Elastic rebound is one of the most basic tenets of modern earthquake science, the term that scientists use to describe the build-up and release of energy along faults. The book focuses on this theme, using a number of pivotal and intriguing historic earthquakes as illustration.

The book concludes with a consideration of projected future losses on an increasingly urbanized planet, including the near-certainty that a future earthquake will someday claim over a million lives. This grim prediction impels us to take steps to mitigate earthquake risk, the innately human capacity for rebound notwithstanding.

Contents
1 Impacts and Reverberations
2 Earthquakes and Ancient Cities: Armageddon—Not the End of the World
3 The Lisbon Earthquake and the Age of Reason
4 Tecumseh’s Legacy: The Enduring Enigma of the New Madrid Earthquakes
5 19th-Century Temblors: A Science Is Born
6 The 1886 Charleston, South Carolina, Earthquake
7 Finding Faults in California
8 The 1923 Kanto Earthquake: Surviving Doomsday
9 Hazards of the Caribbean
10 Tsunami!
11 City of Angels or Edge City?
12 Earthquakes as Urban Renewal?
13 Demonic Demographics
14 The Age of Construction
Notes and Suggested Readings
Index

Download File Size:7.92 MB

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