Popular belief holds that Brazil is a “blessed country,” where hurricanes, severe earthquakes, volcanoes, and other intense natural disasters do not occur. A closer look, however, reveals many examples that contradict these assumptions. Brazil has been living under the impact of severe environmental, cultural, and political disasters for centuries. Paradigmatic examples in recent years were the fire that destroyed the building and most of the collections of the National Museum of Rio de Janeiro in September 2018 and the rupture of a dam associated with mining activities in Brumadinho, Minas Gerais, in January 2019. Taking a longer view, this essay focuses on Brazilian volcanism and earthquakes since the sixteenth century, asking what these subjects can tell us about the histories of disasters and geological sciences, in Brazil and the world.

中文翻译：

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地质史与灾难相遇：巴西视角

人们普遍认为巴西是一个“福国”，那里不会发生飓风、严重地震、火山和其他强烈的自然灾害。然而，仔细观察会发现许多与这些假设相矛盾的例子。几个世纪以来，巴西一直生活在严重的环境、文化和政治灾难的影响之下。近年来的典型例子是 2018 年 9 月毁坏了里约热内卢国家博物馆的建筑物和大部分藏品的火灾，以及 2019 年 1 月米纳斯吉拉斯州布鲁马迪尼奥与采矿活动相关的大坝破裂。从更长远的角度来看，本文主要关注 16 世纪以来的巴西火山活动和地震，询问这些主题可以告诉我们关于巴西和世界的灾难和地质科学的历史。