List of 2012 disasters, Part 1

List of disasters

 * January 1 - The 2012 Bismarck earthquake occurs at 5.4 magnitude, around 6:57 PM. Second-largest recorded earthquake in North Dakota.
 * January 11 - The 2012 Minneapolis-St. Paul earthquake occurs at 5.8 magnitude, around 4:29 PM. Strongest recorded earthquake in Minnesota.
 * January 17 - The world learns that the oil reserves in the Middle East will be depleted within twenty years, causing all nations in the region, as well as some western countries to fight over the remaining oil. US Navy ships are stationed to guard all oil rigs in domestic waters, and National Guard troops lock down all major oil fields and refineries across the country, resulting from terror threats.
 * February 6 - After a rapid series of strong harmonic tremors, the volcanic island of Surtsey off the coast of Iceland erupts for the first time since 1967. Within a week, the island's size is increased to its original land area that it had in 1967, and grows to be nearly the size of the Hawaiian Island of Kauai by May 17.
 * February 17 - The 2012 Orlando earthquake occurs at 6.2 magnitude, around 9:05 AM EST. First and strongest earthquake measured in Florida using a modern seismic scale.
 * February 19 - The USGS and other geological institutes across the world begin monitoring a series of harmonic tremors beneath Mount Kilimanjaro, indicating movement of magma beneath the volcano's summit.
 * February 22 - A magnitude 7.4 earthquake occurs in Nuuk, Greenland, killing over fifteen hundred and injuring thousands in the aftermath.
 * March 10 - A 6.7 earthquake occurs in Tikal, Guatemala, the former capital of the Mayan Empire, while Simon Lynch and his brother Peter, son Joseph, and brother Simon Jeffries (SJ) are on a tour of the city with several others. The earthquake exposes a large chamber, hidden since after its takeover by the Spanish in 1541.
 * March 12 - A 7.2 earthquake occurs in Chicago, Illinois, around midnight, killing fifteen-hundred eighty-six and injuring thousands when several small skyscrapers collapse in the downtown area. Damage is severe, with the city sustaining over three times as much damage as it did in the 1999 earthquake, with surface cracks and major structural damage to homes across the entire metro area reported. Seven nuclear reactors in Illinois and Indiana are shut down indefinitely after sustaining moderate to major damage.
 * March 15 to 21 - A Category 4 hurricane forms from a tropical storm in the South Atlantic in 35 hours, and slams ashore in Rio de Janeiro on the 20th, killing over seventeen thousand (directly and indirectly) from the tidal surge alone, with total damage estimates nearly reaching $27 billion. Inland flooding from the hurricane's remnants cause an additional $750 million in damage, and nearly two thousand more casualties as well.
 * March 30 - For the first time since May 1917, Mount Lassen in California erupts, sending an ash cloud as far as Sacramento, though with ashfall there fortunately only reaches about 1 centimeter.
 * April 7 - Harmonic tremors rock the city of Jackson, Mississippi, causing minor damage when the largest tremor reaches 5.2 magnitude.
 * May 13 - A 7.0 earthquake occurs in Reno, Nevada, around 8:48 A.M., killing one thousand forty-eight and injuring several hundred when the Silver Legacy Hotel and Casino in downtown Reno collapses, covering the city in a dust cloud for several hours. City Hall, the Reno Events Center, and St. Mary's Regional Hospital also suffer heavy damage.
 * May 29 - The largest aftershock of the Reno earthquake occurs, rated magnitude 6.3.
 * June 1 - Around 1:19 AM, a terrorist working for Al-Qaeda detonates a tactical nuclear device on Interstate 70 in Sevier County, Utah, killing forty-four and irradiating over a hundred-square miles of the state. The mushroom cloud is visible from Salt Lake City for slightly over eighteen hours.
 * June 29 - The sixth largest earthquake in recorded history occurs, as a 9.7 earthquake nearly destroys Las Vegas, killing over six thousand.
 * July 4 - The first underwater supervolcanic eruption in recorded history occurs in the Atlantic Ocean at a point 1.5 thousand miles east of Bermuda, sending superheated water vapor and steam miles into the atmosphere for thousands of miles in all directions, providing fuel for the nearby Tropical Storm Gordon to grow into the largest and most ferocious tropical cyclone in recorded history.
 * July 5 to 7 - Tropical Storm Gordon strengthens from a tropical storm to a Category 6 hurricane in forty-eight hours, becoming the strongest and largest tropical cyclone ever recorded on Earth. On July 7, it becomes a Category 7 hypercane, the first officially recognized storm of its kind in recorded history.
 * July 9 - Hypercane Gordon slams ashore in Plymouth, England as a Category 9, with winds topping 500 mph. Nuclear plants along the English Channel and as far away as Helsinki are shutdown.
 * July 18 - An 8.2 earthquake strikes Japan, causing severe damage throughout the entire country, especially near the epicenter in Tokyo, where much of the city is completely leveled, and portions of the coastline sink underwater forever, as the area is engulfed in a 65 foot-high tsunami, three times higher than the 2011 Sendai earthquake and tsunami.
 * July 24 - The Chicago Seamount, the first in a chain of volcanoes to form in the Great Lakes, erupts northeast of Chicago.
 * August 3 - The Jackson Volcano, thought to be extinct for thousands of years, erupts beneath the city of Jackson, Mississippi, destroying the state capital. Soon, ashfall is reported in Tallahassee, New Orleans, Houston, and Nashville.
 * August 16 - In New York City, the 125th Street Fault ruptures, unleashing a 6.3 earthquake on the city, which was quite ill prepared for such an event. Several of the skyscrapers of Battery Park, vulnerable to soil liquefaction, partially collapse, with several of the cables that support the Brooklyn and Manhattan Bridges failing as well, though the bridges themselves remain intact. The rupture of the 125th Street Fault splits Manhattan Island in two. Indian Point and Millstone reactors are shutdown to avoid a total meltdown.
 * August 18 - A 7.3 magnitude earthquake occurs in the Bristol Channel between Wales and England, generating a 67 foot tidal wave that causes severe damage to Cardiff, Swansea, and Newport.
 * August 30 to September 3 - In just three days, all of the New England Seamounts erupt and rise to the surface, superheating water for the formation of a Category 6 Hurricane Rafael.
 * September 1 - The first earthquake in recorded history to reach and exceed magnitude 10 occurs, as a 10.2 earthquake occurs along the Cascadia Subduction Zone, creating a massive, 710 foot high megatsunami that inundates and destroys most large towns and cities along the US and Canadian West Coasts. Seattle is also hit by much of the effects from the earthquake, before being struck by a 9.5 earthquake itself, and shortly afterwards, the tsunami generated by the Cascadia earthquake, (still over 500 feet high by the time it reaches the city) tears through, leaving only a few gutted skyscrapers as traces of its existence.
 * September 3 - Owing to far above-average sea surface temperatures worldwide, a tropical depression in the Central Pacific rapidly strengthens into a Category 4 hurricane, and tracks toward Oahu.
 * September 7 - Hurricane Ela makes landfall in southeastern Oahu around 9:08 AM local time, causing billions in damage and killing hundreds across the island.
 * September 12 - A 7.4 magnitude earthquake occurs in Lisbon, Portugal, killing over five-hundred thousand.
 * September 14 - A 7.6 magnitude earthquake levels Anchorage, Alaska, killing over one-hundred seventy thousand.
 * September 15 - US Army Satellite A-89521 collides with Space Station Prometheus over North America, destroying it completely. US Shuttles Constellation and Atlantis barely avoid debris that damages Russian shuttle Pyat' ; no one is killed, and Pyat'  is able to commence reentry on own power, no major damage to thermal tiles sustained.