Customer Reviews

Tsunami: The Underrated Hazard

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
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In a lot of science books written for the general reader, the complaint is that the material is sensationalistic and over-simplified. Edward Bryant almost errs in the other direction. His evidence that very large Tsunami have played a key role in shaping many coastal regions is extremely well-presented and will contain lots of new information for even dedicated followers of Earth Science news.

On the other hand, while reading information about landscapes re-arranged by truly massive "mega-tsunami," one sometimes longs for livelier prose. The book may also be something of a slog now and then for people with no background in Earth Science.

I would recommend this book highly to anyone with a serious interest in the subject, and certainly to anyone who needs to consider tsunami from a policy-making point of view.

I purchased this book in 2004 for it's original retail price of US$27.95. Now I see used copies selling for more than $300 on amazon.com. This book is a terrific analysis of what we now know, as the sub-title 'The Underrated Hazard' suggests, an extraordinarily prescient work outlining the causes and historical occurences of one of the earth's more destructive natural phenomenon, tsunamis.

Please, CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS, encourage Mr. Bryant to update this extraordinarily informative book with an analyse of the earthquake and tsunami of December 26, 2004.

This is an excellent text on Tsunamis and their cause, historical significance and impact on shorelines and everything in their way. Not too much technical information for the average interested reader but I presume (I am not a technically oriented reader) also an excellent source of technical data of interest to scientists.

A good source of a much ignored topic that has all of a sudden, unfortunately, become topical.