Hi Don -- To the contrary,the premise of the book (based upon some geologist's report -- I don't remember those details without the book in front of me)goes beyond all the expected loss of life and property caused by a Mag 7 earthquake in a heavily populated area. In the doomsday scenario given in Reisner's book, the earthquake could also cause intrusion of seawater into the Sacramento Delta levee system (which is below sea level) which would have a devastating impact upon the drinking water supply and agriculture. (Remember we're talking about the author of Cadillac Desert here; freshwater, or lack thereof, in the western U.S. was his field of expertise.)

"If levees on the Sacramento River Delta were breached by the quake,salt water from the Pacific Ocean would pour into the freshwater Delta, creating an '80,000 acre extension of San Francisco Bay.' Twenty million Californians to the south would lose their water supply, as would 'four million acres of the world's richest irrigated cropland.'"

Barbara

• Book Review