Forces of nature and cultural responses: an introduction -- Ball Lightning: an elusive force of nature -- The ball lightning controversy - Empirical case studies -- How does a series of earthquakes affect academic performance? -- Vulnerability and disaster in Thailand: Scale, power, and collaboration in post-tsunami recovery -- Disaster in paradise: a preliminary investigation of the socio-economic aftermaths of two coastal disasters in Hawaii -- Responses to natural disasters in the Greek and Roman world -- Provisioning capacity: a critical component of vulnerability and resilience under chronic volcanic eruptions -- Jamming with disaster: New Orleans jazz in the aftermath of hurricane Katrina -- Two floods compared: Response to and perception of the 1682 and 1715 flooding disasters in the Low Countries.

How do and how did people perceive, manage and respond to natural disasters? How are the causes of natural disasters explained in history, how are they explained today? This volume investigates relationships between forces of nature and human culture in a multidisciplinary context bridging science and the humanities. Forces of nature and cultural responses is divided into four sections: (1) ball lightning, (2) earthquakes and tsunamis, (3) volcanic eruptions and plagues, and (4) hurricanes and floodings. Specifically, Section 1 investigates theories and case studies of ball lightning phenomena. Section 2 includes a psychological study on the impact of earthquakes on academic performance, a study on tsunami vulnerability and recovery strategies in Thailand and a study on the social and economic aftermaths of a tsunami and a hurricane in Hawaii. Section 3 consists of a chapter on volcanic eruptions and plagues as well as cultural responses in Ancient Times and a study on contemporary vulnerability and resilience under chronic volcanic eruptions. Section 4 investigates the impact of hurricane Katrina on the current jazz scene in New Orleans and cultural responses to floodings in The Netherlands in  Early Modern Times.