Megadisasters

by Diacu, Florin

• ISBN13: 9780691133508
• ISBN10: 0691133506
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2009-10-19
• Publisher: Princeton Univ Pr

Summary

Can we predict cataclysmic disasters such as earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, or stock market crashes? The Indian Ocean tsunami of 2004 claimed more than 200,000 lives. Hurricane Katrina killed over 1,800 people and devastated the city of New Orleans. The recent global financial crisis has cost corporations and ordinary people around the world billions of dollars.Megadisastersis a book that asks why catastrophes such as these catch us by surprise, and reveals the history and groundbreaking science behind efforts to forecast major disasters and minimize their destruction.Each chapter of this exciting and eye-opening book explores a particular cataclysmic event and the research surrounding it, including earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanic eruptions, hurricanes, rapid climate change, collisions with asteroids or comets, pandemics, and financial crashes. Florin Diacu tells the harrowing true stories of people impacted by these terrible events, and of the scientists racing against time to predict when the next big disaster will strike. He describes the mathematical models that are so critical to understanding the laws of nature and foretelling potentially lethal phenomena, the history of modeling and its prospects for success in the future, and the enormous challenges to scientific prediction posed by the chaos phenomenon, which is the high instability that underlies many processes around us.Yielding new insights into the perils that can touch every one of us,Megadisastersshows how the science of predicting disasters holds the promise of a safer and brighter tomorrow.

Table of Contents

Prologue: Glimpsing the Future	p. xi
Walls of Water: Tsunamis	p. 1
Land in Upheaval: Earthquakes	p. 21
Chimneys of Hell: Volcanic Eruptions	p. 42
Giant Whirlwinds: Hurricanes, Cyclones, and Typhoons	p. 63
Mutant Seasons: Rapid Climate Change	p. 86
Earth in Collision: Cosmic Impacts	p. 109
Economic Breakdown: Financial Crashes	p. 128
Tiny Killers: Pandemics	p. 149
Models and Prediction: How Ear Can We Go?	p. 168
Acknowledgments	p. 179
Notes	p. 181
Selected Bibliography	p. 189
Index	p. 193
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