IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/cup/eurrev/v14y2006i02p207-219_00.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The great earthquakes of Lisbon 1755 and Aceh 2004 shook the world. Seismologists' societal responsibility

Author

Listed:
  • FUCHS, KARL

Abstract

Two major earthquakes ‘which shook the world’, that of Lisbon of 1755 and that of Aceh/Sumatra of 2004, are compared. Both were catastrophic earthquakes with nearly identical magnitude M≈9 and accompanying destructive tsunamis. They are paradigms for Low Probability Extreme Events (LPEEs) and for the reaction of the societies in which they occurred, although 250 years apart. Modern seismology developed from its birth as disaster management following the Lisbon quake to a mature science, which however, still remains under the obligation to improve its role in enhancing society's preparedness for such catastrophes. The catastrophe of hurricane Katrina, which was predicted, showed that the realm of societal responsibility extends beyond that of scientific technical competence.

Suggested Citation

  • Fuchs, Karl, 2006. "The great earthquakes of Lisbon 1755 and Aceh 2004 shook the world. Seismologists' societal responsibility," European Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 14(2), pages 207-219, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:cup:eurrev:v:14:y:2006:i:02:p:207-219_00
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S1062798706000202/type/journal_article
    File Function: link to article abstract page
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:cup:eurrev:v:14:y:2006:i:02:p:207-219_00. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Kirk Stebbing (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.cambridge.org/erw .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.