May 15, 1896:  A particularly intense tornado hits Sherman, Texas, on this day in 1896, and kills 73 people. It is estimated that the tornado was a rare F5 tornado, in which winds exceeded 260 miles per hour. Storms of that strength happen, on average, less than once a year. The strength of tornadoes is measured on the Fujita Scale, named after University ofChicago physicist Tetsuya Theodore Fujita. He was the first scientist to devote extensive study to tornadoes and how they operate. He discovered that the average tornado is 150 feet wide, travels one mile moving 40 mph in a northeasterly direction and tends to pick up strength the longer…

Q: What are the worst tornadoes in Texas’ history in regards to death and damages?   A:  The one at the top of the list has to be the Wichita Falls tornado of April 10, 1979, says Brent McRoberts of Texas A&M University. “It did an estimated $400 million damage in 1979 dollars, destroying over 3,000 homes, 1,000 apartment units and over 100 businesses were damaged,” he reports. “About 20,000 residents were left homeless, meaning between 10 to 20 percent of the city’s population was displaced. It killed 45 people, and another tornado the same day killed 11 in nearby Vernon. No tornado since then has done such extreme damage.”…

Posted By: Scott Harrison Posted On: 9:05 a.m. | May 10, 2011 Jan. 13, 1969: Scandinavian Airlines System (SAS) Flight 933 crashed about six miles offshore in Santa Monica Bay while on approach to Los Angeles International Airport. Fifteen passengers and crew were killed and 30 survive.

Home / September 25th, 2010; Vol.178 #7 / Feature Fire & Ice Volcanoes and frozen lands make an explosive combo By Alexandra Witze September 25th, 2010; Vol.178 #7 (p. 16) FIRE AND ICE Iceland’s Eyjafjallajökull volcano erupted quietly at first this spring (shown), until magma shifted directly beneath a glacier.Odd Stefan Thorisson/Nordicphotos/Corbis SVEIFLUHÁLS, Iceland — High atop an Icelandic mountain one magnificent summer day, with blankets of soft moss underfoot and a translucent lake shimmering in the valley below, geologist Emily Constantine Mercurio is conjuring up an image of hell. Tens of thousands of years ago, says Mercurio, a graduate student at the University of Pittsburgh, this place was the heart of a…