Customer Reviews

The Earth in Turmoil: Earthquakes, Volcanoes, and Their Impact on Humankind

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One of the things that makes this book stand out is that its geology is up-to-date and detailed. I was a geology major back in the late 70s and while I decided not to go on in the field, I've kept up reasonably well. I learned a great deal of new info from this book, including the only coherent explanation I've ever read of the "hot spots" responsible for volcanoes like those in Hawaii.

The basic format of the book is of a west-to-east journey through the U.S., although Southern California (where co-author Sieh lives and works) gets by far the most detailed coverage. We get some vivid anecdotal accounts of earthquakes and eruptions, but the overall focus is more "what we think we know and why we think we know it." As another reviewer said, you must be interested enough in the subject to follow some reasonably complex logical arguments.

The color photos in the book are a valuable addition -- among other things, they made me realize that the oddly ramp-like block just south of Sunset Boulevard in LA is actually the scarp of the fault that has raised the Hollywood Hills.

The writing style is clear and approachable. All in all a very enjoyable read for folks with a serious interest in Earth Science.

This book looks at ten or so regions in the USA that suffer major earthquake and seismic hazards in a very readable fashion. Some of these are the familar ones in the news such as Mt. St. Helens and California, Others are not so well known like New York City and Tennesee, because they haven't been active in a while, but could potentially be as deadly.

It is written in a Scientific America-like journalistic style: a readable introduction for high school students as well as meaty detail for a seasoned geologist. It contains a number of up-to-date maps and photgraphs illustrating the destruction and how the geology works. It conveniently assembles into a single volume a number of case histories previously scattered among different scientific journals, government reports and popular science articles. It crosses the sub-fields of geology, seismology, volcanology and civil engineering- topics often seperated in other works.

The main author, Sieh, is a CalTech geologist who is one of the leading figures in geological seismology, and studied several of the areas described in the book. Geological seismology looks at disturbed soil layers, rocks, and old trees to estimate seismic activity over the past several thousand years, before there were seismic instruments. The second author, LeVay, is a former LaJolla neuroscientist and presently a science journalist. He probably contributed heavily to making the volume readable. Some of the chapters are personal reports of scientific investigations in manner of Sullivan or McPhee.

The book is not intended to be comprehensive textbook of geology, seismology, volcanology, etc., although there are introductions to such woven into the text and appendices. Also the book doesn't cover every major hazardous area in the US, but many of the significant ones, and ignores the rest of the world.

I recommend the book as enjoyable science reading with deep details even geologists would learn from. I will use this book as a reference when talking about seismic hazards in the future.

This is a book about geological hazards in the United States. The general focus is on the West Coast, if only because that is the most tectoncally active area. Some color plates, and a few black and white photos, are included, but the primary emphasis is on a well-written text. The book is highly readable and keeps one's attention throughout.

The authors begin their examination with a review of the Northwest, discussing both volcanic hazards and the lesser known, recently discovered, but far more dangerous hazard of a truly giant earthquake in that region. Every citizen of that part of the United States should carefully peruse this section.

Attention then turns to California and the San Andreas Fault. Author Sieh is a renowned expert on this transform fault, and thoroughly discusses the extensive research he and others have done on this peril. Again, as with the Northwest, this section is very highly recommended.

The earthquake hazards of the Great Basin and the volcanic hazards of Yellowstone are examined in detail, as are mid-continent earthquake problems in the central Mississippi valley. The book also looks at potential East Coast earthquake and tsunami hazards.

The authors use particular care in explaining geologic termnology in an understandable manner, and this is rare and impressive. Many books of this genre are deficient in that they either oversimplify the material at hand, leading to inaccuracies and potentially dangerous distortions, or by making geology appear so difficult that the reader with a non-scientific background becomes frustrated. The authors have carefully avoided either pitfall, and the book has profited though such care.

If you live in the United States, you should own and read this book. It may save your investments. or your life.

One of the authors is an active and well known researcher in the field and clearly knows both his subject matter and how to explain it. Or else the synergy between the two authors has led to this result. In either case, if you've any interest in the subject matter, earthquakes and volcanoes, this is the popular book to read. It's very well written, has good diagrams, a glossary for those not familiar with the terms and a nice set of references, all of which are important to someone outside the field.

Depending on how much geology changes over the next decade or so, this book may turn out to be a classic book on this aspect of geology for the nongeologic community.

I have two very small quibbles.

First, geologists seem to want to "claim" credit for the amount of damage their specialty causes. In this case, water gets shorted as a source of catastrophy. I believe floods may have taken more lives than earthquakes and volcanoes.

Second, having been trained as a mathematician, I find it disconcerting how often three roughly evenly spaced events are taken as evidence of regularity. Of course, geologic data's very expensive to obtain, but the uncertainty could perhaps be made a little more apparent.

Actually, I've a third quibble, though it may be considered a plus by many. The book uses earthquakes and volcanoes in the US as its source material. The best examples may not always be taken from the 50 States, but an American audience is likely to find it more interesting.

Lastly, Fradkin, in "Magnitude 8", doesn't seem to think scientists know how to communicate. This book is a counterexample in eactly the same area he's writing about. While I have serious reservations about "Magnitude 8" because of what I consider to be Fradkin's lack of understanding of what science is and how it gets done (to be fair, he does note that he had serious disagreements with scientists while writing the book), his book is also well worth reading if you live in California and occasionally worry about earthquakes. Since "Magnitude 8" includes policy and preparation, it's more of a companion piece than a competitor.

This is an excellent and easy-to-read summary of the exciting new research and thinking about earthquakes and volcanos. In particular, the chapters on the San Andreas and New Madrid fault systems were excellent. A great read.

This book was very well written. It is a wonder to those whose know nothing about geology and those who have a passion for it. Even though those who know nothing about geology, those who know about it would enjoy this book much more.