Lituya Bay, Alaska, USA
This bay bears the scar of water rising to 524 meters
A landslide threw water from a fjord onto a ridge. The forest keeps track of it.
Actual fact 1 min
THE CABINET OF CURIOSITIES REAL FACTS
Scary stories.
Ominous real events, told with their evidence and limitations.
561 documented stories available Collection in process of constitutionDiscover allGeography and countryCustoms and know-howAnimalsCharactersHistory and archaeologyScience and inventionsSpaceNature and EarthScary StoriesBig HacksOther curiosities
Vajont and Longarone, Italy
The dam held. The wave has passed over
In 1963, a slope collapses in a restraint. The dam remains standing, but the valley is devastated.
Actual fact 1 min
Armero, Colombia
This town far from the crater was buried by the melted ice of the volcano
The Nevado del Ruiz did not send lava to Armero: mudslides followed the valleys.
Actual fact 1 min
Yungay, Peru
A mountain avalanche has reached this city below
In 1970, an earthquake triggered on the Huascarn an avalanche of rock and ice that destroyed Yungay.
Actual fact 1 min
Mount Saint Helens, Washington, USA
This volcano exploded on its side after losing its flank
In 1980, the collapse of the northern flank released a lateral explosion before the large ash column.
Actual fact 1 min
Katmai and Novarupta, Alaska, United States
The mountain collapsed... but the eruption came out ten kilometers further.
In 1912, the giant eruption of Novarupta emptied a magmatic system linked to Mount Katmai.
Actual fact 1 min
Laki, Iceland, and Europe, 1783
An Icelandic volcano has spread a strange fog over Europe
A persistent dry haze accompanies a very distant eruption and leaves traces in the observations of the time.
Actual fact 1 min
Strait of the Sunda, Indonesia
The explosion was just the beginning: the sea ended the disaster
In 1883, the collapse of much of Krakatau produced deadly tsunamis.
Actual fact 1 min
Tangiwai, New Zealand
A flow from a volcano ripped this bridge just before the train
At Christmas 1953, a Ruapehu lahar weakened a railway bridge a few minutes before the passage of an express.
Actual fact 1 min
Aberfan, Wales
This heap of mine waste was hiding water that could drag it
In 1966, a water-saturated slurry turns into a flow and reaches the village and its school.
Actual fact 1 min
Frank, AB, Canada
The mountain buried the entrance to their mine: they had to dig to get out
In 1903, the collapse of Turtle Mountain buried part of Frank and shut down a mine.
Actual fact 1 min
Oso, WA, United States
A 180-meter slope sent its debris across the valley
The slide of 2014 covers an exceptionally large distance for this slope.
Actual fact 1 min
Vatnajkkull and Skeiarrsandur, Iceland
Under the ice, a volcano prepared a flood that swept away the bridges
In 1996, water from a subglacial eruption suddenly released towards the coastal plain.
Actual fact 1 min
Flannan Islands, Scotland
The lighthouse was ready to light. His three guards were gone.
In December 1900, the new generation discovered an empty lighthouse. The archives distinguish real clues from invented narratives.
Actual fact 1 min
Atlantic, near the Azores, 1872
The ship was still drifting. On board, no one
The Mary Celeste is found without her ten occupants and without her boat. Their fate remains unknown.
Actual fact 1 min
Canadian Arctic, King William Island
These two missing ships were also found thanks to Inuit memory
The Erebus and Terror, left in 1845, are found in 2014 and 2016 after an expedition without return.
Actual fact 1 min
Weddell Sea and Elephant Island, Antarctica
The ice crushed their ship. His 28 men returned.
Shackleton's expedition lost the Endurance, but the men of that ship survived a long wait.
Actual fact 1 min
Mississippi, near Memphis, United States
They survived the captivity. The return boat exploded.
In 1865, former prisoners of war climbed on an overloaded steam whose boilers exploded.
Actual fact 1 min
Lake Superior, USA and Canada
This cargo ship disappeared on a lake, no distress call
The sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald reminds us that a large lake can produce a deadly storm.
Actual fact 1 min
Sierra Nevada, CA, United States
A shortcut delayed them until winter: the Sierra Nevada trap
In 1846, families en route to California were stranded in the snow after an ill-advised route.
Actual fact 1 min
Tambora, Indonesia, and Northern Hemisphere
Summer was turned upside down by a volcano on the other side of the world
The eruption of 1815 contributed to the cold and poor harvests of 1816, the “year without summer”.
Actual fact 1 min
Thistle, Utah, USA
The mountain barred the river: this city found itself under a lake
In 1983, a slide created a natural restraint that engulfed a locality.
Actual fact 1 min
Hope, British Columbia, Canada
This slope collapsed after a very slow deformation
The collapse of 1965 abruptly ended a mountain movement that had begun long before.
Actual fact 1 min
Saint-Pierre, Martinique, France
This volcanic cloud destroyed Saint-Pierre in a few minutes
On May 8, 1902, a fiery cloud descended Mount Pelee and reached the city.
Actual fact 1 min
Mount Rainier and Puget Sound, USA
The mud of this mountain has gone to the arm of the sea
About 5,600 years ago, part of the Rainier turned into a flow that covered more than a hundred kilometers.
Actual fact 1 min
Goiânia, Brazil
This blue powder fascinated its discoverers... it contaminated their neighborhood
In 1987, an abandoned medical source caused an urban radiological accident.
Actual fact 1 min
New Jersey, USA
To prove the poisoning of these workers, a scientist analyzed their breath.
The luminous paint on the dials hid radium exposure.
Actual fact 1 min
United States and Canada
This machine was supposed to treat cancers... its failures have seriously irradiated patients
Six radiotherapy accidents make Therac-25 a major case of computer safety.
Actual fact 1 min
Windscale, United Kingdom
We laughed at these filters... they retained dust during a nuclear fire
Windscale’s chimney had a late protection that proved essential.
Actual fact 1 min
Seveso, Italy
This white cloud has left a name that is still used to talk about industrial risks
In July 1976, a toxic release affected the surroundings of the Icmesa plant.
Actual fact 1 min
Flixborough, United Kingdom
A temporary modification preceded the explosion of this plant.
In 1974, a bypass between reactors became a critical point of the installation.
Actual fact 1 min
Schweizerhalle, Switzerland
To extinguish this fire, the water carried a pollution in the Rhine
The fire of 1 November 1986 produced an ecological disaster beyond Basel.
Actual fact 1 min
Minamata, Japan
These fish looked normal... they carried invisible contamination
Methylmercury pollution enters the diet and reaches the nervous system.
Actual fact 1 min
Donora, PA, United States
The air of this city has remained prisoner... with its pollution
In October 1948, an atmospheric inversion suddenly worsened industrial pollution.
Actual fact 1 min
London, United Kingdom
In London, this fog didn’t just hide the streets
The Grand Smog of December 1952 imprisons smoke and gas above the capital.
Actual fact 1 min
Hartford, CT, United States
This marquee had been protected from rain... with a flammable treatment
In July 1944, a fire devastated the big tent of the circus.
Actual fact 1 min
Boston, Massachusetts, USA
The revolving door of this club became a trap during the fire.
In November 1942, the fire revealed insufficient or unusable exits.
Actual fact 1 min
New York, United States
The rescue workers saw the workers... but their ladders did not reach the floors
The Triangle fire of 1911 exposed the failures of the exits of a factory.
Actual fact 1 min
Texas City, Texas, USA
This cargo ship was carrying fertilizer... its explosion ravaged a port
The Grandcamp exploded on 16 April 1947 while loading an industrial cargo.
Actual fact 1 min
Feyzin, France
Before the explosion, the danger had already left the tanks.
A propane leak preceded the refinery disaster in January 1966.
Actual fact 1 min
Tacoma, WA, United States
This bridge started to turn on itself under the effect of the wind
The Tacoma Narrows Bridge collapsed a few months after it opened in 1940.
Actual fact 1 min
Kansas City, Missouri, USA
In this large hotel, the weak point was hidden in the fixing of the footbridges
Two suspended walkways collapsed in the lobby of the Hyatt Regency in 1981.
Actual fact 1 min
Chicago, Illinois, USA
The security curtain of this theater did not stop the disaster.
A fire struck the Iroquois Theatre a few weeks after it opened in 1903.
Actual fact 1 min
Halifax, Canada
They watched the ship burn... without knowing its cargo
The collision of two ships preceded the explosion of the port in December 1917.
Actual fact 1 min
Bhopal, India
That night, the danger came out of the factory while the city was sleeping.
A toxic release hit the neighborhood of a pesticide factory in December 1984.
Actual fact 1 min
Tokaimura, Japan
This nuclear accident did not occur in a nuclear reactor.
In September 1999, a criticality reaction occurred at a fuel conversion facility.
Actual fact 1 min
Hanover, New Hampshire, USA
His gloves seemed protective... the product went through them
A Dartmouth researcher was fatally exposed in 1996 despite her usual protections.
Actual fact 1 min
United States
The taste of the drug had been tested... not its safety.
A liquid drug distributed in 1937 caused more than 100 deaths.
Actual fact 1 min
Philadelphia, PA, United States
After this congress, an unknown disease launched a national investigation
A series of pneumonias observed in 1976 led to the identification of Legionella.
Actual fact 1 min
Milwaukee, WI, United States
The parasite had arrived by the water of the network, without seeing itself in the glass.
In 1993, a large epidemic of cryptosporidiosis is associated with distributed water.
Actual fact 1 min
No story found.
Try another word.