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

Author: Miles, Kathryn

Brand: Dutton

Color: Multicolor

Features:

• Quakeland Preparing for America s Next Devastating Earthquake

Binding: hardcover

Number Of Pages: 368

Release Date: 29-08-2017

Part Number: 9780525955184

Details: Product Description
A journey around the United States in search of the truth about the threat of earthquakes leads to spine-tingling discoveries, unnerving experts, and ultimately the kind of preparations that will actually help guide us through disasters. It’s a road trip full of surprises.

 
Earthquakes. You need to worry about them only if you’re in San Francisco, right? Wrong. We have been making enormous changes to subterranean America, and Mother Earth, as always, has been making some of her own. . . . The consequences for our real estate, our civil engineering, and our communities will be huge because they will include earthquakes most of us do not expect and cannot imagine—at least not without reading
Quakeland. Kathryn Miles descends into mines in the Northwest, dissects Mississippi levee engineering studies, uncovers the horrific risks of an earthquake in the Northeast, and interviews the seismologists, structual engineers, and emergency managers around the country who are addressing this ground shaking threat.

As Miles relates, the era of human-induced earthquakes began in 1962 in Colorado after millions of gallons of chemical-weapon waste was pumped underground in the Rockies. More than 1,500 quakes over the following seven years resulted. The Department of Energy plans to dump spent nuclear rods in the same way. Evidence of fracking’s seismological impact continues to mount. . . . Humans as well as fault lines built our “quakeland”.

What will happen when Memphis, home of FedEx's 1.5-million-packages-a-day hub, goes offline as a result of an earthquake along the unstable Reelfoot Fault? FEMA has estimated that a modest 7.0 magnitude quake (twenty of these happen per year around the world) along the Wasatch Fault under Salt Lake City would put a $33 billion dent in our economy. When the Fukushima  reactor melted down, tens of thousands were displaced. If New York’s Indian Point nuclear power plant blows, ten million people will be displaced. How would that evacuation even begin?

Kathryn Miles’ tour of our land is as fascinating and frightening as it is irresistibly compelling.
Review
“[Miles] peppers her book with quick bits of information about scientists and the work they do in eservice of understanding our planet and its earthquakes. … Her book becomes, in part, a love letter to the tedium and wizardry that is scientific discovery.”

—The New York Times Book Review

“That fear you feel? It's intended... 
Quakeland seeks to rattle us free of the ignorance, uncertainty and short memory that have paralyzed plans for prevention and survival.”

—Time Magazine

“Miles’s treatment of earthquake mechanics is clear and crisp... Does she succeed in shaking us out of our complacency? I will confess that, although I don’t live in a seismic hot zone, the day I finished reading “Quakeland” I found myself in a grocery store stocking up on bottled water.”

—Wall Street Journal

“an earthquake-themed road trip that is popular science in the Mary Roach mold: the writer as intrepid explorer of science and amiable, wisecracking proxy for the lay reader.”

—Oregonian

"fascinating and frightening... a startling reality check."

—Christian Science Monitor
“Thanks largely to Miles’s conversational, somehow cheery writing style, I was riveted throughout and heartily recommend this book to people living everywhere. For policymakers, 
Quakeland should be required reading.”

—Sierra Magazine“[
Quakeland] takes the form of a road trip to visit seismic disasters both past and potential, and seismologists and earthquake engineers who have first-hand knowledge of them. Their colourful personalities, opinions and prejudices tell a story of scientific discovery and engineering remedy... a engaging read.” 

—Nature

“
Quakeland is everything a popular science book should be: well-researched, anecdotal, sometimes humorous, and easily understood.”

—Shelf Awareness
"Quakeland is a mesmerizing, eye-opening read—not only for

EAN: 9780525955184

Package Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.1 x 1.4 inches

Languages: English