The Big Ones: How Natural Disasters Have Shaped Us (and What We Can Do About Them)

Jones, a seismologist for the U.S. Geological Survey for 30 years, surveys 11 natural disasters in this bracing examination of past responses to disaster and possible future courses of action. She doesn’t hesitate to portray how human prejudices, superstitions, pride, and other weaknesses have exacerbated the suffering caused by naturally occurring events, making clear that the interaction between the event and the human response usually dictates the magnitude of the damage, whether it results from earthquakes in Japan and China, an 18th-century Icelandic volcano eruption, or floods in the American South. She makes clear that “we need to accept that the timing of a disaster’s occurrence is unambiguously random—we may never be able to anticipate the when of our big ones.” Jones gives readers hope, though, describing what has been learned from each cataclysmic event and, in her final chapter, outlining ways that future catastrophes can be mitigated. This work could prove beneficial to all who live in an area prone to natural disasters, which is just about everyone. (Apr.)