Predicting the Unpredictable : The Tumultuous Science of Earthquake Prediction / Susan Elizabeth Hough.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Hough, Susan Elizabeth, author.

Contributor:

Hough, Susan Elizabeth.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Earthquake prediction.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (262 pages) : illustrations, maps

Place of Publication:

Princeton, NJ : Princeton University Press, [2016]

Language Note:

In English.

Summary:

An earthquake can strike without warning and wreak horrific destruction and death, whether it's the catastrophic 2010 quake that took a devastating toll on the island nation of Haiti or a future great earthquake on the San Andreas Fault in California, which scientists know is inevitable. Yet despite rapid advances in earthquake science, seismologists still can't predict when the Big One will hit. Predicting the Unpredictable explains why, exploring the fact and fiction behind the science-and pseudoscience-of earthquake prediction. Susan Hough traces the continuing quest by seismologists to forecast the time, location, and magnitude of future quakes. She brings readers into the laboratory and out into the field-describing attempts that have raised hopes only to collapse under scrutiny, as well as approaches that seem to hold future promise. She also ventures to the fringes of pseudoscience to consider ideas outside the scientific mainstream. An entertaining and accessible foray into the world of earthquake prediction, Predicting the Unpredictable illuminates the unique challenges of predicting earthquakes.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

Preface to the Paperback Edition

1. Ready to Rumble

2. Ready to Explode

3. Irregular Clocks

4. The Hayward Fault

5. Predicting the Unpredictable

6. The Road to Haicheng

7. Percolation

8. The Heyday

9. The Hangover

10. Highly Charged Debates

11. Reading the Tea Leaves

12. Accelerating Moment Release

13. On the Fringe

14. Complicity

15. Measles

16. We All Have Our Faults

17. The Bad One

18. Whither Earthquake Prediction?

Acknowledgments

Notes

General Index

Index of Earthquakes by Year

Notes:

Includes indexes.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 08. Jul 2019)

ISBN:

9781400883547

1400883547

OCLC:

959833339