The Great Quake Debate: The Crusader, the Skeptic, and the Rise of Modern Seismology
- ISBN-10
- 0295747374
- ISBN-13
- 9780295747378
- Category
- Science
- Pages
- 248
- Language
- English
- Published
- 2020-07-16
- Publisher
- University of Washington Press
- Author
- Susan Hough
Description
In the first half of the twentieth century, when seismology was still in in its infancy, renowned geologist Bailey Willis faced off with fellow high-profile scientist Robert T. Hill in a debate with life-or-death consequences for the millions of people migrating west. Their conflict centered on a consequential question: Is southern California earthquake country? These entwined biographies of Hill and Willis offer a lively, accessible account of the ways that politics and financial interests influenced the development of earthquake science. During this period of debate, severe quakes in Santa Barbara (1925) and Long Beach (1933) caused scores of deaths and a significant amount of damage, offering turning points for scientific knowledge and mainstreaming the idea of earthquake safety. The Great Quake Debate sheds light on enduring questions surrounding the environmental hazards of our dynamic planet. What challenges face scientists bearing bad news in the public arena? How do we balance risk and the need to sustain communities and cities? And how well has California come to grips with its many faults?
Get the book
Similar books
-
The Great Quake Debate: The Crusader, the Skeptic, and the Rise of Modern Seismology
By Susan HoughBailey Willis -- Robert T. Hill -- Intersecting orbits -- Parting company and facing disaster -- Golden State -- Symbiosis -- At the epicenter -- The prediction -- The book -- Retrenchment -- The climax -- Settling the score -- Theater -- ...
-
The Great Quake Debate: The Crusader, the Skeptic, and the Rise of Modern Seismology
By Susan Hough"This book explores the famous clash between two high-profile scientists over a consequential question: Is California earthquake country?
-
The Great Quake: How the Biggest Earthquake in North America Changed Our Understanding of the Planet
By Henry FountainIn a compelling tale about the almost unimaginable brute force of nature, New York Times science journalist Henry Fountain combines history and science to bring the quake and its aftermath to life in vivid detail.
-
The Great Earthquake Experiment: Risk Communication And Public Action
By Dennis Mileti, Colleen Fitzpatrick... debate, and participate in a news conference where considered expert opinion would be made public. It was also decided, after elaborate consultation with social scientists, that a press conference/press release format would best inform ...
-
Chinese Politics as Fragmented Authoritarianism: Earthquakes, Energy and Environment
By Kjeld Erik Brødsgaard... the Great Quake of Sichuan? (Kerr and Stone 2009), published in the renowned journal Science in January 2009, has in many ways marked the beginning of an intense international debate about whether the Zipingpu hydropower reservoir ...
-
The Great Quake: How the Biggest Earthquake in North America Changed Our Understanding of the Planet
By Henry FountainIn a riveting tale about the almost unimaginable brute force of nature, New York Times science journalist Henry Fountain, in his first trade book, re-creates the lives of the villagers and townspeople living in Chenega, Anchorage, and ...
-
The Lost History of the New Madrid Earthquakes
By Conevery Bolton Valencius8; William G. McLoughlin, Cherokee Renascence in the New Republic (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1986), 56; Robert Paul Markman, “The Arkansas Cherokees: 1817–1828” (PhD diss., University of Oklahoma, 1972).
-
This Gulf of Fire: The Destruction of Lisbon, Or Apocalypse in the Age of Science and Reason
By Mark MoleskyPaice, Edward. Wrath of God: The Great Lisbon Earthquake of 1755. London: Quercus, 2008. Paludan, Johan, and Hans Jacob Paludan. Forsag Til En Antiquarisk, ... Pearson, Roger Voltaire Almighty: A Life in the Pursuit of Freedom.
-
The Man who Predicts Earthquakes: Jim Berkland, Maverick Geologist : how His Quake Warnings Can Save Lives
By Cal OreyFocuses on the life and work of maverick geologist Jim Berkland, the only man to accurately predict an earthquake in the United States.
-
Seismic Safety Guide
By Donald G. EaglingThe authors of this Seismic Safety Guide represent a cross section of the earthquake engineering profession, from state of the art to practitioner.