| This beautiful art book portrays the forces of nature through the main elements of Earth, Water, Air, Fire. It is composed from a large selection of unique images of a wide variety of sources, mostly private collections. It is a highly illustrated book, containing reproductions of rare engravings, maps both old and new, sketches, and diagrams.
The book is a sequel to 'The Illustrated History of Natural Disasters', published in 2010. While the first book provided a detailed look into two main kinds of natural disasters (of seismic and volcanic character), this volume presents natural disasters of all kinds: geophysical, hydrological, climatological and biological. < r> The book is divided into three parts: the first part introduces the leading question as to whether the elements should be regarded as constructive, for giving origin to life on Earth, or destructive given the impact of natural disasters to society throughout history; the second illustrates the positive effects of nature's elements; and the third part depicts and contextualizes the history of natural disasters such as earthquakes, tsunamis, volcano eruptions, landslides, avalanches, draughts, storms, fires, among others.
Jan Kozák was originally engaged in laboratory seismology and later moved to historical studies in seismology and volcanology. In addition to his scientific work, he has been an ardent collector of old prints; within the last 40 years he collected one of the world largest series - over 2300 of pre-photographic depictions of earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, and tsunamis. Among his 170 publications there are over ten books of pictorial character dealing mostly with the Earth sciences, and also with historical architecture and European history. Hw is senior research scientists in the Geophysical Institute of the Czech Academy of Sciences.
Roger Musson is internationally known as a seismologist, author and broadcaster. He worked for over 30 years as a seismologist with the British Geological Survey in Edinburgh, specialising in the study of historical earthquakes, the history of seismology, and seismic hazard. His most recent book, 'The Million Death Quake' is published by Palgrave Macmillan. |
