Megadisasters : the science of predicting the next catastrophe / Florin Diacu.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Diacu, Florin, 1959-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Natural disasters--Forecasting.

Natural disasters.

Disasters--Forecasting.

Disasters.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (215 p.)

Edition:

Course Book

Other Title:

Title on dust jacket: Mega disasters

Place of Publication:

Princeton, NJ : Princeton University Press, c2010.

Language Note:

English

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. Megadisasters is 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 type of 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, Megadisasters shows how the science of predicting disasters holds the promise of a safer and brighter tomorrow.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

Prologue: Glimpsing the Future

1. Walls of Water

2. Land in Upheaval

3. Chimneys of Hell

4. Giant Whirlwinds

5. Mutant Seasons

6. Earth in Collision

7. Economic Breakdown

8. Tiny Killers

9. Models and Prediction

Acknowledgments

Notes

Selected Bibliography

Index

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references (p. [181]-192) and index.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 08. Jul 2019)

ISBN:

1-4008-3344-2

OCLC:

854974382