On Shaky Ground by John Nance.

[SheilaT]

Best earthquake book ever. It came out in 1988 (in a different thread a couple of days ago I gave an incorrect and too early copyright date) and talks in great detail about the Good Friday earthquake in Alaska in 1964, as well as the New Madrid earthquakes of 1811-12 -- which I'd never even heard about up til then. It also explains that it was the Chile earthquake of 1960 that made seismologists start seriously thinking about plate tectonics, and the Good Friday quake that essentially confirmed the theory.

A couple of weeks ago I got a hankering for a hardback copy of the book (my paperback is old enough the pages are getting brittle and will start crumbling all too soon) and so ordered it on line.

Yesterday morning when I went to leave my house at 10am, after spending the morning watching as much earthquake coverage as I could, there was the envelope with the book right outside my front door. Nice timing.

It still remains the best earthquake book I've ever read, and earthquakes is one of the subjects I obsess on.