Calamities producing great damage, loss of life, and distress. They include results of natural phenomena and man-made phenomena. Normal conditions of existence are disrupted and the level of impact exceeds the capacity of the hazard-affected community.
    

concept

Athanasii Kircheri Soc. Iesv. Diatribe. De prodigiosis crucibus, quae tam supra vestes hominum, quam res alias, non pridem post vltimum incendium Vesuuij montis Neapoli comparuerunt / [Athanasius Kircher].

Actors on stage performing an ice-skating scene fall through a hole in the ice and through the floor of the theatre into a casino on the storey below them. Etching by George Cruikshank, 1844.

Two angels blowing trumpets, about to cause disaster at the Apocalypse. Woodcut, c. 16th century.

A young woman, perhaps Prudentia, warns an alchemist of the dangers of abusing fire: in the background fires rage in buildings and mines. Engraving by C. de Passe after M. de Vos, 16th century.

Disaster bioethics : normative issues when nothing is normal : normative issues when nothing is normal / Dónal P. O'Mathúna, Bert Gordijn, Mike Clarke, editors.

Climate and catastrophe in Cuba and the Atlantic world in the age of revolution / Sherry Johnson.

Voices of Chernobyl : chronicle of the future / Svetlana Alexievich ; translated by Antonina W. Bouis.

Des inondations d'hiver et d'été, ou, Traité de l'humidité par rapport à l'homme et aux animaux : comprenant l'histoire médicale de l'année 1805, celle du catarrhe épidémique actuel et des autres maladies régnantes, des avis aux habitans des pays inondés ou marécageux, et aux artisans qui travaillent dans l'humidité, sur la conservation de leur santé, et l'assainissement des terrains marécageux ou submergés et des habitations humides : précédé des moyens de réparer les dommages occasionnés par les débordemens sur les terres ensemencées, les prairies et les foins, extraits des Instructions rédigées et publiées par ordre du Gouvernement / par M. Chavassieu d'Audebert.

Lightning and stars fall on the earth on the day of Judgement; the sun and the moon hang simultaneously in the sky. Woodcut, 16th century.

Disasters

Images

Catalogue

Disaster bioethics : normative issues when nothing is normal : normative issues when nothing is normal / Dónal P. O'Mathúna, Bert Gordijn, Mike Clarke, editors.

Climate and catastrophe in Cuba and the Atlantic world in the age of revolution / Sherry Johnson.

Voices of Chernobyl : chronicle of the future / Svetlana Alexievich ; translated by Antonina W. Bouis.

Lightning and stars fall on the earth on the day of Judgement; the sun and the moon hang simultaneously in the sky. Woodcut, 16th century.