Want to learn more about earthquakes? | Redlands Daily Facts

Check out these new books at the A.K. Smiley Public Library by Anna Pearson, staff of the A.K. Smiley Public Library in Redlands.

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For Californians, it is always in the back of our minds that an earthquake might happen today, so our interest in the subject is high. The A.K. Smiley Public Library has three new books that will help us to understand this amazing and dangerous phenomenon. 

‘The Great Quake’ 

The Great Quake:
How the Biggest Earthquake in
North America Changed Our Understanding
of the Planet

Henry Fountain has written an engrossing narrative of the 1964 Alaska earthquake in “The Great Quake: How the Biggest Earthquake in North America Changed our Understanding of the Planet.” He follows geologist George Plafker as he immediately surveys the destruction of the town of Valdez and the incredible damage to the landscape, harbors, roads and buildings throughout south-central Alaska.

The quake registered as 9.2 and shook violently for five minutes, but most of the 139 people who died were killed by the resulting tsunamis, including 16 deaths in California and Oregon. Fountain tells the stories of people as they tried to outrun the waves or escape over ground that was rising and falling and opening in deep cracks...

‘Quakeland’

Quakeland:
On the Road to America's
Next Devastating Earthquake

Kathryn Miles expands the study of earthquakes in “Quakeland: On the Road to America’s Next Devastating Earthquake.” Our planet experiences about 1,000 earthquakes every day but we still do not understand when and where the next one will be.
We are not so surprised at a quake in California, which has a long and recent history of events, but in 2011, a 5.8 quake, the largest east of the Mississippi since 1897, rocked Virginia.
Intrigued that the country has 2,100 mapped faults across every state, Miles was curious to see if anyone was paying attention to the threat of earthquakes. She visited dams, nuclear plants, mines and the tunnels under Manhattan and talked with their managers and engineers to see how aware they were of the danger...

‘Earthquake Prediction’

Earthquake Prediction:
Dawn of the New Seismology

“Earthquake Prediction: Dawn of the New Seismology” is precisely what David Nabhan’s new book is about. Nabhan’s interest in the subject was inspired by his own experience of earthquakes in California beginning in 1987.
He noticed that they happened near the same times of day. He realized that the eight greatest earthquakes in California in the past 61 years had all occurred around dawn or dusk.
Read more...

Source: Redlands Daily Facts and Amazon