NEXT: Modern Volcanoes
Climatic and geological forces have shaped our planet in many ways, generally over scales of thousands or millions of years, forming mountains, building land masses, creating oceans and lakes. Once in a while, extraterrestrial wanderers — comets and asteroids — collided with Earth, disrupting the climate and causing extinctions. But what about modern history? Once Homo sapiens got established and civilizations flourished, how did natural forces shape human history? Would things have turned out the same despite various volcanic eruptions, floods and climate phenomena? It doesn?t appear so. Civilizations have lived and died along with climate changes. One gigantic volcanic eruption 1500 years ago seems to have played a huge role in shaping cultures on every continent. This gallery explores how El Niño, volcanoes, climate change and the stray comet or asteroid may have altered human history — and uncovers some interesting connections along the way.
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