Why the Earth Quakes: The Story of Earthquakes and Volcanoes - Softcover

Levy, Matthys; Salvadori, Mario

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0393037746 ISBN 13: 9780393037746

Publisher: W W Norton & Co Inc, 1995

Synopsis

A history of earthquakes and other seismic phenomena chronicles the planet's tectonic origins through the most recent developments in seismic technology and includes discussions on the worst natural disasters of all time.

About this title

About the Author:

Matthy Levy is an architectural engineer and principal of Weidlinger Associates.

From Booklist:

Part roll call of cataclysms, part building engineering, this short guide is animated by a simple human concern: saving lives. As the best defense is an intelligently built structure, the authors describe (nontechnically) strategies for absorbing shock waves, trends in retrofitting, and the causes of particular failures. (Failure is a forte of these authors of Why Buildings Fall Down, 1992.) In the narrative department, Levy and Salvadori examine famous instances of exploding volcanoes and devastating earthquakes, reliably giving the figures on casualties and Richter magnitudes and leavening the grimness with notes about why, for example, a Frank Lloyd Wright hotel withstood the 1923 Tokyo earthquake. Line drawings (but no photographs) visualize the scenes, and one practical section delivers Q & A's about survival tips for quaky areas of the United States. But what were the authors thinking of in adding a nongermane and simplistic chapter on cosmology? One blemish doesn't negate the whole intent, however, which is to bring the basics of tectonics to the curious. Gilbert Taylor

About this edition

• Publisher: W W Norton & Co Inc
• Publication date: 1995
• ISBN 10: 0393037746
• ISBN 13: 9780393037746
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1