AROUND 1200 BC, many Bronze Age cultures in the eastern Mediterranean collapsed. Archaeology has traditionally put this down to invasions by seafaring peoples, but Amos Nur argues that a 鈥渟torm鈥� of earthquakes lasting several decades may also have played a major role. In this well-written book he examines the signatures left by such quakes, and, turning to more recent tremors, he notes that some had major historical consequences. Even our own civilisation might not be as quake-proof as we like to think.
Apocalypse
Princeton University Press