when you look at the grand scale of the universe humans are relatively helpless there is
so much that could happen in the blink of an eye that we would be powerless to stop a solar
storm could wipe out all of our electronics or an asteroid could come out of nowhere and obliterate
us the same way as the dinosaurs humans can't stop any natural disaster regardless of the
size however it's pretty frightening to see just how many natural disasters could happen in the
near future that would impact nations in untold ways all we could do is look at the carnage and
hope for the best here are five such natural disasters that humans simply cannot prevent
we've talked about yellowstone a lot on this channel but it's worth bringing up again
for just how massive it would be if the caldera finally went off while people are quick to say
that yellowstone is overdue for an eruption the truth is a bit more complicated volcanoes don't
work in predictable patterns so it could go off in the next year or it could go off in a thousand
years it's really up to the hands of fate but what happens when yellowstone finally erupts
if the volcano went off on a massive scale then it would completely cover the states of montana
wyoming colorado and idaho in three feet of ash a mix of glass and broken rocks would cover much
of the midwest and this would wreak havoc on our food production that kind of ash would kill most
plant and animal life in the area it would also short-circuit electrical equipment and crush
roofs multiple states would have to contend with damaged buildings and minimal electrical power
but the effects would be felt around the country while states further away from
the volcano wouldn't see the same level of ash it's likely that a massive eruption would spew
debris from coast to coast a precise distribution pattern would be dependent on the time of year of
the eruption as well as weather patterns at the time air travel would need to shut down
across much if not all of the united states it's also possible for the world to experience
a cooling period from this event volcanoes can spew sulfur aerosols that reflect sunlight and
there's a history of volcanic eruptions cooling the planet by as much as one degree fahrenheit
this is a worst case scenario it's possible when yellowstone erupts next it will be much smaller
in scale but the impact to the immediate area would be immense regardless mount fuji in japan
has erupted about 180 times over the last 5 600 years many of these have been minor with the
last huge eruption taking place in 1707. this particular eruption created over 28.2 billion
cubic feet of volcanic ash which traveled as far as 62 miles and remained in the air for two weeks
after the initial blast it's entirely possible that another eruption of the same scale
could happen again however now the area around mount fuji is much more heavily populated in
2020 the japanese government released the results of a simulation showing what would transpire if
mount fuji erupted today the worst case scenario found from the simulation estimated that roughly
17.3 billion cubic feet of volcanic ash would spread over tokyo as well as surrounding cities
ash would fall over the city in as little as three hours with tokyo needing to be shut down
within the first day roads would need to be blocked off and planes would be unable to land
the debris would also cause power outages and disrupt mobile phone towers making it difficult
for citizens to learn additional information about next steps the accumulated ash would also pose
threats to anyone living in wooden homes which are popular in the region it's also likely that a
volcanic eruption would lead to a number of other secondary disasters for example ash could block
natural dams in the sakawa river flooding multiple areas the goal of these simulations is to help
local governments prepare as much as possible to try to minimize damage when the volcano does go
off there is no way to stop it but communities can take action to somewhat reduce the threat level
if you live on the west coast of the united states then you probably hear the phrase the
big one thrown around a lot it refers to the day when the san andreas fault inevitably experiences
an earthquake and a large enough tremor would be enough to destroy massive portions of california
oregon and washington all it would take for the big one to arise would be a 7.8 magnitude
earthquake striking along the san andreas fault and to be honest it's only a matter of time before
it occurs there's nothing humans can do to stop plate tectonics and big earthquakes tend to happen
on the southern san andreas fault line once every 45 to 230 years it's been 161 years since the
last big quake occurred a 7.8 magnitude earthquake along the san andreas fault may only last a minute
but it would decimate the region some predictions for this event estimate that 1 800 people would
die immediately with 1 600 fires igniting throughout the area many people would become
trapped inside buildings that have collapsed and over 270 000 people would be displaced from their
homes search and rescue efforts would last weeks trying to find survivors among the wreckage with
thousands more needing to go to er for injuries if you ever find yourself in the midst of a
massive earthquake the best advice is to drop cover and get yourself under a desk or table
hurricanes are rated on the category 1 to 5 sapphire simpson scale with 5
being the most intense category 5 hurricanes are already rather rare
with only about 7 of hurricanes reaching such a status however they are possible and do happen
in 2019 hurricane dorian had gusts with speeds of up to 220 miles per hour many scientists believed
that this should have given dorian the rating of category 6 if it only existed some scientists
believe it's time to change the scale because stronger hurricanes are only going to become
more prevalent as the years go on a combination of more water in the earth's atmosphere with warmer
ocean water creates the ideal conditions for these immense hurricanes to develop
while unofficial category 6 hurricanes have popped up around the world one has never made it to the
united states but it's likely only a matter of time a category 5 hurricane is already capable
of destroying telephone poles houses buildings and more it's one of the most destructive forces
of nature humans can experience and a category 6 would be even stronger lives would be lost
and homes would be destroyed but aside from making the hurricanes sound more menacing there are some
who believe changing the categories is irrelevant the safir simpson scale only accounts for a
storm's maximum sustained wind speed it doesn't take into account storm surge or rainfall still
no one should ever have to experience the wrath of a storm where winds exceed 200 miles per hour
every day the planet is struck by about 17 meteors these rocks tend to mostly burn up in
the atmosphere when they do reach the surface they're usually small enough to not cause any
real damage plus since most of the planet's surface is covered by ocean most simply land
there with no real repercussions however the possibility of a meteor of substantial size
striking earth's surface is possible and it would decimate wherever it landed for instance a meteor
the size of a small house would release about 20 kilotons of energy that's about the equivalent
of the bomb dropped on hiroshima it would flatten buildings within a half mile away
pretty much destroying the city where it landed but what would happen if a meteor about a mile
wide were to hit earth at that point it would release approximately 1 million megatons of
energy which is 10 million times greater than the bomb at hiroshima everything within 100 miles of
ground zero would be obliterated and at this point we would have a scenario about the equivalent of
what caused the dinosaurs to go extinct if the meteor struck land then it would kick up enough
debris to block out the sun causing most living things on the planet to die out fortunately
organizations are working on methods to hopefully protect the planet if such a meteor were ever on
a collision course theoretically a meteor could be knocked off course with a spacecraft or destroyed
with a nuclear weapon but since these methods haven't been tried before it's all hypothetical
and as of this moment we're still pretty much helpless against threats from space if you have
any natural disasters you want us to cover in a future video then be sure to let us know what
it is in the comments down below otherwise be sure to click the link on screen to check out
another one of our videos with that said thanks for watching and be sure to tune in next time
you