Ebook: Earth-shattering events: earthquakes, nations and civilization

"Earth-Shattering Events seeks to understand exactly how humans and earthquakes have interacted, not only in the short term but also in the long perspective of history. In some cases, physical devastation has been followed by decline. But in others, the political and economic reverberations of earthquake disasters have presented opportunities for renewal. After its wholesale destruction in 1906, San Francisco went on to flourish, eventually giving birth to the high-tech industrial area on the San Andreas fault known as Silicon Valley. An earthquake in Caracas in 1812 triggered the creation of new nations in the liberation of South America from Spanish rule. Another in Tangshan in 1976 catalysed the transformation of China into the world's second largest economy. The growth of the scientific study of earthquakes is woven into this far-reaching history. It began with a series of earthquakes in England in 1750."--;Introduction : earthquakes and history -- Earthquakes before seismology -- The year of earthquakes : London, 1750 -- The wrath of God : Lisbon, 1755 -- Birth of nations : Caracas, 1812 -- Seismology begins : Naples, 1857 -- Elastic rebound : San Francisco, 1906 -- Holocaust in Japan : Tokyo and Yokohama, 1923 -- Birth pang of a new China : Tangshan, 1976 -- Grief and growth in the land of Gandhi : Gujarat, 2001 -- War and peace by tsunami : the Indian Ocean, 2004 -- Meltdown and after : Fukushima, 2011 -- Conclusion : earthquakes, nations and civilization.