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 1976
This is a list of earthquakes in 1976. Only earthquakes of magnitude 6 or above are included, unless they result in damage and/or casualties, or are notable for some other reason. 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. The main point of note from this year was the devastation seen across the globe from several catastrophic events. Several countries experienced their worst ever natural disasters. Chronologically, Guatemala in February suffered 23,000 deaths. Indonesia in June had an earthquake causing 6,000 deaths. China in July had officially 242,000 deaths from the 1976 Tangshan earthquake. This was the worst toll from an earthquake for over 400 years. Shortly afterwards the Philippines had 8,000 fatalities. Towards the year end Turkey had an event resulting in 5,000 deaths. Although not as devastating Italy had nearly 1,000 deaths in May with subsequent aftershocks causing further destruction.