natural disasters

Ten deadliest natural disasters

Rank	Death toll (estimate)	Event	Location	Date
10.	&10000000000234117000000234,117	1920 Haiyuan earthquake	Haiyuan, Ningxia-Gansu, China	01920-12-16December 16, 1920
9.	&10000000000242419000000242,419 (the death toll has been estimated to be as high as 665,000)	1976 Tangshan earthquake	Tangshan, Hebei, China	01976-07-28July 28, 1976
8.	&10000000000250000000000250,000–300,000	526 Antioch earthquake	Antioch, Byzantine Empire (now Turkey)	00526-05 May 526
7.	&0101010101010101010101017917189999999230,210 - 310,000	2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami	Sumatra, Indonesia and also affected India, Sri Lanka, Maldives	02004-12-26December 26, 2004
6.	&10000000000300000000000300,000	1839 India Cyclone	India	01839 !November 25, 1839
5.	&10000000000316000000000316,000	2010 Haiti earthquake	Port-au-Prince, Haiti	02010-01-12January 12, 2010
4.	&10000000000500000000000500,000	1970 Bhola cyclone	East Pakistan (now Bangladesh)	01970-11-13November 13, 1970
3.	&10000000000830000000000830,000	1556 Shaanxi earthquake	Shaanxi Province, China	01556 !January 23, 1556
2.	&10000000000900000000000900,000–2,000,000	1887 Yellow River flood	China	01887 !September, October, 1887
1.	&100000000010000000000001,000,000–2,500,000*	1931 China floods	China	01931 !July, November, 1931

* Estimate by Nova's sources are close to 4 million and yet Encarta's sources report as few as 1 million. Expert estimates report wide variance.
An alternative listing is given by Hough in his 2008 book Global Security.
Ten deadliest natural disasters of the past century

Rank	Maximum death toll	Event*	Location	Date
1.	&10000000000257000000000257,000–436,000	1931 China floods	China	01931-11-01November 1931
2.	&10000000000242419000000242,419–779,000	1976 Tangshan earthquake	China	01976-07-01July 1976
3.	&10000000000300000000000300,000–500,000	1970 Bhola cyclone	East Pakistan (now Bangladesh)	01970-11-01November 1970
4.	&10000000000316000000000316,000	2010 Haiti earthquake	Haiti	02010-01-01January 2010
5.	&01010101010101010101010179999999999230,000 - 310,000	2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami	Indonesia	02004-12-01December 2004
6.	&10000000000234000000000234,000	1920 Haiyuan earthquake	China	01920-12-01December 1920
7.	&10000000000142000000000142,000	1923 Great Kanto earthquake	Japan	01923-09-01September 1923
8.	&10000000000138000000000138,000+	2008 Cyclone Nargis	Myanmar	02008-05-01May 2008
9.	&10000000000138000000000138,000	1991 Bangladesh cyclone	Bangladesh	01991-04-01April 1991
10.	&10000000000120000000000120,000	1948 Ashgabat earthquake	Turkmenistan	01948-10-01October 1948

* Does not include industrial or technological accidents.