Earthquakes, Fifth Edition

Rating:
Summary: The updated and expanded Fourth Edition just published
Review: The new 4th edition has a new chapter on Plate Tectonics,recent earthquake descriptions,connections with Web pages,and colored illustrative plates.Fresh historical text has been included and more help with seismic safety.

Rating:
Summary: Recommended: A very good book on Earthquakes.
Review: This book provides a very good coverage on Earthquakes, from how and why they happen to their effects and safety concerns. You can learn about faults, plates, how earthquakes are sized, how much can be forecasted, how structures are affected, ground acceleration, soil conditions, etc. Though there are numerous examples from California, this is not one of those books which try to provide earthquake checklists to Californians. The level of technicality is one reason I recommend the book. You don't have to be a seismologist to understand the book, but you won't get bored if you are technically oriented. You will get a quantitative feel of concepts in addition to the clear explanations.

Rating:
Summary: Good update, but illustrations are better in 3rd ed.
Review: Well, the title says it -- I'm keeping my copy of the 3rd edition because the illos in the latest edition look soft and disturbingly unsharp. Maybe the publisher, having lost the original artwork for the 3rd edition, simply scanned a copy. Or maybe the quality got skimped when the work was made all-electronic. I don't know.

In any case, the content is fine.