On the Relationship of the Regime of Seismic and Other Natural Disasters and Social Processes

A brief review of the main results of a study into the statistics of damage from natural disasters, in particular from strong earthquakes, is given. Attention is drawn to a certain discrepancy between the statistics of catastrophes indicating the possibility of rare earthquakes with especially heavy damage values and the practice of underestimating this factor in historical research. Examples of the decisive impact of strong seismic catastrophes of the past on the history of a number of human societies are given. In combination with other factors, these catastrophes even changed the nature of land use from irrigated agriculture to nomadic animal husbandry. It is also noted that the level of damage from natural disasters can characterize not only the strength of the natural impacts, but also the increase in vulnerability of human societies to strong external impacts characteristic of crisis periods.