—
When you come to think of it, the Earth has been extremely lucky throughout its existence. So many terrible things could have happened to it, but it lingers on. Here are Top 10 times the world could have ended. Stay tuned to number 1 to find out what disaster could change life on earth as we know it…at any time!
—
—
Transcript provided by YouTube:
When you come to think of it, the Earth has been extremely lucky throughout its existence.
So many terrible things could have happened to it, but it lingers on.
Here are Top 10 times the world could have ended.
Stay tuned to number 1 to find out what disaster could change life on earth as we know it…at
any time!
Number 10: The 1859 Solar Storm.
This event took place in August and September of 1859, with a number of solar flares reaching
Earth.
The geomagnetic storm managed to reach the planet in less than 20 hours, and it arrived
in the dead of night.
People in North America were so amazed that they thought it was actually morning, because
of all the brightness – that’s how strong the solar flare was.
Although this event did not end up destroying the planet, it definitely caused massive havoc.
Many telegraph poles actually caught fire, and the telegraph services in North America
were completely disrupted.
The strange thing is that some telegraph poles actually kept working, although they were
cut off from their power supply.
The event was also visible from the Sub-Saharan Africa, Hawaii, Cuba, and many more.
In 1859, there weren’t very many telegraph cables, and the telephone hadn’t yet been
invented, therefore, the damage…luckily…was not so big.
But if the same thing happened today, it would likely destroy all the communication networks
we have due to electromagnetic damage, and scientists estimate that the damage would
be more than 2 trillion dollars.
Number 9.
Mount Tambora Eruption.
In 1815, the Indonesian volcano of Tambora erupted so massively that it almost changed
the Earth’s climate and its population.
The magma that came out of the volcano was more than 24 cubic miles in volume.
But it wasn’t the most destructive aspect of the whole Tambora eruption.
Because of this dreadful event, a lot of toxic waste went into the atmosphere.
Later on, the toxic gas turned into an enormous collection of toxic clouds, which engulfed
the planet and dropped acid rains.
As a result of the volcanic eruption, the Earth’s surface began cooling, and the year
of 1816 was known in Europe and the America as the “summer-less year.”
In June of that year, snowfall was recorded in England – that’s how drastic the changes
in climate were.
The Tambora event is probably the largest recorded volcanic eruption in the history
of the world, and its also the most devastating, as it resulted in the death of more than 70,000
people.
Around 10,000 died directly from the consequences of the eruption, but the largest part died
because of climate changes and the resulting famine.
Number 8.
The Bonilla Comet.
The Bonilla comet was named after the astronomer Jose Bonilla, who observed a strange event
through his telescope.
What Bonilla saw could have had catastrophic consequences, and the Earth survived by having
pure cosmic luck.
On August 12, 1883, Bonilla saw a huge comet that kept breaking up and sending hundreds
of smaller pieces towards the Earth’s atmosphere.
Bonilla managed to make a couple of photographs of the event, documenting it for future generations.
In 2011, scientists researched this event once again, and concluded that these small,
broken-up objects could have easily been parts of a huge, billion-ton comet that came very
close to planet Earth.
It is estimated that, if one of those pieces hit the Earth’s surface, the result would
be an impact similar to the one from the famous Tunguska event of 1908 – when a meteoroid
hit the surface and felled 80 million trees.
But given the fact that there were literally hundreds, if not thousands of pieces flying
close to our atmosphere, it could have destroyed the planet.
The numerous pieces of the Bonilla probably came as close as 400 miles to the planet earth,
which is a pretty darn close shave in cosmic distances.
Number 7: Comet Hyakutake.
This comet was discovered in 1996, and it was the nearest comet to pass the Earth in
the last 200 years.
It was also known as the Great Comet of 1996.
The amazing thing is that this comet was visible clearly from the Earth’s surface, and there
are many photographs that documented this event.
It was discovered not by a professional astronomer, but by an amateur from Japan.
Yuji Hyakutake was interested in comets, and he spent years researching them.
Its interesting that this is actually the second comet Hyakutake found.
In 1995, he also found a comet, but one year after, when he was looking at the first one
– he found another one, which was almost in the same position as the first Hyakutake comet.
Luckily, the comet didn’t destroy the planet, but in cosmic distances – it was really, really
close to us.
And since we know that it was almost 3 miles in length, it was really had the power to
end all life on Earth, and possibly affect its ability to support life in the future.
Number 6: Russia Confusion.
Leaving natural occurrences for a moment, in 1995, a rocket was launched in Norway.
Its goal was to make some kind of research for aurora borealis, and that was it.
However, as the Cold War had just finished a couple of years prior to this, Russia was
still apprehensive of any strange activity close to its borders.
In this particular case, Russian radars picked up a signal that was very similar to a ballistic
missile and, obviously, the Russians were terrified.
If they decided to acknowledge the missile as an enemy weapon, a full-scale war could
have started.
Allegedly, the then Russian president, Boris Yeltsin was only minutes from deciding to
launch a nuclear attack on the US, but luckily – that didn’t happen.
The rocket fell into the ocean, and, luckily, didn’t cause any damage, or hurt anybody.
The amazing thing is that apparently, the US government had notified Russia weeks before
launching the rocket, but it seems there was a glitch in the Russian chain of command.
Had the Russian president been impatient, or, less trusting of his relationship with
Ronal Reagan…who knows what could have happened.
Number 5: A made-up war scenario On November 9, 1979, a low-ranking officer
from the US Air Force decided to make a program, which could simulate a nuclear attack by the
USSR on America.
The program was ambitiously conceived, as the goal was to create a simulation of 1000
missiles attacking US…at once!
But there was one thing this officer didn’t know…he didn’t know that his computer was
connected directly into the control room of NORAD, the headquarters of a North-American
defense system.
Once he finished the simulation, the officer decided to try it out – and he inadvertently
put in motion a dreadful scenario.
When the simulation was started, the NORAD control room read this as a warning of an
actual nuclear attack, which put the entire defense system of the United States at full
alert!
Don’t forget that this was happening when the Cold War was still going strong, and the
possibility of a nuclear attack was quite possible.
Messages were sent across the country, saying that the Soviets were attacking, and the fighter
planes were alarmed, expecting the attack.
But luckily, someone in NORAD headquarters was smart enough to double-check the whole
thing, and when the radar stations were contacted – it turned out there were no missiles heading
towards the US.
Number 4: Tunguska event.
On June 30, 1908, a meteoroid that reached the surface of the Earth caused an air burst
to occur, which flattened 800 square miles of forest.
This event, itself, happened in Siberian Russia.
The interesting thing is that this event was classified under the category of “impact events,”
but there is no impact crater.
In fact, to this day – no such crater has been found.
What is absolutely amazing is that there were no human casualties.
The location of the impact is quite luckily one of the least populated regions on Earth,
and it’s by pure luck that the planet avoided a catastrophe of losing thousands, if not
millions of lives.
The Tunguska event is probably the largest impact of its kind ever to struck Earth; and
if the meteoroid had had a more direct hit, it definitely could have affected the Earth
to a much greater extent.
Number 3: A Blown Fuse This sounds like a joke, but it’s not!
We’re talking about the Cold War era, again, but this time focused on the 1950s.
During this time, the nuclear scare was extremely high, and paranoia was all around the US.
Fearing an attack from the Soviets, the US government decided to make a network of radars,
in order to control the skies and be ready if anything bad happens.
All the radars were connected to a military base in Nebraska, and the communication went
quite well in the next couple of years.
But on November 24, 1961, all communication between the warning radars and their headquarters
stopped.
It seemed as if the whole radar network was destroyed.
Even the back-up lines didn’t respond – and that’s when panic struck.
But there was no nuclear attack from the Soviets.
In fact, the whole network of radars was connected through one singular relay station in Colorado,
and when it overheated one night…all communication was dead.
Number 2: The Cuban Missile Crisis Although this crisis lasted only about two
weeks, it’s one of the most dramatic moments in recent history, which could have led to
catastrophic consequences.
The Cuban Missile Crisis is practically the closest the world has ever gotten to a full-scale
nuclear war.
It all started when USSR felt threatened by the American military presence in Europe,
which was getting bigger and bigger.
When the US placed its missiles in Italy and Turkey, as a response, USSR decided to put
their missiles as close to US border as possible.
The best place for it was, of course…Cuba.
Cuba was a newcomer to the world of communism, as it overthrew its government in a communist
revolution a few years prior.
The plan was to start building missile silos in late 1962, but the US government didn’t
want to let this happen, and it immediately took action against it.
Luckily, after a lot of negotiation, the two superpowers reached an agreement: USSR decided
not to put missiles on Cuba, and the US pledged not to attack or invade Cuba ever again.
Number 1: Toba Eruption.
This is one of many super-eruptions that happened throughout the Earth’s history.
In this particular case, The Toba eruption took place around 75,000 years ago, and it’s
named after its exact place of happening…Lake Toba on Sumatra, present-day Indonesia.
As far as we know, this is one of the biggest…if not THE biggest volcanic explosion ever.
The eruption was so powerful that it reached between 2,000 and 3,000 square km.
To give you a clearer picture of the explosion, let’s just say that the erupted mass was one
hundred times bigger than any recent explosion.
The aftermath of Toba eruption was catastrophic, to say the least.
There was 300 square miles of deposited ash fall, and the sun was darkened for six whole
years, affecting the climate to a large extent.
The planet’s temperature dropped significantly, and there were many human migrations and animal
as a result of this.
Another Toba theory also suggests that the human population dropped to a mere few thousand
people, which means that the whole human history was practically “restarted” after Toba eruption.
With the unpredictability of the universe, it’s sufficed to say that we’re lucky that
our species has made it this far.
What are some times YOU can think of that almost destroyed humanity?
Let’s talk about it in the comments below.
Don’t forget to hit that subscribe button before it’s too late, and take care!
—
This post was previously published on YouTube.
—
What’s your take? Comment below or write a response and submit to us your own point of view or reaction here at the red box, below, which links to our submissions portal.
◊♦◊
Sign up for our Writing Prompts email to receive writing inspiration in your inbox twice per week.
If you believe in the work we are doing here at The Good Men Project, please join us as a Premium Member, today.
All Premium Members get to view The Good Men Project with NO ADS.
A $50 annual membership gives you an all-access pass. You can be a part of every call, group, class, and community.
A $25 annual membership gives you access to one class, one Social Interest group, and our online communities.
A $12 annual membership gives you access to our Friday calls with the publisher, our online community.
Register New Account
Need more info? A complete list of benefits is here.
◊♦◊
Get the best stories from The Good Men Project delivered straight to your inbox, here.