Can we predict cataclysmic disasters such as earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, or stock market crashes? The Indian Ocean tsunami of 2004 claimed more than 200,000 lives. Hurricane Katrina killed over 1,800 people and devastated the city of New Orleans. The recent global financial crisis has cost corporations and ordinary people around the world billions of dollars. "Megadisasters" is a book that asks why catastrophes such as these catch us by surprise, and reveals the history and groundbreaking science behind efforts to forecast major disasters and minimize their destruction. Each chapter of this exciting and eye-opening book explores a particular type of cataclysmic event and the research surrounding it, including earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanic eruptions, hurricanes, rapid climate change, collisions with asteroids or comets, pandemics, and financial crashes. Florin Diacu tells the harrowing true stories of people impacted by these terrible events, and of the scientists racing against time to predict when the next big disaster will strike. He describes the mathematical models that are so critical to understanding the laws of nature and foretelling potentially lethal phenomena, the history of modeling and its prospects for success in the future, and the enormous challenges to scientific prediction posed by the chaos phenomenon, which is the high instability that underlies many processes around us. Yielding new insights into the perils that can touch every one of us, "Megadisasters" shows how the science of predicting disasters holds the promise of a safer and brighter tomorrow.

弗洛林·迪亚库是一位教学教授，曾任加拿大维多利亚大学太平洋数学研究所所长。他是《天遇》(Celestial Encounter：The Origins of Chaos and Stability)的两位合著者之一，还是《经典和天体力学：累西腓讲义》(ClaS SicaI and CelestialMechanics：The Recife Lectu res)的两位合编者之一(两部著作均由普林斯顿大学出版社出版)。