Volcanoes and Earthquakes: A Guide To Our Unquiet Earth

by Chiara Maria Petrone, Roberto Scandone, Alex Whittaker

Concise and engaging visual guide to Earth's most devastating natural earthquakes, volcanoes, and plate tectonics

One in 20 people in the world live within range of an active volcano. On average, Magnitude 2 and smaller earthquakes occur several hundred times a day worldwide. Volcanoes and Earthquakes explores the massive natural forces from within the Earth that greatly affect its surface, often with dramatic and long-lasting consequences.

Written in an accessible style, and fully illustrated with photographs, diagrams, and maps, the book explains the violence of earthquakes and volcanoes that impact humankind, and the gradual continental drift and mountain building that have transformed the Earth over the 4.5 billion years of its existence. It details the processes that have and continue to form, destroy, and move the Earth's surface.

The authors describe how the Earth formed, from the beginnings of the solar system to the growth of the continents as they are today, and delve deep into the Earth's core to explore what drives the plates and feeds volcanoes. The last chapter examines the changes in the tectonic processes that link the Earth's mass, water, atmosphere, and life, including the effects on climate, sea-level, and the distribution of plant and animal species. Volcanoes and Earthquakes is a powerful reminder of the impact of natural forces on our everyday lives.

144 pages, Paperback

Published October 1, 2019

Reviews

[Alyssa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Definitely written for the general public, not scientists. Had some interesting conversions of metric to US/Imperial units... Could have used some better editing. But it had nice images and graphics.

[Mills College Library]

551.2 P4975 2019

[Norman Cook · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book would make a good text or supplemental reading for middle or high school students. The diagrams and photos are for the most part clear and instructive. It is well referenced and indexed. For myself, with a background in chemistry and thermodynamics, it was a bit simple, but on the other hand, I wasn't looking for a super-detailed geology textbook, either (I recently visited the Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park and wanted some quick, supplemental information about what I saw there). It's amazing that plate tectonics is a theory that only caught on in the 1960s, but it's now the foundation of geology. This book does have a big drawback, though--there are numerous metric-to-imperial conversions, especially related to temperature, that are completely wrong. There are also at least a couple of places where I think a plural should have been used instead of a singular. And somehow, Olympus Mons on Mars became Olympus Moon! The proofreader for this book was apparently having a bad day (or at least I hope it was the proofreader; if the authors made these mistakes, can we trust any of the contents!).