2020 was one hell of a year i don't even think i need to go into much detail for you to know what i
mean however it's now 2021 and the year has only begun from economic uncertainty to the ongoing
pandemic it's a safe bet to assume 2021 won't be completely normal but what about natural disasters
while there are certainly no guarantees there is some evidence that the world will experience
some significant natural disasters in 2021 or just in the near future in general from
volcanic eruptions to solar storms here are five natural disasters that may occur in 2021
one thing that has come up in our research time and time again is how incredibly difficult it is
for scientists to predict when exactly a volcano will erupt however there are several volcanoes on
the planet that are overdue for an eruption they may just have their day in 2021 or at least within
the next few decades in 2011 the tohoku earthquake shifted the total land mass of japan resulting
in 20 active volcanoes in the country showing increased seismic activity many experts believe
any of these volcanoes could erupt at any moment and the most significant one that could wreak
havoc on the country is mount fuji mount fuji is japan's tallest volcano standing at over 12
000 feet in a report made in july of 2014 a scientific team claimed that mount fuji was among
the most likely volcanoes to erupt in the near future and that could very well happen in 2021
this is a major cause for concern in japan because the volcano is only 62 miles away from tokyo
in the event that mount fuji erupts over 750 000 people in tokyo would need to evacuate immediately
the city would be covered in ash and it could take years for japan to fully recover another volcano
to keep an eye on in 2021 and beyond is lake toba this is not just any volcano this is a super
volcano located on the island of sumatra that impacted the entire planet when it last went off
25 million years ago and scarily enough scientists have noticed some signs that a new eruption may be
imminent the volcano is large enough to wear ash spewing out of its top would have extreme effects
on the global planet it would cause enormous tsunamis to sweep across the indian ocean
speaking of tsunamis 2021 may just be the year we are faced with another
this type of natural disaster shows no signs of slowing down and there are various places
around the world where they could potentially occur back in 2020 olympic authorities in tokyo
were already concerned about the possibility of a tsunami striking during the 2020 ceremony
with the olympics being postponed who's to say that fear won't carry on into 2021. another
scenario involves a mega tsunami striking in the caribbean dr stephen ward from the university
of california santa cruz and dr simon day from university college london have predicted that a
major tsunami could strike the canary islands if the kumbreviha volcano erupts in the area
the volcano is big enough to where it could potentially create the largest tsunami in
recorded history they presented this theory in 2001 and the volcano is due for a major eruption
the reason for this concern is that the volcano has a fracture on its left side making the entire
mountain unstable if it were to erupt again this left side would instantly turn into a landslide
the landslide would fall into the ocean resulting in the biggest tsunami anyone alive has ever seen
it has the potential to create waves of up to 330 feet tall that would travel up to 500
miles per hour in addition to striking the canary islands the waves would hit florida within nine
hours of the eruption now this is a worst case scenario but it is within the realm of possibility
there are plenty of places around the world that are overdue for a major earthquake and 2021 could
be the year when many of them take place we have all heard of the big one and 2021 just may be the
year it comes to fruition scientists have been talking about the big one for years now where
an earthquake with a magnitude between 6.5 and 7.0 would occur along the san andreas fault in general
the earthquake would lead to millions of dollars lost buildings would be destroyed around southern
california with many people getting caught in the destruction there have been efforts made to try
to limit the havoc but with a natural disaster of that scale there's only so much you can do
the white house gave five million dollars to a team from the university of washington
uc berkeley and caltech the goal was to create an early earthquake warning system that would
let people know in california one minute in advance when an earthquake is about to happen
however as of this video the alert will only be able to alert people 10 seconds in advance
while an earthquake in california is imminent it's not the only place where earthquakes could wreak
unknown levels of devastation dr masaki kimura has predicted that a 9.0 magnitude earthquake
similar to the 2011 tohoku earthquake we talked about earlier could occur in japan very soon
it was initially predicted to happen in 2017 and while an earthquake did take place it did
not reach a 9.0 level it is possible for a larger earthquake to occur in 2021 and if an earthquake
took place off the coast of japan it could result in a tsunami striking japan once again
it would be incredibly similar to what happened in 2011 and just like that event
it would lead to devastation that would take the country years to recover from
when you think of natural disasters you often think about earthquakes hurricanes or wildfires
but natural disasters can come from outer space as well a solar storm could certainly occur in 2021
and it could lead to the greatest amount of havoc and destruction than anything else mentioned here
the sun has an activity cycle which means it goes through periods of increased and
decreased activity now occasionally there is a major burst of solar activity that can reach
earth it happened fairly recently in 2012 a coronal mass ejection came through earth's orbit
this was a solar ejection consisting of a billion-ton cloud of magnetized plasma that would
create an electromagnetic pulse on all of earth's electronics in 2012 it ended up missing the planet
but it did hit the stereo a space station another solar storm of this nature is expected to happen
sometime between now and 2025. the next time it occurs we may not get as lucky
if an electromagnetic pulse from the sun were to hit earth it would result in all kinds of
electronic systems going down some calculations report that there is a 12 chance a solar storm
of this size could hit earth in the future power grids would go down immediately this would lead
to blackouts occurring all over the world gps systems would become useless it would take between
4 and 10 years as well as between one and two trillion dollars to fully recover from this kind
of impact again this is a worst case scenario even if a solar storm struck earth it may not
be as bad however that is not stopping major power companies from preparing for the worst because you
never know people complain about electronics all the time and 2021 could be the year where we're
sent back to the stone age wildfires have become increasingly common in certain areas of the world
and that is a trend many scientists don't expect will reverse in 2020 we had the california
wildfire season which so far has burned over 4.3 million acres of land some of those fires are
still going the california 2020 wildfire season was so large roughly four percent of the entire
state's land was burned and it has officially been named the largest wildfire season in recorded
history with the way things are trending it's likely that places like california will continue
to stay dry if not get drier and with so much debris scattered across the forest floor it's the
perfect brew for a massive wildfire no matter what we do there is no stopping natural disasters we
can try our best to prepare and don't get me wrong it does help but at the end of the day we are
constantly at the mercy of mother nature to check out another video about natural disasters be sure
to click the link on screen now as always thanks for watching and we'll catch you in the next one
you