Citation

Kulkarni S. Nature 2024; ePub(ePub): ePub.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2024, Holtzbrinck Springer Nature Publishing Group)

DOI

10.1038/d41586-024-00508-8

PMID

38409408

Abstract

Nations such as Japan and Indonesia make headlines because of their frequent earthquakes. But these countries are not the ones that have been most affected by quake-related deaths, according to a study1 that included the analysis of centuries-old earthquake fatality records.

Ecuador, Lebanon, Haiti and Turkmenistan top the list of countries with the highest "earthquake fatality load", the study's metric for the impact of a nation's quake-related deaths relative to its population size. This metric will be "useful to highlight countries where additional hazard and risk studies should be carried out", says Vitor Silva, a risk engineer at the Global Earthquake Model Foundation in Pavia, Italy, who was not involved in the work.

Unequal burden

Earthquakes have claimed high numbers of lives in populous nations such as China, but the study's authors sought to understand which countries incur the largest relative burden of such deaths. To do so, the researchers drew on their previously compiled catalogue2 of deadly earthquakes and fatality reports, which is "one of the most complete I have ever seen", Silva says. That database includes records of quake-related deaths dating back more than 500 years.

Language: en

Keywords

Engineering; Seismology; Society