- — North America:
Catastrophic earthquake
A magnitude 7.0 earthquake devastates Port-au-Prince; death-toll estimates vary widely and remain disputed, with around three million people affected.
Era: Democracy, Disaster, and Collapse
Sources: 2010 Haiti earthquake · Encyclopaedia Britannica
- — Africa:
The rainforests are listed in Danger
Three years after inscription, illegal logging and lemur hunting put the Atsinanana on the List of World Heritage in Danger.
Era: Independence & the Republics
Sources: Rainforests of the Atsinanana (World Heritage List) · UNESCO World Heritage Centre
- — Asia:
The dzud kills millions of livestock
A summer drought followed by heavy snow and extreme cold, with temperatures below -40 C in 19 of 21 provinces, kills about 8.5 million livestock by May 2010, approximately 20% of the national herd, according to a UN ReliefWeb fact sheet cited by a World Bank study. A December 2010 press report gives 9.7 million, about 22%.
Era: Democratic Mongolia
Sources: Lessons from the Dzud: Adaptation and Resilience in Mongolian Pastoral Social-Ecological Systems · World Bank / Colorado State University, Center for Nomadic Pastoralism Studies
- — Asia:
- — Africa:
The Ebola epidemic
Liberia was among the countries worst hit by the West African Ebola epidemic, the largest in history, which killed thousands and overwhelmed a health system already weakened by war before transmission was halted.
Era: Peace, Sirleaf, and the Ebola epidemic
Sources: Ebola virus epidemic in Liberia · Wikipedia, Ebola Epidemic — Liberia, March–October 2014 · U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (MMWR)
- — Africa:
The Ebola epidemic
An Ebola outbreak reached Sierra Leone in May 2014, killing nearly 4,000 people and overwhelming health services before the WHO declared the outbreak over in November 2015, with recovery following.
Era: One-party rule, civil war, and recovery
Sources: Statement on the end of the Ebola outbreak in Sierra Leone · World Health Organization, Regional Office for Africa, Ebola virus epidemic in Sierra Leone · Wikipedia
- — Asia:
Gorkha earthquake
A magnitude-7.8 quake near Gorkha kills about 9,000 people and devastates Kathmandu Valley heritage, including Durbar squares and the Dharahara tower.
Era: Insurgency, Republic and Reconstruction
Sources: One Year After the M7.8 Nepal (Gorkha) Earthquake · U.S. Geological Survey, Nepal earthquake of 2015 · Encyclopædia Britannica, Kathmandu Valley World Heritage Site · UNESCO World Heritage Centre
- — Oceania:
Cyclone Pam devastates the islands
Tropical Cyclone Pam, the most destructive storm in Vanuatu's history, damaged the great majority of buildings and a vast share of national output.
Era: Kastom, Cyclones and Climate Diplomacy
Sources: COVID-19 and Tropical Cyclone Harold create the perfect storm in the Pacific · ReliefWeb (UN OCHA), Preparing for the perfect storm — Climate Disaster Risk Insurance in Vanuatu · UN Capital Development Fund
- — North America:
Hurricane Matthew
The strongest storm to strike the region in a decade kills hundreds and destroys thousands of homes.
Era: Democracy, Disaster, and Collapse
Sources: Haiti country profile · BBC News
- — North America:
Hurricane Maria
A devastating hurricane wrecks Puerto Rico's power grid and infrastructure, with an official death toll later estimated near 2,975.
Era: Vieques, Maria, and the Unresolved Future
Sources: Hurricane Maria · Encyclopædia Britannica
- — Africa:
Famine declared in Unity state
The UN declares famine in parts of Unity state, with millions needing emergency aid; experts warn that famine used as a weapon of war may be an international crime.
Era: A Young Nation at War
Sources: Famine declared in region of South Sudan · United Nations, 2017 South Sudan famine · Wikipedia
- — Africa:
An estimated 383,000 dead
A London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine study estimates about 383,000 conflict-related deaths by April 2018, roughly half from direct violence.
Era: A Young Nation at War
Sources: Estimates of crisis-attributable mortality in South Sudan · London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, Civil war in South Sudan: a primer · UK House of Commons Library
- — North America:
Hurricane Dorian devastates Abaco and Grand Bahama
Category 5 Hurricane Dorian stalled over the northern Bahamas, killing scores, leaving hundreds missing and causing about US$3.4 billion in damage — roughly a quarter of GDP.
Era: Tourism, finance and the age of hurricanes
Sources: Damages and other impacts on Bahamas by Hurricane Dorian estimated at $3.4 billion · Inter-American Development Bank, Bahamas' tourism could be devastated for a long time after Hurricane Dorian · CNN Business
- — Asia:
Economic collapse and the Beirut port explosion
From 2019 Lebanon suffers one of the world's worst economic crises; on 4 August 2020 an ammonium-nitrate explosion at the port of Beirut kills more than 200 people and devastates the capital.
Era: Civil War, Foreign Intervention and Collapse
Sources: Lebanon: How Israel, Hezbollah, and Regional Powers Are Shaping Its Future · Council on Foreign Relations, Lebanon: Lebanon's Second Republic since 1990 · Encyclopaedia Britannica
- — Asia:
The Easter Sunday bombings
Jihadist suicide bombers attack churches and hotels, killing more than 350 people.
Era: Republic, Civil War and the Modern Nation
Sources: Sri Lanka country profile · BBC News
Catastrophe in the 2010s
Every event in the Terralore archive tagged catastrophe — plague, famine, earthquake and other disasters, narrowed to the 2010s — 15 of them, drawn from 13 nations, running from 2010 to 2019. Each entry keeps the sources it was verified against and links back to the chronicle it came from.
- Events
- 15
- Nations
- 13
- Earliest
- 2010
- Latest
- 2019
- Africa
- 5
- Asia
- 5
- North America
- 4
- Oceania
- 1
Every entry below is the same record, with the same sources, as the one on its nation’s chronicle.