Lessons Written in Rubble

Every major earthquake teaches humanity something:

• Lisbon 1755 — launched modern seismology and disaster management
• San Francisco 1906 — proved fire can cause more damage than the shaking
• Chile 1960 — showed quakes can send tsunamis across whole oceans
• Tohoku 2011 — showed even the best-prepared nation can be overwhelmed

The pattern is clear: each catastrophe forces building codes to improve, warning systems to expand, and communities to adapt. The price of this knowledge has always been paid in human lives.