In 2014, there were 189 natural catastrophes worldwide, the most ever recorded by Swiss Re publication Sigma, though the cost of these events dropped to $35 billion, from $44 billion the year prior.
The most devastating catastrophe of that year was the August 3rd earthquake in China, where 731 people lost their lives.
It's no surprise that an earthquake ranks at the top of the list. While hurricanes are the costliest catastrophes for insurers, throughout history, earthquakes have generally been the deadliest. The most lethal earthquake on record occurred on Jan. 23, 1556, when an earthquake in Shaanxi, China, struck in the early evening, killing approximately 830,000 people.
Why are earthquakes so deadly? Despite intensive analysis of factors such as increases in radon gas concentrations, changes in electromagnetic activity, foreshocks and even unusual animal behavior, researchers have been unable to uncover reliable precursors to these events.
“When you really bring the whole weight of statistical rigor to [the study of earthquake precursors], nothing stands up,” says Susan Hough, a geophysicist at California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.
It makes sense, then, that on a list of the worst catastrophes from the past several decades, earthquakes predominate, though heat waves, cyclones and floods also make an appearance.
Keep reading to view the 10 deadliest catastrophes of the past 44 years:
Children play in a fountain after a sunny and hot day in Alexandrov Garden at the Kremlin Wall in Moscow, Russia. (Photo: Alexander Zemlianichenko/AP Photo)
|10. Heat wave with temperatures up to 40 degrees Celsius (Russia, Czech Republic)
Date: June 15, 2010.
Victims: 55,630.
In this Nov. 26, 2012 photo, the door to an outhouse stands near a home, unseen, on top of a mountain in the Nueva Rinconada neighborhood on the outskirts of Lima, Peru. Seismologists, engineers and civil defense officials agree that Lima is due for an earthquake but is acutely vulnerable and sorely unprepared. (Photo: Rodrigo Abd/AP Photo)
|9. Earthquake (7.7 magnitude), massive avalanche and floods (Peru)
|Date: May 31, 1970.
Victims: 66,000.
A girl walks in rubble of destroyed homes caused by an earthquake in Chitral town, northern Pakistan, Oct. 29, 2015. (Photo: Anjum Naveed/AP Photo)
8. Earthquake (7.6 magnitude), aftershocks, landslides (Pakistan, India, Afghanistan)
|Date: Oct. 8, 2005.
Victims: 74,310.
In this April 4, 2009 file photo, mourners light up fire crackers, burn incense and make offerings to those who died in May 12, 2008 earthquake, on the grave sweeping day in Beichuan, Sichuan, China. (Photo: Elizabeth Dalziel/AP Photo)
7. Earthquake (7.9 magnitude), aftershocks (China)
Date: May 12, 2008.
Victims: 87,449.
A Bangladeshi man sleeps on a boat anchored on the highly polluted River Buriganga in Dhaka, Bangladesh, March 28, 2016. The Buriganga has become a large mass of extremely polluted water, contaminated by hazardous pollutants such as industrial and household waste, sewage, medical waste, oil, plastics and dead animals. (Photo: A.M. Ahad/AP Photo)
6. Tropical cyclone Gorky (Bangladesh)
Date: Apr. 29, 1991.
Victims: 138,000.
In this photo released by China's Xinhua News Agency, people walk past fallen trees at a street in Myanmar's biggest city Yangon on May 3, 2008. Tropical Cyclone Nargis ripped through Yangon, tearing off roofs, uprooting trees and knocking out electricity. (Photo: Zhang Yunfei/Xinhua via AP Photo)
5. Tropical cyclone Nargis (Myanmar, Bay of Bengal)
Date: May 2, 2008.
Victims: 138,300.
In this Jan. 10, 2005 file photo, an elephant, which belongs to the forest ministry, removes debris in Banda Aceh, Indonesia, after a tsunami, triggered by a massive earthquake off the Indonesian coast, left more than 220,000 people dead in 14 countries and caused about $10 billion in damage. Countries from Indonesia to India to Africa's east coast were hit, leaving shocking scenes of death and destruction. (Photo: Eugene Hoshiko/AP Photo)
4. Earthquake (9.0 magnitude), tsunami in Indian Ocean (Indonesia, Thailand and elsewhere)
Date: Dec. 26, 2004.
Victims: 220,000.
A man with two children sits in the rubble of the earthquake damaged cathedral during a mass in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Jan. 12, 2011, one year after a magnitude-7.0 earthquake devastated the capital and killed more than 220,000 people and left millions homeless. (Photo: Ramon Espinosa/AP Photo)
3. Earthquake (7.0 magnitude), aftershocks (Haiti)
|Date: Jan. 12, 2010.
Victims: 222,570.
Almost an entire wall of a house in Beijing lies in a heap on the sidewalk, July 31, 1976, after a severe earthquake rocked the Chinese capital. (Photo: John R. Zelenik/AP Photo)
|2. Earthquake (7.5 magnitude) (China)
Date: July 28, 1976.
Victims: 255,000.
Villagers look at the remains of several homes in Manpura, Bangladesh, after a cyclone hit the area, 105 miles south of Dacca, on Nov. 17, 1970. Many of the villagers were swept away by a tidal wave during the cyclone. (AP Photo)
1. Storm and flood catastrophe (Bangladesh)
Date: Nov. 11, 1970.
Victims: 300,000.
Editor's Note: Victim counts include dead and missing. Source: Sigma Re, Sigma No. 2/2015.
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