Year

Events

2013

Supertyphoon Haiyan ravages the central Philippines with explosive strengthening and a record-setting wind-speed at landfall of 195 miles per hour (314 km/h)

A multi-vortex tornadotouches down in El Reno, Oklahoma and grows to a record-setting width of 2.6 miles (4.2 km)

2012

Hurricane Sandy devastates the eastern third of North America, from Florida to Quebec, and from Michigan to Nova Scotia, as the largest Atlantic basin hurricane in history.

2011

Tsunami in Japan: An Earthquake and later a Tsunami hit the continent on March 11, 2011. After this disaster, nuclear power plants in Japan have been releasing radiation due to damage from the earthquake.

World human population reached the 7 billion mark.

2010

Earthquake in Haiti destroyed vital infrastructure and kills over 100,000 people.

Earthquake in Chileof a magnitude of 8.8, caused damage on many cities.

The eruption of the Eyjafjallajökull volcano affected activities in Europe and across the world.

Deepwater Horizon oil spillin Gulf of Mexico causes millions of barrels of oil to pollute the gulf.

2008

Cyclone Nargis makes landfall over Myanmar, causing widespread destruction and killing over 130,000 people

2005

Hurricanes Katrina, Rita, and Wilma cause widespread destruction and environmental harm to coastal communities in the US Gulf Coast region, especially the New Orleans area.

Colour revolutionsthroughout Europe and the Middle East

2004

Earthquakecauses large tsunamis in the Indian Ocean, killing nearly a quarter of a million people.