.
The Great Kanto Earthquake
The Great Kanto Earthquake
Disaster: Earthquake
Year: 1923
Location: Kanto, Japan
Casualties: 143,000
The Great Kanto earthquake rocked Japan one Saturday afternoon, causing thousands of terrible fatalities. People making lunch as the quake struck fell victim to huge fires when their stoves overturned. Others perished as they attempted to escape, their feet stuck in the melting tarmac. It also set off a long series of strange and terrible tragedies that further devastated a huge area of the island nation, including tsunamis, typhoons, and fire tornadoes — tornadoes with flaming columns. The photo above shows the gruesome damage after a fire whirl mercilessly plundered a refugee camp in Tokyo, killing almost 40,000 in one blow.
Locust Swarm in Palestine
Locust Swarm in Palestine
Disaster: Locust swarm
Photographer: The American Colony in Jerusalem
Year: 1915
Location: Palestine
Swarming locusts descended on Palestine for six months in 1915, devastating agriculture and causing food prices to soar. As part of a larger campaign to fight the invasion, Ottoman authorities asked photographers from the American Colony in Jerusalem to document the plague. The series of photos not only documented the disaster and its effects in the area, but resulted in a catalog of close-up portraits of the locusts for scientific study.
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Summer 2010 Heat Wave
Summer 2010 Heat Wave
Disaster: Heat wave
Year: 2010
Location: Northern Hemisphere
Casualties: 70,000
The summer of 2010 was the hottest on record all over the Northen Hemisphere. In some parts of Western Europe, it stayed a scorching 104 degrees through the night! The heat also caused fires all over. Smoke fills a usually-bustling tourist stret in Russia, leaving it desolate and apocalyptic. People wore masks to keep the smoke out of their lungs.
Chandka Forest Elephant Rampage
Chandka Forest Elephant Rampage
Disaster: Elephant rampage
Year: 1972
Location: Chandka Forest, India
Casualties: 24
Harsh droughts and miserable heat waves hit India in 1972. Apart from the heat and hunger this caused residents, it also caused a herd of hungry, overheated, and enraged elephants to stampede through villages in the Chandka Forest. The maniacal beasts destroyed buildings and trampled 24 people to death.
2010 Pakistan Flood
2010 Pakistan Flood
Disaster: Flood
Photographer: Reuters/Stringer
Year: 2010
Location: Singh, Pakistan
Casualties: 2,000
Had you asked this gentleman what he would bring with him on a desert island, he might not have answered "cows," but that's what he got when heavy monsoon rains flooded almost a fifth of Pakistan's land area in 2010. The old adage "water, water everywhere but not a drop to drink" found literal meaning as, during relief efforts, diseases like malaria, diarrhea, and cholera broke out due to a lack of clean drinking water.
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1912 NYC Fire
1912 NYC Fire
Disaster: Fire
Photographer: Irving Underhill
Year: 1912
Location: New York City, United States
Irving Underhill snapped this shot of firefighters hosing down a building that caught on fire in winter. The scorching fire and smoke meet the cold winter air and snow to create this eerie, overgrown effect.
1991 Chittagong Cyclone
1991 Chittagong Cyclone
Disaster: Cyclone
Year: 1991
Location: Chittagong, Bangladesh
Casualties: 138,000
Just 20 years after the deadly Bhola Cyclone, Bangladesh was struck again. The shelters built during the previous disaster were useless to many residents, who didn't know where they were or didn't have time to get to them. Many were able to evacuate anyway, but still 138,000 people died. Two men in the photo climb the ruins that were once homes and businesses for 10 million displaced survivors.
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Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill
Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill
Disaster: Oil spill
Photographer: Tyrone Turner
Year: 2010
Location: Gulf Coast, United States
Though the disaster was man-made, the explosion of the ship Deepwater Horizon had severe impacts on nature in the Gulf of Mexico and surrounding areas. Water and wildlife were grossly contaminated as oily brown birds and oily brown waves came up on the shores of Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Florida coastlines. It was the largest accidental marine oil spill in history. BP paid out nearly $5 billion for related damages.
2008 Bangor Fire Tornado
2008 Bangor Fire Tornado
Disaster: Fire tornado
Photographer: Simon Gray
Year: 2008
Location: Bangor, United Kingdom
"Fire tornado" sounds like something you made up when you were a kid playing with Transformers. However, these horrifying blazing tornadoes are all too real and are just as destructive as they sound. They are also called fire whirls or fire devils. They are rarely captured on film, so this hellish image of one from the UK is all the more special.
Beebe Bird Rains
Beebe Bird Rains
Disaster: Bird deaths
Year: 2011
Location: Beebe, Arkansas, United States
On New Year's Eve for two years in a row now, thousands of blackbirds have simply fallen from the sky over Beebe, Arkansas. The cause of this "bird rain" is unknown, though some biologists say that loud explosions spooked migrating birds and led them to fly aimlessly into buildings and trees. Some locals, however, see this bizarre, repeated occurrence as a sign of rapture.
Hurricane Katrina
Hurricane Katrina
Disaster: Hurricane
Photographer: Mario Tama
Year: 2005
Location: Gulf Coast, United States
Casualties: 1,800
Seven years later, New Orleans is still recovering from Hurricane Katrina, which displaced a huge portion of its residents. Its destruction was quick and thorough, ripping down many trees and buildings.
The Titanic
The Titanic
Disaster: Shipwreck
Photographer: Ralph White
Year: 1912
Location: North Atlantic Ocean
Casualties: 1,517
2012 marks 100 years since the Titanic sank after striking an iceberg in the Atlantic Ocean on its voyage from England to New York. This somber photo was taken as a lifeboat approached the ship Carpathia, which rescued many survivors from the icy waters. In a sad ironic twist, the Carpathia also sank after being hit by a German U-boat in WWI.
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