Earthquakes, Volcanoes, and Tsunamis: Projects and Principles for Beginning Geologists
To the children of P S 45 in the Bronx New York who first asked Mario how do earthquakes work And to Nicola Okna Shae Edison Austin Daniel and Maia M L and M
Preface e expect many things to move but not the earth How could the earth which is strong enough to support a skyscraper shake and break up Where do earthquakes come from Are we ever going to know when and where they will hit And could we ever learn to build structures capable of withstanding earth quakes Many years have passed since humans first expe rienced earthquakes Over time we have learned answers to most of f these questions but not all of them The book is built around projects demonstra tions and simple experiments that make it easy and fun to develop a physical understanding of earth quakes and their natural relatives volcanic erup tions and tsunami waves You will enjoy working on most of these projects alone or with a friend for a few you may want to ask a parent or an older sibling or friend to help you In either case you will have a good time and also learn a lot about earthquakes vol
canoes and tsunamis We hope you will enjoy reading this book as much as we did writing it but above all we hope that you will never meet face to face with an earth quake an erupting volcano or a tsunami NOTE Although English units of measurement feet pounds etc are still commonly used in the United States almost all the other countries in the world have adopted a measurement system called the metric system or SI This system is taught in our schools and is the official measurement system of our federal gov ernment For these reasons all the measures in this book are given first in metric units then in the equiv alent measures in English units AU 1 JUD 1 kilogram 2 2 pounds
