The Big One: The Earthquake That Rocked Early America and Helped Create a Science

Let me start by saying I liked this book. In spite of some obvious shortfalls that I'll discuss it was an interesting book that held my attention. There are, of course, many books now on the topic of earthquakes in general and the New Madrid quakes specifically. This one doesn't necessarily advance the genre greatly, but I think it is a nice addition. It seems be quite even-handed. Other than describing almost every earthquake with adjectives like tremendous or huge, there is very little sensationalism in the book and in fact, many sensational claims are toned down and adjusted by the authors. This book is a bit hard to categorize. It sells itself, in part, as a book on the New Madrid earthquakes, which it basically is; however, a large portion of the book deviated to cover the history of seismology. During the whole middle part of the book reference is made to people who were first interested in studying earthquakes in various places and to events that happened elsewhere. The book seems to be suggesting that at the end there will be an explantion of the causes of the New Madrid quakes but it turns out that there really isn't. So basically, this is a book that wanders somewhat. I would say that this is not necessarily a drawback though. The authors do not get into a chapter-by-chapter rundown of historical earthquakes like many books on similar topics, and they do not spend the whole time describing every single detail of the New Madrid events. So the book does end up being interesting and a good read that moves along briskly and keeps the reader's attention. I have read many books on earthquakes. What I like about this one is that it seems to include some of the most recent ideas and advances. If you are a layperson that is generally interested in these things, you will most likely find this to be a fun book that's easy to read and easy to believe.

This book is easy to read. However it jumps from topic to topic without much transistion. It really is more about seismology than about the New Madrid earthquake. It updated my knowledge of the field. It has been 15 to 20 years since I read about plate techtonics in Scientific American. The science has come a long way.