Twenty-one dead, 150 injured and one neighborhood devastated, all because of delicious molasses. The Great Molasses Flood, also known as the Boston Molasses Disaster, took place almost 100 years ago, but in the past week a team of Harvard researchers shared some of their findings from studying the physics behind the crazy incident.

This flood occurred in the North End neighborhood of Boston in 1919 when a vat of 2.3 million gallons of molasses exploded, sending a 25-foot wave of the substance down the street at an estimated 35 miles per hour. The flow of molasses was strong enough to damage cars and remove a fire station from its foundation.

By the time the wave came to a stop, it had traveled 300 feet and left in its path a river about three feet deep. The sticky thickness of the substance left many people and animals trapped.

It’s still uncertain what caused the vat of molasses to rupture. Many theorize it had to do with poor construction of the vat and unseasonably warm temperatures. The researchers at Harvard focused on how the wave became so powerful.

Using a scale model of the event and studying corn syrup at different temperatures inside a refrigerator allowed the team to learn that it is likely that the molasses flood moved at the reported 35 miles per hour. After moving quickly, the colder temperature outside caused the molasses to thicken and harden.

The Great Molasses Flood is one of many crazy, human caused disasters in history. In 1980, people were drilling for petroleum under Lake Peigneur, a lake in Louisiana. The lake is located over a salt mine and, eventually, the drillers drilled through the lake bed and into the top of the mine, creating a hole.

The salt in the mine caused the hole to expand, quickly creating a whirlpool. The strength of the whirlpool and the size of the hole caused the drilling platform, barges that were in the lake, and dozens of acres of land to get sucked in. The speed of the water going into the hole was faster than the air could escape, which created a 400-foot geyser.

In Centralia, Pennsylvania in 1962, volunteer firefighters tried to clear the town landfill, which was located in a mine, by burning the trash. Unfortunately, they left the fire burning and it spread throughout the mine until 1981, when a 12-year-old boy almost died because of it. Rather than putting out the fire, the U.S. government paid for residents to relocate, though 1,000 chose to remain. It’s estimated that the fire will continue to burn for 250 years.

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