whats the deadliest thing on earth other then a bomb?

Answer 1

"The single biggest threat to man's continued dominance of the planet is the virus...."

Joshua Lederberg, Nobel Lauriate

Answer 2

If you're talking about the ability for a single event to wipe out large numbers of people, it would probably be floods, earthquakes, and possibly volcanoes.

The 1931 flood of the Yellow River in China killed between 1,000,000 and 4,000,000 people, and left tens of millions more homeless.

The 1556 Shaanxi earthquake in China killed an estimated 800,000 people.

And the 2004 earthquake off Indonesia that caused the tsunami killed somewhere near 300,000 people.

There is also evidence that about 74,000 years ago, a massive explosion from a supervolcano in the Sumatran Lake Toba region http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Toba caused the death of about 99% of the people alive at the time - reducing the world population from perhaps as high as 60 million down to just 10,000 people.

The potential of things like large asteroids or comets striking the Earth should also be considered. A single impact could be enough to wipe out most life on Earth (as is thought to have happened at the end of the Cretaceous).

Answer 3

They only happen rarely, like once every several hundred thousand years, but super volcanoes are likely the deadliest thing mankind will ever encounter. Asteroids are also possible but are far more rare than supervolcano eruptions. Yellowstone Park is over one of the largest most dangerous volcanoes in the world.

Answer 4

Disease have always killed off more people in history than anything else. For example, far more soldiers lost their lives to the Spanish influenza in World War I than to bombs and combat. For another example, the feared Mogols of the 13th century were nearly wiped out by the Black Plague. Yet another example, it was diseases brought over by the Spanish conquerors in the 16th century that nearly wiped out Indians living in the New World.

Answer 5

Antimatter. It's the opposite of matter and just a few grams has the power of an atomic bomb. You can learn more about it in 'Angels & Demons' by Dan Brown

Answer 6

SaltyDog quotes, "The single biggest threat to man's continued dominance of the planet is the virus...." --Joshua Lederberg, Nobel Laureate.

YES.

Answer 7

The mind that triggers the bomb.

Answer 8

Human beings. Without them, there would be no bomb.

Answer 9

King Kong....

Answer 10

Ricin.