Earthquakes : the Earth in upheaval -- Tsunamis : the sea rises up -- Volcanoes : the Earth's cauldron -- Landslides : gravity always wins -- Floods : raging waters -- Hurricanes, cyclones, and typhoons : nature on the rampage -- Tornadoes : funnels of disaster -- Blizzard : white death -- Ice ages : frozen planet -- Greenhouse planet : too hot to handle? -- Mass extinctions : when life nearly died -- Can we survive nature and our own folly?

Devastating natural disasters have profoundly shaped human history, leaving us with a respect for the mighty power of the Earth, and a humbling view of our future. The author, a paleontologist and a geologist tells the harrowing human stories behind these catastrophic events. He describes in detail some of the most important natural disasters in history: the New Madrid, Missouri, earthquakes of 1811-1812 that caused church bells to ring in Boston; the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami that killed more than 230,000 people; the massive volcanic eruptions of Krakatau, Mount Tambora, Mount Vesuvius, Mount St. Helens, and Nevado del Ruiz. His explanations of the forces that caused these disasters accompany accounts of terrifying human experiences and a staggering loss of human life. Floods that wash out whole regions, earthquakes that level a single country, hurricanes that destroy everything in their path, all are here to remind us of how little control we have over the natural world. Photographs and eyewitness accounts recall the devastation wrought by these events, and the people that are caught up in the Earth's relentless forces.