Discover the profound, surprising, and instructive tales embedded within the tragic earthquakes and tsunamis of the years 1755, 1906, 1960, 1985, 2004, 2011, and 2023. Uncover the impact these events have had on our understanding of the planet we call home and explore how they shaped the destinies of entire nations.In this book, you’ll delve into the intriguing connection between seismic events and human missions to the Moon and Mars; pondering the warnings they carry for our futur...

Among all the numerical methods in seismology, the finite-difference (FD) technique provides the best balance of accuracy and computational efficiency. This book offers a comprehensive introduction to FD and its applications to earthquake motion. Using a systematic tutorial approach, the book requires only undergraduate degree-level mathematics and provides a user-friendly explanation of the relevant theory. It explains FD schemes for solving wave equations and elastodynamic equations of m...

Do ancient maps prove that the planet was surveyed 12,000 years ago? Were the poles once in a different position to where they are today? Is there a secret pattern joining the great sites of antiquity? In this revolutionary little book, ancient sites expert Hugh Newman outlines various theories concerning geometry in the distribution of sacred sites on Earth and comes to some startling conclusions. Illustrated throughout with fantastic graphics, this book will change your world. WOODEN BOO...

The United States of America will likely be devastated by earthquakes within the next twenty years. That is the startling conclusion of the authors of this book, all of them leading experts in the geophysical effects of climate change. They make a strong case for a link between the suns cycles of behavior with highly destructive earthquakes. The authors explain that when the sun goes into a reduced energy phase, it produces colder weather and the worst earthquakes weve ever seen. Their eas...

The 1960s revealed a new and revolutionary idea in geological thought: that the continents drift with respect to one another. After having been dismissed for decades as absurd, the concept gradually became part of geology's basic principles. We now know that the Earth's crust and upper mantle consist of a small number of rigid plates that move, and there are significant boundaries between pairs of plates, usually known as earthquake belts. Plate tectonics now explains much of the structure...

This Erratic Planet is a book of vital importance to the future of our species. Drawing on a staggering range of references across disciplines including geology, astronomy, archaeology and palaeontology, Ian Rankin outlines his radical ideas about the worlds past. Contrary to conventional scientific thinking , the evidence he has examined has convinced him that the history of our planet is not one of gradual change, as proposed by Darwins theory of evolution, but a story of successive, yet...

The first part of this book describes the different kinds of rocks, soil and mountains found on our planet, and explores how they came into being. This section deals with the depths of the earth, and the long ages of time.In contrast, the second part examines the heights of our universe, in the movement of the sun, moon and stars. These bodies give us our sense of day, month and year.Throughout, Kovacs links the phenomena he's describing with human experience, how they affe...

A tour of the Solar System's tallest, hottest, coldest and weirdest volcanoes – and a look inside what makes them erupt.The volcano – among the most familiar and perhaps the most terrifying of all geological phenomena. However, Earth isn't the only planet to harbour volcanoes. In fact, the Solar System, and probably the entire Universe, is littered with them. Our own Moon, which is now a dormant piece of rock, had lava flowing across its surface billions of years a...

What does it take for a volcanic eruption to really shake the world? Did volcanic eruptions extinguish the dinosaurs, or help humans to evolve, only to decimate their populations with a super-eruption 73,000 years ago? Did they contribute to the ebb and flow of ancient empires, the French Revolution and the rise of fascism in Europe in the 19th century? These are some of the claims made for volcanic cataclysm. Volcanologist Clive Oppenheimer explores rich geological, historical, archaeolog...

Geophysics is the physics of the Earth. Central to the Earth Sciences today, it encompasses areas such as seismology, volcanism, plate tectonics, gravitational anomalies, and the Earth's magnetic field (present and past, as captured in rocks), all of which give clues to both the structure and the working of the Earth. In this Very Short Introduction, William Lowrie describes the internal and external processes that affect the planet, as well as the principles and methods of geophy...

"A lay-reader-friendly guide to seismology fundamentals, from early theories about earthquake origins to the workings of contemporary plate tectonics. . . . Musson . . .[keeps] readers absorbed with clear explanations and colorful anecdotes about one of nature's most calamitous forces" ( Booklist ).For centuries, Californians and the Japanese have known that they were at risk of catastrophic earthquakes, a...

Finally, someone has written a comprehensive, easily readable explanation of the tides on earth that is both simple enough for students and solid enough for their professors. Step by step, by analogy and illustration, Beyond the Moon describes how the cyclical motion of the near solar system is impressed upon the earth's oceans, and how the hydraulics over the continental shelf and the geography of the coastline orchestrate this rhythm into the bewildering variety of tide patterns seen aro...