This project seeks to provide detailed accounts of historic earthquakes and volcanic eruptions in the Azores, to assess their impacts on people and draw lessons for the planning of contemporary civil defence. The methodology will use a combination of field work to map and assess the impact of historic disasters, and scrutiny of archival data sources. Where possible and in particular when investigating events which are still within living memory, archival studies will be supplemented by interviews with people who have both suffered losses and who have been involved within scientific agencies, government and Civil Protection.
Although the purpose of the research described in this application is to understand how the people of the Azores managed to live in and recover from frequent natural disasters over a considerable period of time, knowledge of how they reacted historically reveals indigenous strategies of coping and survival, which may inform present-day disaster preparedness.​​