Natural Disaster: Earthquakes In History

Natural disaster: earthquakes in history

Introduction

The earthquakes have played an antagonistic role in the historical course of humanity and have been described over time in texts such as the Bible, the Greek writings, the famous novels and also in paintings or plays. They are described as catastrophic events in the ancestral cultures of planet Earth and have been documented in different modern texts. In the words of Jelle Zeilinga de Boer and Donald Theodore Sanders the earthquakes are "destructive power that overcome our control" and that threaten "the fragile existence of humanity". It is worth noting that earthquakes not only cause death and loss of the ability of a society to produce and progress. They also generate a change in the course of collective thinking and in the way in which groups face disaster and fatality situations. In some cases the fall of great empires has been seen and in other cases the earthquakes have a trigger for the development of capacities such as resilience, which promotes long -term growth.

Developing

The consignment of information to characterize how earthquakes have affected the course of humanity represents a challenge for the different researchers who intend to build a timeline of the different earthquakes that regardless of their magnitude have marked the history of humanity or generated a changein society. It is not easy to find evidence or viable information to record data considered valid in an investigation.

However, there are different researchers who have managed to describe a few important events and also associate them with other political and cultural events that were triggered by earthquakes. A concrete example is the suspicion that the fall of Sparta in 371 to.C was due to an earthquake of terrifying magnitudes that occurred in 464 to.C and this caused that Sparta could not respond to future events in the same way in which he had previously done it in the wars with the Persians. Likewise, other earthquakes such as this have been described throughout human history and have affected both countries with limited resources and countries that have the necessary economic capacity to face disaster from a more optimistic vision.

Psychological effects have also been described in communities that are affected by an earthquake. Within these are the acute episodes of adaptation disorders, type -traumatic stress disorders and chronic anxiety states secondary to greater trauma. This is precipitated by the experiences of the people who were part of the catastrophe, taking into account that they could lose much of their family nucleus or acquaintances, which were possibly trapped under the rubble left of the buildings or who saw their normality affected byAn acute event.

Currently globalization and rapid urbanization of areas susceptible to earthquakes make it easier for humanity to be more prone to see the consequences of new earthquakes and have even more catastrophic outcome than the previous ones. This trend can be corroborated because it is present in the most recent earthquakes such as earthquakes in Chile, New Zealand, Haiti and Japan.

In addition, we must consider that the new economic currents, which have a leading role in today’s society, will hinder the rehabilitation processes of populations affected by seismic events. This will facilitate the increase in poverty rates of affected countries, also the increase in populations health problems and the delay in secondary development to the damage caused by earthquakes.

conclusion

Finally, earthquakes are natural events that are inevitable and will continue ravaged in the history of humanity. However, although they are inevitable events if future actions can be taken that reduce the social consequences that they represent for humanity. The discussion is then open to propose new strategies on how to reduce the severity of damages and how to help the rehabilitation of communities affected by future events.