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So last night there was a nice 5.6-5.7 earthquake here in my country that woke me up, so I was wondering are there things like that happening in the Imperium in the fluff, I know its mostly due to bombardment or shelling but do natural disasters hit the Imperium too, and how hard can they do so, are there perhaps things that can effect entire sub-sectors or are they just confined to a planet.
I can see perhaps tectonic movements awakening necrons but has something like that been introduced in the fluff?

well of course there are natural disasters in the IoM. What do you think "death worlds" are etc?

And yes there are ones that can effect sub-sectors, they're called warp storms.

A good one I read is the periodic reversing of a planets poles which iirc leaves it with no magnetic field and bombarded to death by cosmic rays and such.

JohnnoM wrote:
And yes there are ones that can effect sub-sectors, they're called warp storms.

Ok I want to clarify here, natural disaster, THAT AREN'T WARP STORMS as those aren't entirely natural the warp being a different realm beyond this one.

Ratius wrote:A good one I read is the periodic reversing of a planets poles which iirc leaves it with no magnetic field and bombarded to death by cosmic rays and such.

Damn that answers my question than, where did you read that?

Oh its not 40k related Im afraid :( it was in a science article I read a while back, I'll try and dig it out for you.

Natural disasters are a given, but they're pretty boring to read or write about when you can have marines chopping people up with power swords instead.

Spetulhu wrote:Natural disasters are a given, but they're pretty boring to read or write about when you can have marines chopping people up with power swords instead.

^This pretty much sums it up. There's probably plenty of nasty things going on in the 40k universe, but if your confined to talk about the weather in the fluff.. it means you don't have a whole lot to say. In most cases at least... absolute 0 blizzards and things like Riddick's run from the sun are still pretty epic even amongst warzones.

The reversing of a planets polarity is going to happen to use sometime soon. Next 100 years IIRC.

Basically the currents in the molten core get disturbed and for a short period of time(20 years or so) there will be multiple weak magnetic poles moving about the planet. But the entire place will be bombarded with higher radiation then normal. Basically everyone alive at the time will be very likely to develop skin cancer and other cancers related to solar radiation. Not to mention the slight increase in global temperature and the havok it will play with all electronic devices.

Grey Templar wrote:The reversing of a planets polarity is going to happen to use sometime soon. Next 100 years IIRC.

Basically the currents in the molten core get disturbed and for a short period of time(20 years or so) there will be multiple weak magnetic poles moving about the planet. But the entire place will be bombarded with higher radiation then normal. Basically everyone alive at the time will be very likely to develop skin cancer and other cancers related to solar radiation. Not to mention the slight increase in global temperature and the havok it will play with all electronic devices.

Wait what? Seriosly! Any link to this?

National Geographic did a short story on this years ago. You'll just have to do some digging.

Grey Templar wrote:The reversing of a planets polarity is going to happen to use sometime soon. Next 100 years IIRC.

Basically the currents in the molten core get disturbed and for a short period of time(20 years or so) there will be multiple weak magnetic poles moving about the planet. But the entire place will be bombarded with higher radiation then normal. Basically everyone alive at the time will be very likely to develop skin cancer and other cancers related to solar radiation. Not to mention the slight increase in global temperature and the havok it will play with all electronic devices.

Issues with electronic devices, yes. Increases in skin cancer......nope. This is the same fiction that spawned the abortion of a film known as The Core. Even if the poles decided to to the two step shuffle back and forth, we would be fine. Apart from the earths magnetic field, there is also the Van Allen radiation belts and the ozone layer to protect us. This is why the massive (aka frakkingly terrifyingly hollywood tried to copywrite hueg) solar flares that have been hitting us for the last year did a grand total of......squat. Some connection problems with satellites and wonky cell phone signals, thats all. Oh, and pretty auroras. the biggest problem will be all the compasses pointing backwards.

Warp storms

Isn't the whole of Terra and many other super hive worlds one big city? How do they deal with seismic and volcanic activity?

Considering the massive interwoven lattice of foundations, its likely that if a sections support gave way they neighboring sections would hold the affected area up long enough for repairs.

Failing that, magic.

Void Whale Migrations,
Enslaver Plagues,
Hrud Infestation
Cythor Fiends,
Dead Plagues,

Ratius wrote:A good one I read is the periodic reversing of a planets poles which iirc leaves it with no magnetic field and bombarded to death by cosmic rays and such.

I've read that as well, while doing a science assignment. Imagine how many times that's happened, the IoM is so old, almost every planet must have had it at least twice.

In the Inquisition Wars series tre is a planet where the sun starts to go haywire and boils everyone alive. That was pretty grimdark. Added to that will be the standard list of earthquakes, atmospheric storms, volcanoes (lots of them on Noctis and Fenris), Tsunamis, asteroid strikes, mass gassing from suddenly released toxic gas deposits.

Then there are the more esoteric "natural" disasters such as hive-falls, sump flooding and things that happen when poorly understood environmental systems stop working in space habitats.

Earth quakes in the Imperium to large hives are somewhat trivial, as most hives in Earth quake prone places have been reinforced against them.

On the other hand this is Grimdark were everything bad that can happen to the Imperium does, so I bet quite a few hives collapse to earth quakes.

Necromunda, and I presume just about every hive of sufficient size and age, has 'hivequakes' relatively often. Entire hive domes collapse and old, forgotten domes might be discovered in the process. I'd call hivequakes natural, although they're likely exacerbated by mankind's damage to the planet's surface and boring into the tectonic plates of the planet.

Necromunda is a fantastic game with a vibrant setting, having an imaginative and engaging culture, ecology, and economy- and that's just in the Underhive!

Asherian Command wrote:Void Whale Migrations

When the hell has that happened? I've never heard of a Void Whale, is that a real thing in the fluff?
I have heard of space krakens that have been sighted by rogue traders, but never confirmed. But never of space whales.

Didn't the Crimson Fists loose most of their chapter to a freak earthquake? And then they re-wrote it to be an accidental misfire of super ordinance?

DeffDred wrote:Didn't the Crimson Fists loose most of their chapter to a freak earthquake? And then they re-wrote it to be an accidental misfire of super ordinance?

No, it was caused by a failure in their Fortresses defenses during the attack of an ork Waagh.

One of their missiles basically fell back to earth and hit their fortress.

Yori wrote:

Asherian Command wrote:Void Whale Migrations

When the hell has that happened? I've never heard of a Void Whale, is that a real thing in the fluff?
I have heard of space krakens that have been sighted by rogue traders, but never confirmed. But never of space whales.

The BRB mentions one swallowing a splinter warband of Waaagh! Gragnatz. Codex: Space Wolves has a Great Company fighting a freakish xenos race in the innards of a giant, warp-mutated void whale.

Can't recall anything about migrations, but void whales are a more or less established bit of the fluff.