The Myth of Solid Ground: Earthquakes, Prediction, and the Fault Line Between Re

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		The Myth of Solid Ground: Earthquakes, Prediction, and the Fault Line Between Re
		The Myth of Solid Ground: Earthquakes, Prediction, and the Fault Line Between Re

基本信息·出版社：Penguin Books
·页码：304 页
·出版日期：2005年07月
·ISBN：0143035258
·条形码：9780143035251
·装帧：平装
·正文语种：英语

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Earthquakes are one of the great unsolved geological mysteries. Attempts to predict them have ranged from studies of California’s fault lines by USGS geologists to the work of an odd assortment of psychics and apocalyptics who base their sometimes startlingly accurate forecasts on everything from changes in the earth’s magnetic fields to the behavior of whales. The Myth of Solid Ground is a journey, both personal and cultural, through the world of earthquakes and earthquake prediction, one that seeks a middle ground between science and superstition, while also looking for a larger context in which seismicity might make sense. An excellent primer on the science of seismology, The Myth of Solid Ground looks at earthquakes as the ultimate metaphor for living with impending disaster.
作者简介 David L. Ulin is a regular contributor to the Los Angeles Times and LA Weekly. His work has also appeared in GQ, the Nation, New York Times Book Review, and Atlantic Monthly. Ulin is the editor of two acclaimed anthologies of writing about Los Angeles, where he lives.
编辑推荐 From Publishers Weekly
Ulin's quest for the truth about earthquakes is partly a personal journey in which he seeks to overcome post-traumatic stress and partly an introduction to the field of seismology, the study of earthquakes and seismic waves. It's also an exploration of the Californian spirit and landscape, on which subjects Ulin eagerly philosophizes. Writing in an intense, nervy style, Ulin describes being haunted by his experience of the 1994 Northridge earthquake in Los Angeles. Understandably fascinated by seismology and its dreams of predicting quakes, Ulin embarks on interviews with leading researchers—and speculators—in the field. Yet he quickly discovers this science to be, like its subject, all about unstable theoretical terrain: "the whole field operates out of some constantly shifting middle ground between research and folklore, legend and fact." Ulin entertainingly describes each scientist and "sensitive" (a layperson who believes he or she can predict earthquakes) he meets, focusing on the enigma of earthquakes and the ways in which they test faith and reason. Ulin's brilliant prose recalls Charlie Kaufman dialogue, as he takes his audience on a wild drive across a beautiful yet doomed state, his mind buzzing with apprehension, with geological facts and with meditations on the themes of time, certainty and faith.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist
How does living in an earthquake zone affect one's psyche and soul? Ulin, who lives in and writes about Los Angeles, takes a fresh and fluently metaphorical, mythological, and personal approach to earthquakes and our attempts to predict them in a book that echoes John McPhee's observational acuity and Joan Didion's dark vision. That said, Ulin's volatile combination of rarefied thought and gut reaction is uniquely his own. He profiles seismologists and explains their theories, and he studies the "X-files" at the Southern California U.S. Geological Survey Office--predictions sent in by people who find signs in everything from the shape of clouds to reports of missing pets to the proximity of the moon. He ponders the warning symptoms of individuals with "earthquake sensitivity"; takes his son to Universal Studios' amusement-park version of the Big One; and stands uneasily on the San Andreas Fault. Folklore and computer models, James Dean and chaos theory all figure in Ulin's restless inquiry into seismology and edgy meditation on the paradoxes inherent in a life lived on shifting ground. Donna Seaman
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review
A subtle, personal and adventurous exploration of what an immense natural phenomenon means in our culture at large. -- Los Angeles Times

Review
A subtle, personal and adventurous exploration of what an immense natural phenomenon means in our culture at large. (Los Angeles Times)

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