Recent Earth Movements: An Introduction to Neotectonics

by Vitafinzi

Deformation of the Earth's crust during the last few millennia and even in historical times has been widespread and often rapid. This book outlines the geological, archaeological, documentary and instrumental evidence for such movements and considers their implications for geophysics, earthquake prediction and civil engineering. The numerous examples are illustrated by over 100 maps, diagrams, and photographs.****FROM THE In this book I illustrate the main sources of evidence for recent earth movements and try to show why the evidence is worth collecting. Two kinds of crustal movements are doubtless familiar to most the ground breaks associated with large earthquakes, and the gradual uplift that has affected Scandinavia and Canada since the Pleistocene ice sheets retreated. These were once regarded as anomalous phenomena in an otherwise stable earth. Nowadays the anomaly is on the other no part of the globe can safely be declared terra firma. As I argue in the introductory chapter, the reason lies in changed attitudes no less than in novel data. It is a sign of the times that the International Association for Earthquake Engineering now has an active British section.****Although I write mainly for undergraduate students of geology and geomorphology, I hope what follows will also interest historians, engineers and curious travellers. Recent deformation has some bearing (sometimes through not having occurred) on the interpretation of human affairs; it is proving an essential ingredient of attempts to trace and interpret the pattern of earthquake activity in space and time; and its study still stands to benefit from disinterested reporting.

226 pages, Hardcover

Published February 11, 1986