**3. Earthquakes as an outbreak of traumatic damage: risks and consequences**

#### **3.1 Mass destruction after earthquakes**

*Affecting large areas with mass destruction and mass loss* is a typical effect after hug magnitude earthquakes. A typical example of possible consequences in largemagnitude earthquakes is presented in **Figure 2** as number of victims and financial losses due to some of the most destructive earthquakes in XX century (**Figure 2**) [2–6]. Industrial sites, homes, hospitals, public buildings, utilities, underground and aboveground technical facilities, transport hubs, etc., are damaged or destroyed [2, 7–10, 13, 19–22]. This significantly impedes rescue operations, effective enough immediately after the earthquake occurs.
