Earthquake Storms in Science and Inquiry

Feb 29, 2016 Charlene rated it it was amazing

Shelves: innovation, general-science, geology, evolution, biology, history, favorites

This is an exquisitely beautiful history of how humans came to understand the inner workings of our planet earth. Dvorak's book wasn't even on my radar until I saw it in my feed because a friend added it to read. It turned out to be the history of geology and dynamic Earth that I didn't realize I needed to know.

Years ago I fell in love with geology after taking an intro to geology class, only because it was a requirement and the class I really wanted, cosmology, was full. During that semester, This is an exquisitely beautiful history of how humans came to understand the inner workings of our planet earth. Dvorak's book wasn't even on my radar until I saw it in my feed because a friend added it to read. It turned out to be the history of geology and dynamic Earth that I didn't realize I needed to know.

Years ago I fell in love with geology after taking an intro to geology class, only because it was a requirement and the class I really wanted, cosmology, was full. During that semester, I began to realize that the discovery of Earth's crazy way of becoming and remaining active was as exciting as any exploration into space.

The main reason I fell in love with geology is because it made me realize that the sun made Earth; and thus, Earth's cycles are controlled by the sun. Earth made living organisms; and thus, our cycles (eating, sleeping, mating, living, dying, etc) are controlled by Earth. But how? And why? Who knew that so many of the answers could be found in rocks, in Earth's core, and in its deep and mysterious waters? The author doesn't focus on all of these questions, but what he does speak to, he addresses with such beauty.

This book primarily focuses on how humans came to understand the dynamic nature of the moving rocks that make up the crust of Earth. Dvorak provides a wonderful history of all of the people who have contributed to our understanding so far. The history is played out in this book like a cast of characters in a movie I came to know and love. Dvorak offers excellent personal information on each person who contributed to answering questions such as, 'What could earthquakes teach us?,' 'What actions could we take during earthquakes to learn more about them?,' 'What was going on at the mid ocean ridges?', 'How did humans begin to understand plate tectonics?', 'What were the personal lives of the researchers like?', 'How much did sexism affect the study of plate tectonics?', 'What were each of the discoveries that added to our full understanding of how the earth's crust works?' and more.

I hope this author writes more about geology. I am immediately going to start reading another book by him. I loved this book much more than I imagined I would. ...more

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Oct 22, 2016 David Schwan rated it really liked it · review of another edition

This book tells us about the San Andreas Fault through stories about the people who have studied it. The science of seismology made huge strides through the contributions of geologists studying the San Andreas Fault. For people who like California history this is an informative book. The author is well known as a journalist covering the computer industry and has written an insightful book about earthquakes in California.

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Nov 25, 2016 Mary rated it really liked it

Shelves: science

I love the Palm Springs/Joshua Tree area, so I was sorry to learn that this area has a 59% chance of a major earthquake in the next 30 years. This quake would be along the lines of the quake that rocked San Francisco in 1906.

This book is really about the development of seismology as a science and the development of tools to measure and study earthquakes like the Richter Scale. Very interesting reading about the various faults the are spread across California. However, examples of other earthqua ...more

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