Megadisasters
Predicting the next catastrophe
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Product details:
- Publisher OUP Oxford
- Date of Publication 24 September 2009
- ISBN 9780199237784
- Binding Hardback
- No. of pages272 pages
- Size 223x149x25 mm
- Weight 453 g
- Language English
- Illustrations 15 black and white line drawings 0
Categories
Short description:
Our best technology seems helpless in preventing such 'megadisasters' as Hurricane Katrina. Together with earthquakes, climate change, stock market crashes, these are complex systems hard to predict. Florin Diacu recounts the heroic efforts to understand them, our limited progress so far, and stories from those caught up in them.
MoreLong description:
No one can forget the horrific images of the destructive power of the tsunami that engulfed Southeast Asia on Boxing Day in 2004, or the chaos wrought by Hurricane Katrina. Could these 'megadisasters' have been predicted?
This book is about the science and mathematics that underlies efforts to understand and predict megadisasters. There are similarities in the variety of cataclysms that we are prone to, whether hurricanes, tsunamis, sudden changes of climate, or stock market crashes. These are all events that are associated with complex systems, with many variables, and their science and mathematics is that of 'chaotic systems'. Their behaviour is very difficult to predict. Other kinds of megadisasters are the
risk of a massive asteroid impact, and the development of pandemics.
Understanding and predicting these phenomena involve developing complex mathematical models, and we have a long way to go. In this book, Diacu describes the struggles of mathematicians and scientists over the centuries to get to grips with the nature of volcanoes, hurricanes, and other complex phenomena and prevent future tragedies. But he also includes human stories that remind us of their terrifying power and the experience of being caught up in them.
A compelling analysis.
Table of Contents:
Introduction: Glimpsing the future
Walls of Water: Tsunamis
Land in Upheaval: Earthquakes
Rivers of Fire: Volcanic eruptions
Giant Whirlwinds: Hurricanes, Cyclones and typhoons
Mutant Seasons: Sudden climate changes
Earth in Collision: Cosmic impacts
Economic Breakdown: Financial crashes
Tiny Killers: Pandemics
Models and Prediction: How far can we go?
