The Myth of Solid Ground: Earthquakes, Prediction, and the Fault Line Between Reason and FaithFrom the first earthquake David L. Ulin experienced in San Francisco at age eighteen, he was fascinated with the daily lives of Californians, who seem to be going about their business with just an occasional rumbling interruption. But these tectonic shifts could easily wreak cataclysmic havoc, just as they did in the great earthquake of 1906. In The Myth of Solid Ground, Ulin explores how an unlikely collection of scientists, psychics, and apocalyptics have made startlingly accurate earthquake predictions based on everything from magnetic fields to the behavior of whales. In the end, Ulin uses the world of earthquake prediction to explore the deep fault lines of belief and the human longing to hold control, no matter how misguided, over a mysterious and deadly phenomenon that is as much a part of California as speed, youth, and celebrity. |
Contents
Three April Earthquakes | 1 |
The XFiles | 34 |
A Brief History of Seismology | 74 |
Copyright | |
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Other editions - View all
The Myth of Solid Ground: Earthquakes, Prediction, and the Fault Line ... David L. Ulin Limited preview - 2005 |
The Myth of Solid Ground: Earthquakes, Prediction, and the Fault Line ... David L. Ulin No preview available - 2005 |
Common terms and phrases
aftershock Allan Lindh Angeles Bay Area Bowman California Earthquake called Caltech Cholame Christopher Scholz clouds Creek dreas earth earthquake cloud earthquake prediction edge epicenter event everything fault line feel forecast foreshocks freeway geologic geologists geopoetry going ground Grove Karl Gilbert Haicheng happen Hector hundred idea imagine interaction Jim Berkland Kerry Sieh kind Landers landscape Lavic Lake less living Loma Prieta look Lucy Jones Madrid magnitude matter means miles myth never Noah North Anatolian Northridge once Park Parkfield Parkfield earthquake patterns physical plate tectonics precursors predictors quake random region Ross Stein rupture San Andreas Fault San Francisco says scientific seismic seismologists sense shake Shou sits slip Southern California story stress subway surface Susan Hough talking Tejon tell temblor theory there's thing tion Tom Heaton tremor turn USGS Valley Venus window wonder X-Files