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Earthquake Disasters in Latin America

A Holistic Approach

  • Book
  • © 2012

Overview

Authors:
  1. Heriberta Castaños

    1. , Institute of Economics, National Autonomous University Mexico, Mexico DF, Mexico

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  2. Cinna Lomnitz

    1. , Institute of Geophysics, National Autonomous University of Mexico, Mexico DF, Mexico

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    You can also search for this author in PubMed   Google Scholar

Part of the book series: SpringerBriefs in Earth Sciences (BRIEFSEARTH)

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Table of contents (9 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-viii
    Download chapter PDF

  2. Darwin and Plate Tectonics

    • Heriberta Castaños, Cinna Lomnitz
    Pages 1-13

  3. The Great 1960 Chile Megaquake

    • Heriberta Castaños, Cinna Lomnitz
    Pages 15-20

  4. The 1967 Caracas Earthquake

    • Heriberta Castaños, Cinna Lomnitz
    Pages 21-24

  5. The 1970 Peru Earthquake

    • Heriberta Castaños, Cinna Lomnitz
    Pages 25-30

  6. The 1985 Mexico Earthquake

    • Heriberta Castaños, Cinna Lomnitz
    Pages 31-39

  7. The 2010 Haiti Earthquake

    • Heriberta Castaños, Cinna Lomnitz
    Pages 41-45

  8. The 2010 Chile Earthquake

    • Heriberta Castaños, Cinna Lomnitz
    Pages 47-53

  9. A List of Significant Earthquakes in Latin America

    • Heriberta Castaños, Cinna Lomnitz
    Pages 55-56

  10. Conclusions and Recommendations

    • Heriberta Castaños, Cinna Lomnitz
    Pages 57-65
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Keywords

About this book

This book is an attempt to demonstrate the analytical power of the holistic approach for understanding disasters.   Six major earthquakes in Latin America are used as an example: the general idea is to place disasters in a broad social and regional context.  Understanding disasters is a way of understanding the social system.  The idea is to show that every major disaster is unique and different.  Statistical methods may be useful for purposes of risk estimation but modern disasters are "systemic" and complex.  In the chapter on the 2010 Chile earthquake we discuss the tsunami and why the system of tsunami alert did not work.  The introductory chapter contains some basics of seismology (plate tectonics) and earthquake engineering.  The 1985 Mexico earthquake describes why geology is important.   Why was Mexico City founded in a lake?  Technology must be adapted to the environment, not "imported" from possibly more advanced but different societies.  The 1970 Peru earthquake is an example of disaster in a unique environment.  Caracas 1967 takes us on a survey of different engineering solutions.  And the 1960 Chile earthquake leads us on a retrospective survey--what has changed in Chile between the two major Chile earthquakes?  A discussion on Charles Darwin’s observations of the 1835 Chile earthquake provides a fitting summary.

Authors and Affiliations

  • , Institute of Economics, National Autonomous University Mexico, Mexico DF, Mexico

    Heriberta Castaños

  • , Institute of Geophysics, National Autonomous University of Mexico, Mexico DF, Mexico

    Cinna Lomnitz

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