This research will investigate earthquake knowledge in one of the most seismically active areas of the world. But even in a place where tremors are an everyday occurrence, a recent massive quake came as a stark reminder of the tremendous capabilities of earthquakes to surprise, to undo previous assumptions, and to destroy and remake worlds. The failure of seismologists to predict this large quake has added fuel to long-standing international debates over the possibilities and limits of seismological knowledge.
Using ethnographic and historical research methods, this study explores the uncertainty surrounding earthquakes, which has made seismology into a field that is remarkably, if at times begrudgingly, open to unconventional explanations, methods, and types of evidence. This project also considers how people understand earthquakes not only through science, but also through folklore, history, spirituality, public education, popular culture, and observations of strange weather and animal behavior. Centrally, the project inquires into how the physical instability of the earth might compel and reconfigure practices of observing, sensing, and knowing nature itself.
This effort will significantly contribute to anthropological studies of science, the environment, and human-nature relations, which rarely attend closely to geophysical activity and how it permeates everyday life. By drawing attention to earthquake science as a situational, shifting amalgam of knowledge traditions, rather than a singular, coherent body of expertise, this project can provide insights that will be helpful for both preparedness and recovery efforts. Funding this research also supports the education of a graduate student.
