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How Did We Find Out #14

How did we find out about earthquakes?

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Traces the history of man's study of earthquakes, discusses what is currently known about these tremors, and explores the possibility of their prevention.

58 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1978

47 people want to read

About the author

Isaac Asimov

4,347 books28k followers
Works of prolific Russian-American writer Isaac Asimov include popular explanations of scientific principles, The Foundation Trilogy (1951-1953), and other volumes of fiction.

Isaac Asimov, a professor of biochemistry, wrote as a highly successful author, best known for his books.

Asimov, professor, generally considered of all time, edited more than five hundred books and ninety thousand letters and postcards. He published in nine of the ten major categories of the Dewey decimal classification but lacked only an entry in the category of philosophy (100).

People widely considered Asimov, a master of the genre alongside Robert Anson Heinlein and Arthur Charles Clarke as the "big three" during his lifetime. He later tied Galactic Empire and the Robot into the same universe as his most famous series to create a unified "future history" for his stories much like those that Heinlein pioneered and Cordwainer Smith and Poul Anderson previously produced. He penned "Nightfall," voted in 1964 as the best short story of all time; many persons still honor this title. He also produced well mysteries, fantasy, and a great quantity of nonfiction. Asimov used Paul French, the pen name, for the Lucky Starr, series of juvenile novels.

Most books of Asimov in a historical way go as far back to a time with possible question or concept at its simplest stage. He often provides and mentions well nationalities, birth, and death dates for persons and etymologies and pronunciation guides for technical terms. Guide to Science, the tripartite set Understanding Physics, and Chronology of Science and Discovery exemplify these books.

Asimov, a long-time member, reluctantly served as vice president of Mensa international and described some members of that organization as "brain-proud and aggressive about their IQs." He took more pleasure as president of the humanist association. The asteroid 5020 Asimov, the magazine Asimov's Science Fiction, an elementary school in Brooklyn in New York, and two different awards honor his name.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isaac_As...

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Displaying 1 of 1 review
Profile Image for Joan.
2,495 reviews
August 29, 2023
Asimov was great at explaining things to his audience! In this case and series, his audience is about grade 5 - 8. I’m a native Californian. I figured I wouldn’t learn anything from Asimov’s book on earthquakes. Well, I figured wrong! I learned that I had managed to miss the rise of plate tectonics as the successor to continents moving around. Now I see that the information about sea floor spreading helped make the change in concepts to help explain what causes earthquakes. He ends by acknowledging that it is highly unlikely science will ever stop earthquakes but pointed out one unlikely method of stopping them while cautioning it is unlikely. He said the best possibility is increasing the accuracy of earthquake prediction so people know whether it is worth leaving the area for the quake.

I suspect the book is out of date in the explanation of how current seismographs work. Otherwise, I really didn’t notice much that was out of date, rather to my surprise!

I would suggest librarians hang onto this title, unless there is interest in modern seismographs. It is possible more up to date info might be desired in California or Japan, for example. Otherwise this is still a highly useful book! Definitely recommended!
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