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On Shaky Ground

Americas Earthquake Alert

John J. Nance

Praise for the Writing of John J. Nance

King of the modern-day aviation thriller. Publishers Weekly

Nance is a wonderful storyteller. Chicago Tribune

Final Approach

A taut high-tech mystery that could have been written only by an airline industry insider. New York Timesbestselling author Stephen Coonts

Scorpion Strike

Gripping. Seattle Post-Intelligencer

Phoenix Rising

Harrowing Nance delivers suspense and smooth writing. A classy job. The New York Times Book Review

Pandoras Clock

A ticking time bomb of suspense. Chicago Tribune

A combination of The Hot Zone and Speed. USA Today

Medusas Child

So compelling its tough to look away. People

The Last Hostage

A thrilling ride [Will] keep even the most experienced thriller addicts strapped into their seats for the whole flight. People

Blackout

A high tension, white knuckle thriller Joltingly scary. New York Post

Turbulence

Mesmerizing in-flight details [and] a compelling cast of realistic characters once again prove John J. Nance the king of the modern-day aviation thriller. Publishers Weekly

Skyhook

Readers are in for death-defying plane rides, lively dialogue, and realistic characters who survive crises with courage and humor. Associated Press

On Shaky Ground: Americas Earthquake Alert

Gripping! Breathlessly unrolls a succession of disasters. If you want a literary equivalent of the quake experience, On Shaky Ground is the book for you. San Francisco Examiner & Chronicle

Authors Note

Ive written this book to engage you with the pace of a gripping novel, yet I want you to know that everything you find in these pages is true and scientifically accurate (even though presented in nontechnical, everyday terms). My footnotes are also narrative in form, but in order to keep them from getting in the way of the rapid flow of the story, Ive put them in the back of the book (just ahead of the Appendices). Nevertheless, I hope youll refer to them throughout whenever a footnoted passage raises additional questions in your mind.

Finally, Appendix 1 contains a demystifying explanation of the different types of earthquake magnitude scales we all tend to call generically (and incorrectly) the Richter Scale. There is, as well, a short but important list of things you can do at home to protect yourself and your family in Appendix 2, and a narrative bibliography (References) placed after the Acknowledgments.

First, however, the dynamic human story itself awaits you.

Introduction

Living on this planet can be hazardous to our health, because the structures we occupy on its surface are at constant risk from damaging earthquakes.

Only in the last twenty years, however, have we really begun to understand the nature of this risk, and how widespread it is across North America. And only during the last decade have we realized that we do have the ability to minimize that risk, provided we also have the resolve to act quickly.

Major earthquakes have shaken and savaged North America at various points from the East Coast to the West throughout its geologic history. But to protect ourselves from future episodes, we have to know where those previous quakes occurred. The earthquakes that rocked the East Coast from Boston to Charleston during the previous three hundred years are well documented, as are the three great quakes that shook the Midwest at the start of the nineteenth century. But there were uncounted earthquakes that came before the arrival of the colonistspreviously unknown seismic convulsions now traceable through tantalizing shreds of telltale evidence left behind in layers of muds and silts and soil. These are records of ancient upheavals in maritime marshes and silent streamsthe harbingers of future earth shaking in unsuspecting realms.

We know now that where major earthquakes have occurred before, such quakes will probably occur again, ripping and roiling the surface of the earth where once stood only the prairies and forests of primeval America, landscapes now supporting delicate dwellings and workplaces, the vulnerable dams and marginally protected nuclear power and petroleum storage facilities, and the fragile web of vital utility networks carrying a bewildering variety of water, gas, communications, and transportation lifelines as they weave through the fabric of America.