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World's biggest natural disaster?


Basil

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Seems the magma chamber under Yellowstone Park is filling up. Could be a big nothing, could be a BIG explosion---though no-one can guess when.

 

How big? Well, as in a few hundred to over a thousand times the explosive power of Krakatoa. :shock:

 

A little thought, a little research, and a GM could have one heck of a scenario.

 

 

 

A bit of background:

 

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2006/03/0301_060301_yellowstone.html

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Re: World's biggest natural disaster?

 

Wikipedia's List of Natural Disasters by Death Toll

 

Fun Factoid: the eruption of Mt. Tambora in 1815 -- the deadliest volcanic explosion on record, killing 92,000 people -- lead to the "Year Without a Summer." The lack of oats with which to feed horses lead to the development of the velocipede (the ancestor of the bicycle), and to a contest among friends holed up in a Swiss cabin to see who could write the scariest story, leading one contestant to write Frankenstein, or The Modern Prometheus and another to write The Vampyre.

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Re: World's biggest natural disaster?

 

Wikipedia's List of Natural Disasters by Death Toll

 

Fun Factoid: the eruption of Mt. Tambora in 1815 -- the deadliest volcanic explosion on record, killing 92,000 people -- lead to the "Year Without a Summer." The lack of oats with which to feed horses lead to the development of the velocipede (the ancestor of the bicycle), and to a contest among friends holed up in a Swiss cabin to see who could write the scariest story, leading one contestant to write Frankenstein, or The Modern Prometheus and another to write The Vampyre.

 

FUN? factoid? Not quite.

 

The explosion of Yellowstone could lead to Post-Apocalyptic Hero campaign.

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Re: World's biggest natural disaster?

 

Fun Factoid: the eruption of Mt. Tambora in 1815 -- the deadliest volcanic explosion on record' date=' killing 92,000 people -- lead to the "Year Without a Summer." The lack of oats with which to feed horses lead to the development of the velocipede (the ancestor of the bicycle), [/i'].

 

I'd be a bit sceptical about this part: the velocipede was invented in 1860, long after the year without a summer. The writer is probably confusing it with the Draisienne, the first steerable semi-bicycle: but it's a bit of a stretch to suggest that it had anything to do with horses or oats. It was a toy, as far as we can tell, designed for amusement by a German Nobleman and based on the much older Celerifere semi-bicycles used for the same purpose (they were steered with the feet and by leaning, like a sled) and precede the eruption by a generation. The article cited by the wiki suggests the Draisienne was controversial because people didn't know how to balance before 1817 :confused: despite the existence of two wheeled vehicles prior to the Draisienne and the existence before the wheeled Draisienne of the ice Draisienne - basically an upright sled used on frozen rivers and canals similar to the ski-sleds used today.

 

cheers, Mark

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