scale, shook the industrial mining city of Tangshan . Officially 255,000 people died, and another 164,000 were severely injured. But others (unofficial, but perhaps more accurate?) estimate that about 655,000 perished. Some ninety per cent of the buildings were destroyed. It took at least ten years and massive investment to rebuild the city. Africa , 1981 - 1984 Rivers and lakes dried up from the drought that had incredible impact on twenty African nations . During one season about 20,000 were starving to death EACH MONTH . 150 million were facing starvation if help didn't come right away. People from around the world began to respond to this crisis - but for hundreds of thousands of people, it was too late. (If you have figures for this, please let us know . When combined with other relatively recent African famines, the fugure is well over 1,000,000 ) Colombia , 1985 Volcano Nevado Del Ruiz claimed the lives of at least 25,000 - mostly from the mudflow which resulted from the volcanic eruption. Armenia , 1988 An earthquake measuring 6.9 on the Richter scale devastated Armenia in 1988. At that time Armenia was a republic of the Soviet Union . The town of Spitak was destroyed and it took the lives of all of its residents. In Leninakan , Armenia 's second largest city, eighty per cent of the buildings collapsed, and over 100,000 people perished there. Iceland, 1707 Smallpox killed more than 15,000 people (one-third of the population). Caribbean ,