BY ELISABETH ANDREWS If you’re committed to sustainability, you should probably be thinking about earthquakes and volcanoes, says geologist Michael Hamburger. “Natural disasters are the true test of the resilience and survivability of a civilization,” he explains. “It’s clear when you look back at history—at events like biblical-era earthquakes and the volcanic eruption that destroyed the Minoan civilization—natural disasters are really the major stress to physical, environ-mental, and social systems.” Since the 1970s, Hamburger has been studying the interactions between large-scale geological processes and human societies. His focus on preparedness also incorporates research on “induced seismicity”—geological events influenced by human activity. His early fieldwork on this topic, beginning in 1978, made him one of the first American scientists permitted in [...]
