A Cultural History of the Study of Earthquakes, With an Outlook to Architecture and Space Structures

We give a historic survey on the study of earthquakes, starting from the earliest records inMesopotamia, China, and Ancient Greece. In the seismological literature some not very reliable dataare often emphasized, while important sources are missed. Our historic survey also covers theformation of the basic expressions since these include indirectly relevant data on the thinking of peopleon earthquakes. The historic records could be useful for public relations. We also discuss relatedquestions of architecture and space structures, including theory of polyhedra and some problems ofdiscrete geometry.

Keywords:

History of seismology , history of architecture , discrete geometry , theory of polyhedra , space structures