Apropos of trembling earth: Earthquake books?

15 years ago

On Sunday morning I woke up to my pet parrots going crazy over a earthquake around 5:30 in the morning. Just after nine, as I lay in bed reading, there was a noticeable one - my bed vibrated for several seconds, and I felt one more quake and heard two more before noon, and felt two more between 5 and 6 in the afternoon. The biggest came to 4 on the Richter scale. All in all there were over 500 tremors in the area yesterday (about twice the normal weekly average), although only a handful were actually big enough to be felt by people. All this quake activity was worrying, especially considering the big New Zealand quake that has been in the news lately, but the tremors seem to be subsiding now.

Anyway, I got to thinking about earthquakes and decided I want to read more about them, so I would like to ask you all to recommend me some good earthquake books. I would especially like to find a good book about the geology and physics of earthquakes that isn't going to fry my brain with scientific jargon (I get enough of that at work), but I would also like to see some history and novels. The more titles, the better, since I want to try to get books from the library rather than buy them.

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Comments (7)

froniga
15 years ago

City of Heroes: the Great Charleston Earthquake of 1886 by Richard N. Cote
This is an account of the quake that all but destroyed South Carolina's "Holy City" and the response of the people of that city to the catastrophe.
carolyn_ky
15 years ago
On Shaky Ground: The New Madrid Earthquakes of 1811-1812 (MISSOURI HERITAGE READERS) [Paperback] Norma Hayes Bagnall (Author) tells the story of very large quakes that caused some of the Mississippi River to flow backward for a time and formed an enormous and popular lake for fishermen located on the border of Kentucky and Tennessee.
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donnamira
15 years ago
This is probably overkill, but Frank Press's introductory geology textbook is clear and interesting to read in its own right (at least, the earlier edition was that I was assigned for my introductory class way-back-when! I've read it through at least once since my class, just for pleasure), and should give you a good layman's understanding of tectonics: Understanding Earth, Press, Seiver, Grotzinger & Jordan.
stoneangel
15 years ago
I found it a bit dry but, since it is on topic, thought I would volunteer Simon Winchester's 'A Crack in the Edge of the World' about the great San Francisco earthquake of 1906 - lots of talk about the plates, fault lines, etc. as well as the effect of the quake on the people of the time (as I recall).

Here is a link that might be useful: A Crack in the Edge of the World
netla
Original Author
15 years ago
Thanks for the recommendations, everyone.
annpan
15 years ago
On Google Books today I saw a number of Earthquake and related titles listed under Trending Topics. Would you get the same lists as we do on Google Australia?
netla
Original Author
15 years ago
Annpan, I have no idea. I checked and saw a couple of earthquake books, but mostly ones about tzunamis and nuclear disasters.

Apropos of trembling earth: Earthquake books?

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Apropos of trembling earth: Earthquake books?

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