Beijing and Jakarta, Tehran and Tokyo, Istanbul and Los Angeles are among the more than 60 large cities at risk from an earthquake. And although Europe's cities are comparatively less vulnerable, over the last 300 years devastating shocks have hit Athens, Bucharest, Lisbon, Madrid, Rome and elsewhere. This book describes major earthquakes and their effects on societies around the world, as well as the ways in which cultures have mythologized earthquakes through religion, the arts and popular culture. Despite advances in science and engineering, and improved disaster preparedness, earthquakes continue to cause immense loss of life and damage. The 2010 Haiti earthquake took almost a quarter of a million lives, and no one will ever forget the catastrophic tsunami unleashed in 2011 by a magnitude 9.0 earthquake off the east coast of Japan - a crisis described by Japan's prime minister as the most disastrous national event since the atomic bomb strikes of 1945. Written by a highly experienced science writer, biographer and journalist, Earthquake will appeal as much to general readers of popular science and art as it will to experts in many fields.