#Good Earthquake Book?
3 messages in this thread
Can anyone tell me where to find a book specifically about the geology of
earthquakes? Most of my basic geology texts give the same old info about
tectonics and such but I want to know about things like: What defines an
aftershock? How can seismologists tell an aftershock from an earthquake? Does
each fault have a maximum and minimum energy load?
My family lives in the Northridge area and it is always amazing when a tremor
occurs, which is determined to be a true earthquake, and its epicenter lies
right among the aftershocks (which still continue) from the Northridge quake.
Id also like to see a good description of the various scales by which
earthquakes are measured, and understand how the magnitudes compare in kilotons
or megatons.
If anyone knows the answers to these, Id love to see your explanations here but
I really do need a good book on this too.
-Rande
There are whole textbooks on earthquakes at the junior/senior level. However,
I just finished reading a very nice introduction, a hardcover aimed at
intelligent lay readers by Bruce Bolt of U.C.-Berkeley. It's called something
like _Earthquakes and Geological Discovery_ (Scientific American Library,
1995).
With regard to aftershocks, I remember hearing that the Marina district in San
Francisco was particularly hard hit by the 1989 earthquake. It's interesting
that the reason isn't (a) stability of the land there (i.e., hard or soft
earth) or (b) proximity to the epicenter (which was a bit south of Santa Cruz,
in a state park I've visited). It was how the land in between transmitted,
deflected, and amplified the waves under the earth.
John-
Thanks for the book info. The author sounds familiar, so I may have read
something else from him. Have to check into that.
-Rande