Disasterporn

(These are not the nine deadliest earthquakes, though the first three are in fact the ones that caused the largest loss of life.)

Thousands of earthquakes happen every day around the world. Most are hardly felt, if at all. But sometimes pieces of Earth's crust suddenly slip past each other in a massive release of pent-up stress. The jolted Earth rumbles, buildings collapse, streets buckle, and thousands of people die. These movements are nature's most violent act and take a grim toll on human life and infrastructure.

1556: Shaanxi Earthquake
The deadliest earthquake in recorded history rattled the Shensi province of China on Jan. 23, 1556, and killed an estimated 830,000 people. The death toll was particularly high among peasants who lived in artificial caves that were dug into soft rock and collapsed during the quake.

2004: Indian Ocean Earthquake and Tsunami
On Dec. 26, 2004, a magnitude-9.1 earthquake ruptured the ocean floor off the west coast of Sumatra, Indonesia, and triggered a series of destructive tsunamis that killed at least 225,000 people in 11 countries. Millions more were stripped of their homes. Scientists estimate the energy released in the event was more than 1,500 times the power of the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima in 1945.

1976: The Tangshan Earthquake
The deadliest earthquake in modern times flattened the industrial city of Tangshan, China, in the early morning of July 28, 1976. The Chinese government put the death toll at 255,000, though many geologists believe it was much higher – up to 655,000. Nearly 800,000 more were injured. Tremors and damage from the magnitude-7.5 quake extended as far as Beijing, about 90 miles from the epicenter.

2005: The Kashmir Earthquake
At least 86,000 people were killed when a magnitude-7.6 earthquake hit the Kashmir region of northern Pakistan on Oct. 8, 2005. Millions more were left homeless at the outset of the harsh Himalayan winter. Landslides swept away villages and blocked roads for relief and rescue workers, worsening the human toll. At least 1,350 people were killed in neighboring India, and the shaking was also felt in Afghanistan.

1970: Ancash Earthquake
The magnitude-7.9 earthquake that struck just off the west coast of Peru on May 31, 1970, reduced the coastal towns of Casma and Chimbote to rubble and killed at least 3,000 people. Even greater disaster struck the towns of Yungay and Ranranhirca. The shaking sent an avalanche of mud, rock and ice down the slopes of the Cordillera Blanca and buried the cities under tens of feet of debris. An estimated 70,000 lives were lost.

2003: Bam Earthquake
On Dec. 26, 2003, a magnitude-6.6 earthquake crumpled the adobe city of Bam, Iran, killing an estimated 30,000 people. About 60 percent of the city's buildings were destroyed and nearly all the rest were damaged. The event ranks as the deadliest in Iran's history.

1985: Michoacán earthquake
On Sept. 19, 1985, a magnitude-8.2 earthquake off Mexico’s Pacific coast wreaked the greatest havoc in Mexico City, about 220 miles from the epicenter. There, hundreds of buildings were toppled, and thousands of people died. Government officials put the death toll at about 9,000, though other sources say it may have been as high as 35,000. A triggered tsunami sent waves rising almost 10 feet crashing into the coastal towns of Lazaro Cardenas, Zihuatanejo and Manzanillo.

1906: The San Francisco Earthquake
The California earthquake of April 18, 1906, ranks as the most deadly in U.S. history: About 3,000 people perished. The Great Quake, as the event is known, was estimated at magnitude 7.9 and ruptured along 296 miles of the northernmost section of the San Andreas fault. Broken gas lines, fractured chimneys and toppled chemical trucks sparked a series of fires that torched large sections of San Francisco.

1964: The Good Friday Earthquake
The most powerful earthquake in North American history shook the state of Alaska on March 27, 1964, the Friday before Easter. The magnitude-9.2 temblor triggered a tsunami that was responsible for 113 of the 128 deaths associated with the earthquake, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. The giant waves struck along the West Coast down to California, and rolled across the Pacific to Hawaii.

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Three names -- Dean, Felix and Noel -- were permanently retired from the list of Atlantic hurricane names after storms bearing those monikers in 2007 caused damage in the Caribbean, Central America, Mexico and elsewhere, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said Tuesday.

Members of the organization voted to remove the names during its regional hurricane committee meeting, NOAA said in a written statement. "These names will not be used again because of the widespread destruction caused by these storms."

The list of tropical storm names recycles every six years. In 2013, the three names will be replaced with Dorian, Fernand and Nestor.

Although no storm in 2007 compared to historic hurricanes such as Andrew or Katrina, a storm doesn't have to be major to have its name retired. In 2001, for instance, Tropical Storm Allison, which never reached hurricane status, had its name retired after it dumped more than 3 feet of rain on Houston, Texas.

Since tropical storms were first named in 1953, 70 names have been retired, officials said.

A look at 2007's retirees:

• Hurricane Dean passed between St. Lucia and Martinique in the Caribbean Sea on August 17, passing just south of Jamaica as a Category 4 hurricane with winds of 145 mph. The storm reached Category 5 strength -- the highest category on the Saffir-Simpson scale of hurricane intensity, with 165-mph winds -- before making landfall August 21 near Costa Maya on the Yucatan Peninsula. It weakened over land and then emerged into the Bay of Campeche, strengthening to Category 2 status before making a second landfall south of Tuxpan, Mexico. Dean killed 32 people across the Caribbean, the NOAA said, with the largest death tolls in Mexico and Haiti.

• Felix was the second hurricane of the 2007 season to make landfall as a Category 5 hurricane, something never seen since record-keeping began in 1851. Felix became a hurricane September 1 over the southwestern Caribbean Sea and intensified quickly, reaching Category 5 status about 400 miles southeast of Jamaica. It weakened to a Category 3 but re-strengthened and made landfall as a Category 5 on September 4 at Punta Gorda, Nicaragua. Felix was responsible for 130 deaths in Nicaragua and Honduras, officials said, and caused major damage in northeastern Nicaragua and inland flooding elsewhere in Central America.

• Noel lumbered across the Dominican Republic, Haiti, eastern Cuba and the lower Bahamas before reaching Category 1 hurricane status in the northwestern Bahamas. It lost its tropical classification as it moved over the western Atlantic to near Nantucket, Massachusetts, but had 75-mph winds when it came ashore near Yarmouth, Nova Scotia. One hundred sixty people died across the Caribbean and Bahamas as a result of Noel, and the storm's winds produced widespread power outages in the United States and Canada, along with significant coastal flooding and damaging waves.

The 2008 Atlantic hurricane season begins June 1.

Source

Another "significant" tropical cyclone is brewing in the Andaman Sea, and it has Myanmar's major city, Yangon, in its cross-hairs.

While the storm is only forming now, it still is dropping rain on the ravaged region, and packs sustained winds of up to 35 mph, according to the Joint Typhoon Warning Center.

This cyclone is approaching Yangon from the opposite direction that Tropical Cyclone Nargis did. That storm formed in the Bay of Bengal, headed east, and struck with Category 4 hurricane strength in the Irrawaddy River Delta region. This second storm is forming in the Andaman Sea, headed West and may gain strength after it passes Myanmar and heads out into the Bay of Bengal.

With the official death toll climbing by the day, and Myanmar's military junta still restricting the access of relief workers, some 2 million people may be at risk of starvation or disease because of atrocious living conditions in the wake of Nargis.