Finding Fault in California: An Earthquake Tourist's Guide [Paperback]

Susan Elizabeth Hough (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 1, 2004

California has plenty of faults seismic faults that is. They shear the Golden State into ribbons and have largely crafted California's geologically diverse and dynamic landscape. With humor and ease, Finding Fault in California leads the earthquake curious to the state's most accessible, active, and earth-shaping faults and tells the stories behind the major temblors that have shaken the regionThe book begins with a discussion about what faults are and how to recognize them. The geologic tours follow, exploring the seismic hazards of the Los Angeles Basin, the San Francisco Bay Area, central California, the Mojave Desert, a neighborhood that is slowly being wrenched in two by the creeping Calaveras fault, and a now-landscaped surface rupture from the 1971 San Fernando quake in a McDonald's parking lot giving new meaning to an order for burgers and shakesPhotos, maps, and diagrams, most with precise GPS coordinates, illustrate the conversational text. Entertaining sidebars highlight the often ingenious methods of modern fault-finding researchers.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

A Californian for most of her adult life, Susan Elizabeth Hough has a deep affection for the natural wonders of her adopted home state. She holds a PhD in earth sciences from Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California, San Diego. A geophysicist with the U.S. Geological Survey in Pasadena, she studies earthquake hazards in California and historic earthquakes in the central United States and IndiaHough has written many articles both technical and popular about earthquakes for journals, newspapers, and magazines, and she is the author of Earthshaking Science: What We Know and Don't Know about Earthquakes (Princeton University Press). She lives in southern California, just a stone's throw from the Raymond fault.

Product Details

• Paperback: 263 pages
• Publisher: Mountain Press Publishing Company; 1st edition (May 1, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0878424954
• ISBN-13: 978-0878424955
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,163,617 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An unusual survey peppered with black and white photos, November 9, 2004

By 

Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Finding Fault in California: An Earthquake Tourist's Guide (Paperback)

California has plenty of seismic faults which are responsible for creating the state's diverse geological landscapes, and Susan Hough serves as your travel guide to finding these faults in Finding Fault In California. This is perfect for any who would tour the state with geology or faults in mind: chapters provide background earthquake and activity history, maps to pinpoint specific locations, and plenty of detail for both geologists and would-be visitors to California. An unusual survey peppered with black and white photos throughout.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent science, Entertaining reading, September 9, 2005

By 

Penny L. Bloodhart - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Finding Fault in California: An Earthquake Tourist's Guide (Paperback)

For anyone in California, or anyone interested in earthquakes in general, this book should be a must read. Hough's description of the causes and problems created by earthquakes is concise, well written and gives something of the flavor of the regions discussed.

It is difficult to make a complex science accessible to most folks, but this book can do it for many issues relating to California quakes!

22 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant Title, Terrible Text, February 16, 2005

By 

Doctor Quartz (Huntington Beach, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Finding Fault in California: An Earthquake Tourist's Guide (Paperback)

This is a dreadful little book. The best thing about it is its title-which turns out to be completely misleading. There aren't nearly enough maps to help you locate the faults, nor are there enough GPS coordinates given, nor do you get anything more than a boring cartoon summary for most of the faults. Given the amazing subject matter, California faults, and all the fascinating, horrific, wondrous stories, and strange science that exist for each of them, you'd think it would be impossible to write a mediocre to bad book about them, but somehow Ms. Hough has managed to do this. How do I hate this book? Let me count the ways. 1) The geologists who work on these faults are some of the most fascinating and colorful people you'll ever meet. None of Ms. Hough's little summary boxes about them, even remotely captures their wonderful, obsessive, knowledgeable, souls. She rarely uses quotes by them, which is an utter crime. 2) Everyone who has worked on faults has some really funny or scary stories to tell about them. I could rattle off dozens of stories she should have written up that don't appear in this book. 3) The faults of California are strange, horrific, monstrous, and beautiful things. You get no sense of this in the book. You get none of the dazzling poetry of nature in this book. 4) There are no terrific nuggets of humor in this book. 5) This book doesn't have enough "history" of the faults in it-passages, observations etc. from the 1800's, 1900's, etc. 6) The pictures are hit and miss. For every artful one, there's five or six boring to bad ones. 7) This 263 page book should be a series of about three to five books. One book should be on the faults of L.A., one book should be on the San Andreas, etc.
Anyway. This is the kind of book that an amazing number of people are going to buy because of the title, and because they think they need it on their shelves as a reference. This is however a book that I doubt that anyone, apart from the writer and its editors, can bear to read from cover to cover.