I highly recommend reading: "The Earth in Turmoil" by Kerry Sieh and Simon LeVay

I saw some notes about it on the sci.geo.earthquakes or the ca.earthquakes newsgroups so I recently bought it at amazon.com

Its really a GREAT book. Its meant for the general public and is somewhat educational and not over-the-head scientific. Its focus is on quakes and volcanos (a subject we all know and love) and their impact on humankind.

I'm not quite halfway thru it, but I would highly recommend it for everyone's reading list. It starts off explaining the cascadia subduction zone and its hazards then to St Helen's, then 3 chapters on the san andreas, then about LA's thrust faults (that's where I'm at now) - The parts I haven't gotten to yet talk about Long Valley caldera, the Basin and Range (nevada, utah, etc) then the New Madrid, eastern seaboard, hawaii and then a summary chapter on how do we live with all this ?

It has some great color plates (pictures) as well as a number of illustrations and I would say its a must read for all who read this list.

It is well written, easy to understand and easy to capture and keep your attention. I really don't like dry, scientific books.

See the link below for the book at Amazon.com's site.

Canie

• The earth in turmoil