Earthquakes: 2006 Centennial Update

"Earthquakes" by Bruce Bolt has been the classic textbook for many years for a non-technical discussion. The fifith edition properly orders the material, and tosses out some outdated material, on earthquake prediction and reservoir-induced seismicity, for example. It is fairly clear, contains colorful stories from Bruce's decades as Director of the Berkeley Seismological Station, and has a firm scientific grounding. Reading it is no walk in the park, as befits a subject of moderate complexity, but neither is it a dark and stormy night. The accompanying web notes are sketchy, and I just noted some stale links. This book is California-centric, Bob Yeats has a more Pacific Northwest-centric "Living with earthquakes in the Pacific Northwest", Brumbaugh's "Earthquakes - Science and Society" is more rudimentary in both graphics and prose, and Yanev's "Peace of mind in earthquake country" is more engineering oriented and has been out of print. Susan Hough's "Earthshaking Science" is better written but with far fewer graphics. Reading this book remains the easiest way to understand earthquakes.

Well, the title says it -- I'm keeping my copy of the 3rd edition because the illos in the latest edition look soft and disturbingly unsharp. Maybe the publisher, having lost the original artwork for the 3rd edition, simply scanned a copy. Or maybe the quality got skimped when the work was made all-electronic. I don't know.In any case, the content is fine.

This book provides a very good coverage on Earthquakes, from how and why they happen to their effects and safety concerns. You can learn about faults, plates, how earthquakes are sized, how much can be forecasted, how structures are affected, ground acceleration, soil conditions, etc. Though there are numerous examples from California, this is not one of those books which try to provide earthquake checklists to Californians. The level of technicality is one reason I recommend the book. You don't have to be a seismologist to understand the book, but you won't get bored if you are technically oriented. You will get a quantitative feel of concepts in addition to the clear explanations.

The new 4th edition has a new chapter on Plate Tectonics,recent earthquake descriptions,connections with Web pages,and colored illustrative plates.Fresh historical text has been included and more help with seismic safety.

I spent a lot of time searching for a book explaining earthquakes that wasn't too simple or a text book. Bolt's book is more toward the textbook end of the scale, but is still quite readable. This is not a simple "what to do" book but an explanation of how quakes happen, how they cause damage, what we can do, etc.