Source: MPR29

History’s Most Dangerous Theme Park Rides:Perilous Plunge

Plagued with technical issues upon its debut, the Perilous Plunge is billed as the tallest and steepest water ride in the world. The initial design for the log flume did not provide proper restraints and in 2002, a woman riding fell out of her seat and plummeted over 100 feet to her tragic death. Obviously eager to fix the problem, new cars were ordered that featured safer harnesses.

In doing so, however, the park failed to consider the difference in their weight and thus the flume’s chain nearly broke due to stress. Unsurprisingly, the ride was shut down once again and is currently closed for redesign.

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While best known today for its vast spread of narcotrafficking, at its early 19th century peak, the First Mexican Empire was known for packing nearly two million square miles of pure power under its proverbial belt.

The Aral Sea’s human-induced disappearing act has often been called one of the worst environmental disasters in the world, and rightly so. In one myopic swoop, 1960s Soviet leadership began to funnel out the region’s water supply for irrigation projects, and what came from it was only despair. Previously one of the world’s four largest lakes, the body of water soon shriveled up and took with it the economic and physical well-being of its nearby fishing-based communities. Not all is lost, though; in efforts to combat the problem, Kazakhstan established a dam project in 2005, the results of which have proved initially successful: by 2008 water levels had risen a significant amount, salinity had dropped, and fish were found in large enough amounts for the fishing industry to make a slow return.