Cascadia's fault : the coming earthquake and tsunami that could devastate North America / Jerry Thompson.
Material type:
TextPublication details: Berkeley, CA : Counterpoint : Distributed by Publishers Group West, c2011.Description: xxii, 337 p. : ill., maps ; 24 cmISBN: - 1582436436
- 9781582436432
| Item type | Home library | Collection | Call number | Materials specified | Status | Date due | Barcode | Item holds | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Adult Book
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Main Library | NonFiction | 551.2209 T473 | Available | 33111006769349 |
Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:
There is a crack in the earth's crust that runs roughly 31 miles offshore, approximately 683 miles from Northern California up through Vancouver Island off the coast of British Columbia. The Cascadia Subduction Zone has generated massive earthquakes over and over again throughout geologic time--at least thirty-six major events in the last 10,000 years. This fault generates a monster earthquake about every 500 years. And the monster is due to return at any time. It could happen 200 years from now, or it could be tonight.
The Cascadia Subduction Zone is virtually identical to the offshore fault that wrecked Sumatra in 2004. It will generate the same earthquake we saw in Sumatra, at magnitude nine or higher, sending crippling shockwaves across a far wider area than any California quake. Slamming into Sacramento, Portland, Seattle, Victoria, and Vancouver, it will send tidal waves to the shores of Australia, New Zealand, and Japan, damaging the economies of the Pacific Rim countries and their trading partners for years to come.
In light of recent massive quakes in Haiti, Chile, and Mexico, Cascadia's Fault not only tells the story of this potentially devastating earthquake and the tsunamis it will spawn, it also warns us about an impending crisis almost unprecedented in modern history.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
pt. 1. Tremors and ripples -- Mexico City : preview of coming events -- Lessons from the rubble : a front-page story -- The Alaska megathrust : Cascadia's northern cousin -- Against the wind of convention : Plafker, Benioff, and Press -- Cauldron and crust : the rehabilitation of continental drift -- Nuke on a fault : early clues in Humboldt Bay -- Proving the doubters wrong : the Chile connection -- Mount St. Helens : Cascadia's smoking gun? -- pt. 2. Setbacks and breakthroughs -- Mud cores and lasers : the search for evidence -- The whoops factor : Cascadia's true nature revealed -- Quake hunters : finding Cascadia's ghost forest -- Cedars, peat, and turbidites : a tipping point at Monmouth -- Cascadia's segmented past : apocalypse or decades of terror? -- Digital water : catching waves in a computer -- Defining the zone : hot rocks and high water -- Cracks, missing rings, and native voices : closing in on a killer quake -- The orphan tsunami : final proof of Cascadia's last rupture -- Episodic tremor and slip : tracking Cascadia with GPS -- Turbidite timeline : Cascadia's long and violent history -- When's this going to happen? : the problems with prediction -- pt. 3. Shockwaves -- Facing reality : Cascadia equals Sumatra -- The next wave : thinking the unthinkable -- Watching it happen, wishing it wouldn't -- Cascadia's fault : day of reckoning -- Epilogue: Survival and resilience, a state of mind.
Explains that a major earthquake and resulting tsunamis are likely to occur off the Pacific Northwest coast any time within the next two hundred years, arguing that the effects of the disaster will be far worse than the damage from the 2004 Sumatran quake and tsunamis.