Kaboom! Slow-Motion Extinction by Lorraine Daston
Historians who address topics like extinction face the challenge of conveying catastrophic events that straddle human and Earth history.
Catastrophes that dominate today's collective imagination are often compact and spectacular, such as the 1883 Krakatoa eruption, which produced a 180-decibel boom heard over 3,000 kilometers away, or the 2011 tsunamis that reached 40 meters in height before inundating Japan's coast.
Other examples include the 1976 Tangshan earthquake, which claimed around 300,000 lives, and the asteroid that crashed into the Yucatán Peninsula 65 million years ago, wiping out approximately 75% of all plant and animal life, including dinosaurs.
These disasters make for captivating news coverage and cinematic depictions, with accounts in books and onscreen often compressing the beginning, middle, and end into a single, devastating moment.
Accounts in books and onscreen compress beginning, middle and end into a single searing moment of devastation.
Author's summary: Historians face challenges in conveying catastrophic events.
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