Indonesia
A massive supervolcano erupted at present-day Lake Toba around 70,000 BCE. It is believed to have caused a global volcanic winter and cooling of the climate, and subsequently led to a genetic bottleneck in human evolution, though this is still debated. The 1815 eruption of Mount Tambora and the 1883 eruption of Krakatoa were among the largest in recorded history. The former resulted in 92,000 deaths and created an umbrella of volcanic ash which spread and blanketed parts of the archipelago, and made much of Northern Hemisphere without summer in 1816. The latter produced the loudest sound in recorded history, and resulted in 36,000 deaths that are attributed to the eruption itself and the tsunamis it created. Significant additional effects were also felt around the world years after the eruption. Recent major disasters due to seismic activity include the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and the 2006 Yogyakarta earthquake.
List of earthquakes in 1963
This is a list of earthquakes in 1963. Only magnitude 6.0 or greater earthquakes appear on the list. Lower magnitude events are included if they have caused death, injury or damage. Events which occurred in remote areas will be excluded from the list as they wouldn't have generated significant media interest. All dates are listed according to UTC time. Maximum intensities are indicated on the Mercalli intensity scale and are sourced from United States Geological Survey (USGS) ShakeMap data. A fairly active year with 17 events reaching above magnitude 7.0. The intensity of the events was stronger with 2 measuring above magnitude 8. Both events came within 3 weeks of each other. The strongest of 1963 was in the Kuril Islands, Russia and was magnitude 8.5. Macedonia had by far the most of the 1,488 fatalities. A fairly modest magnitude 6.0 event in July resulted in 1,070 deaths and substantial destruction. Libya had one of the worst events in its history in February. Again a fairly moderate magnitude 5.6 ended up with 300 deaths in the area.