Geoclysm

Spent the last few days in the digital archives of the National Diet Library of Japan.
In 1896, a man named Yamana Soshin walked 435 miles of broken coastline in Iwate Prefecture. Mostly on foot, in straw sandals. He had no government commission and no funding. Forty-four days, one notebook, one measuring rod.
He mapped 168 villages by hand. Some of them in color. Many of those villages no longer exist on any map made after his.
Stretches of his survey are still held by the National Diet Library, and his original notebooks are in the Tono Municipal Library archives.
Working through what's available for the next video.

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2 days ago | [YT] | 41

Geoclysm

When we released our first tornado reconstruction as a test format, the response from this community was incredible. So many of you asked us to dig deeper into historical weather disasters—so we listened.

Tomorrow at 7:45 AM Los Angeles time / 10:45 AM New York time, our new GEOCLYSM episode goes live: the 1974 Super Outbreak.

On April 3, 1974, an atmospheric collapse spawned 148 tornadoes across 13 states in just 18 hours. But the deadliest element wasn't just the wind—it was an analog warning system pushed past the point of failure.

In this episode, you’ll see how the disaster moved through radar blind spots, power grid failures, and agonizing 23-minute teletype delays. We break down the multiple suction vortices that leveled Xenia, Ohio, the 75 mph nighttime terror in Guin, Alabama, and the nightmare of Tanner being hit by two F5s in the exact same corridor just thirty minutes apart.

The hardest realization is not the sheer number of tornadoes. It is understanding that for many towns in the path, by the time the official alerts finally printed out, the weather network was just watching the past.

See you in the premiere!
https://youtu.be/PnXNys-5dPQ

4 days ago (edited) | [YT] | 88

Geoclysm

Today at 10:45 AM Los Angeles time / 1:45 PM New York time, our new GEOCLYSM episode goes live: the Laki eruption of 1783.

This is the volcano that opened a 17-mile fissure across Iceland — yet the lava itself directly killed no one.

In this episode, you’ll see how the real disaster moved through poisoned grass, collapsing livestock, famine, disease, and delayed relief. You’ll also see why one of Iceland’s most famous “miracle” stories was only the beginning of a much slower catastrophe.

The hardest question is not how the eruption began. It is why the worst dying started after the lava stopped

https://youtu.be/7OXuHuXkVZE?si=MHFNP...

1 week ago (edited) | [YT] | 59

Geoclysm

Which video would you want to see first next weekend?

ARkStorm / Great Flood (1862) — California’s Great Flood turned the Sacramento Valley into an inland sea. Towns went under, the state capital had to be moved for a time, and one storm cycle rewrote the map.

Vargas Mudslides (1999) — extreme rain triggered thousands of landslides, debris flows, and flash floods along Venezuela’s coast. Entire communities were hit by mud, rock, and water with almost no time to react.

Laki Fissure Eruption (1783) — a volcanic fissure in Iceland erupted for months, releasing toxic gas that spread a dry haze across Europe and helped trigger famine, crop failure, and one of the strangest volcanic disasters in recorded history.

Vote for the one you want first.

3 weeks ago | [YT] | 38

Geoclysm

The story of the PS General Slocum is one of the deadliest maritime disasters in history, yet it remains largely forgotten. A new video detailing the tragic events of that day is now live on Geoclysm! If you haven't seen it yet, I highly recommend checking it out.

To everyone who has already watched and supported the video—thank you! Your feedback and engagement are truly appreciated.

3 weeks ago | [YT] | 8

Geoclysm

Today. 5:15 PM PT.
A private fishing club bought a dam above a valley where 30,000 people lived. They removed the discharge pipes. Cut the crest to make room for a carriage road. Stretched fish screens across the spillway so their stocked bass wouldn't escape.
An engineer inspected the structure and warned them in writing: the dam will fail, and the valley will be devastated.
The club's president wrote back. His answer is on the record.
Nine years later, twenty million tons of water came down that valley. The flood picked up locomotives, ripped through a wire factory, and hit the city carrying half the valley inside it.
2,208 dead. No one spent a day in prison.
New video drops today at 5:15 PM Los Angeles time.

1 month ago | [YT] | 74

Geoclysm

In 1985, geologists handed officials a map showing exactly where the lahar would go.
Armero was colored green.

Dropping today at 5:15 PM PT · 8:15 PM ET · 1:15 AM GMT
GEOCLYSM releases the full story of Nevado del Ruiz — the disaster that had two hours of warning, a published hazard map, five sirens that were never built, and 23,000 people who were told to go back to bed.
The mud moved at 18 mph. Twice as dense as water. Closer to wet asphalt than a river.
The last voice from Armero over emergency radio said four words:
"Se nos vino el agua."

Then the signal cut out.
This one will stay with you.


🔔 Notification on. One hour.
#Geoclysm #Armero #NevadoDelRuiz #Lahar #Disaster #Documentary

1 month ago | [YT] | 78

Geoclysm

To everyone who showed up and cast a vote on which disaster to cover first — thank you. Seriously. Every poll response, every comment, every suggestion — it all shapes what this channel becomes. Geoclysm isn't just built by me. It's built by you.

The results are in. Unzen takes it.
That video drops this Wednesday.

But here's what's coming next.
Sunday, March 22nd. A story I've been wanting to tell for a long time.

Shaanxi, 1556.
830,000 dead. One earthquake. The single deadliest seismic event in recorded human history — and it's not even close. Entire mountains collapsed. Rivers changed course overnight. And the worst part? Hundreds of thousands of people were asleep inside yaodongs — cave dwellings carved directly into the loess cliffs. When the ground shook, the cliffs didn't just crack. They buried everyone inside.
No modern seismographs. No warning systems. No rescue teams. Just silence where cities used to be.
That one drops March 22nd. You don't want to miss it.
And after that? The runner-up from your vote — Armero, 1985. That story is coming too.

Stay tuned. Stay subscribed. This is only the beginning.
— Geoclysm 🌋

1 month ago (edited) | [YT] | 44

Geoclysm

POLL
These three disasters are already deep in my research archive. Which one should I build into a full episode?

Armero 1985 — Buried Alive
A volcanic eruption 30 miles away melted a glacier. The meltwater became liquid concrete — and buried a city of 23,000 people while the mayor was on the radio saying everything was fine.

Lamington 1951 — The Map Was Wrong
Officials drew a safe zone behind the hills and told people to stay there. The pyroclastic cloud ignored the terrain, jumped the ridge, and killed everyone inside the evacuation boundary.

Unzen 1792 — The Wave Came Back
A chunk of mountain the size of a city fell into the sea and created a 330-foot tsunami. It hit the coast, bounced off the opposite shore — and came back to kill the survivors of the first wave.

1 month ago | [YT] | 32

Geoclysm

September 1, 1894. In four hours, a stretch of Minnesota the size of modern Los Angeles was erased from the map. Temperatures hit 2,000°F. The air itself became the weapon.

One man drove a burning train through the center of it — and pulled hundreds of people out alive.

Tomorrow at 6:15 AM Los Angeles time , GEOCLYSM premieres the story of the Great Hinckley Fire.

In tomorrow's premiere, you will discover:
The Three-Year Fuse: Why this wasn't a sudden disaster — and how an entire region spent years unknowingly building the conditions for total annihilation.

The Death Swamp: How hundreds of people ran toward safety — and why the very place they chose to survive became a sealed death trap before the flames even arrived.

The Man Who Wouldn't Leave: The telegraph operator who stayed at his post while the building burned around him — and the four words he tapped out at the end that survived on the tape.

The Impossible Six Miles: What engineer James Root actually endured inside that cab — and why the train should have stopped. It didn't. Find out why.

The 18 Inches That Saved 300 Lives: The filthy, half-empty bog that became the only thing standing between a firestorm and complete annihilation — and the brutal physics of why it worked.

1 month ago (edited) | [YT] | 62