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Fast Facts Is it true that tornadoes occur more frequently during rush hour? Can dogs and cats detect earthquakes before they occur? It seems everyone can tell you a “fact” about natural disasters. Here are some interesting facts so you can separate natural facts from fiction.
EARTHQUAKES: Plates of the earth’s crust can move as slowly a millimeter a week—that is about the same as the growth rate of
the human fingernail. The energy release of the Indian Ocean earthquake of 2004 (9.3 on the Richter scale) was equivalent to 23,000
times that of the bomb dropped on Hiroshima. It is a myth! Dogs and other animals cannot predict earthquakes.
VOLCANOES: The eruption of Mt. St. Helens in 1980 propelled ash into the stratosphere to a height equivalent to 30 Sears
Towers. The way volcanic aerosols reflect light produces vivid red sunsets. The red skies in Edvard Munch’s famous 1893
painting The Scream are now thought to reflect accurately the eerie twilights seen in Norway for months after Krakatoa’s eruption almost 7,000 miles away.
Worldwide, some half a billion people make their homes near volcanoes that have erupted before, and could again.
HURRICANES: The word "hurricane" comes from Huracan, the god of big winds and evil spirits once worshiped by the Maya
people of Central America. The Bhola Cyclone of 1970, in what today is Bangladesh, was the single deadliest weather-related disaster in
history, with over 500,000 casualties. The hurricane that struck Galveston, Texas in 1900 was the deadliest natural disaster in U.S. history, causing 20-
foot floods and over 8,000 deaths. In 2005, there were so many named hurricanes that letters of the Greek alphabet had to be used to name storms
for the first time since storms began acquiring names in 1953.TORNADOES:
The wind speed of an EF-5 tornado can reach almost half the speed of sound. March 18, 1925, the “Tri-State Tornado” spanned three states and lasted from 1:00-4:30 pm, leaving some 15,000
homes destroyed. It is both the deadliest and the longest-lasting tornado on record. Tornadoes occur most often during evening rush hour (between 3:00 and 7:00 pm). Opening windows and doors is not recommended during a tornado. This is an old myth based on the
belief that this would equalize pressure in a building.
This exhibition and its national tour were developedby The Field Museum, Chicago.
Local sponsors:
Nature Unleashed: Inside Natural Disaster is on
exhibit February 6 through May 1, 2016 at the Pink Palace Museum, 3050 Central Avenue, Memphis, TN 38111. Go to www.memphismuseums.org or call 901.636.2362 for more information.
Ronda Cloud, Mkt/PR, 901-636-2338, [email protected]
