Earthquake Storms: The Fascinating History and Volatile Future of the San Andreas Fault by John Dvorak
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

How do you include history, biography and science into a single book? John Dvorak does this in Earthquake Storms. The book traces is focused on earthquakes in California, and particularly the growing understanding of what is happening with the San Andreas fault.

Along the way, we have profiles of early seismologists like Dwight Whitney, who was California’s first state geologist until he was fired because he bore the bad news of there being few new sources of gold. However, his survey of the Cajalco mine uncovered evidence of fault geology, evidence he did not recognize. Later he discovers displaced blocks of granite that had moved hundreds of miles from similar material. Along with John Muir, they discover a “scarp” formed by an 1882 earthquake in Yosemite. They could not explain the mechanics.

We learn of Harry Reid and his lover Alice Eastwood, along with rivals Grove Karl Gilbert and Andrew Lawson who studied what happened along the faults after the 1906 San Francisco quake and noted the rightward slip of the land on each side of the fault. Earthquakes were not a result of upheavals but rather side slippage. But what was going on remained unclear. All this contributed to controversy around the building of the Golden Gate Bridge, which is near one of the faults. So far, it has survived quakes, with additional reinforcement since.

One of the most colorful characters we are introduced to is Charles Richter, who developed the Richter scale. Dvorak tells us of the development of the instruments that enable us to determine the intensity of quakes along with the quirky personality of its inventor.

Most significant in the account is the growing understanding of plate tectonics, which finally makes sense of the side slippage observed along the San Andreas fault as the Pacific plate moves northwestward against the continental place of North America. The stresses that develop as these plates move past each other build up until released in earthquakes.

It is only at the end of the book that Dvorak explores one of the implications of this growing understanding of plate tectonics and the various faults that run through California. If history is any guide, earthquakes tend to occur not simply periodically but in clusters that are a kind of chain reaction as forces build up and are relieved at one point, only adding to the stresses at another along the San Andreas fault and others running through California.

It was a bit surprising that this theory of “earthquake storms” (hence the title) was only raised at the end of the book. Perhaps Dvorak felt the need to develop the narrative of seismological understanding of California before he could introduce this. Perhaps this is still a relatively new theory that he did not want to explore beyond the data. But it did seem to take quite awhile to get to the title theme.

Still, what Dvorak gives us is a fascinating narrative that also should challenge everyone who lives along these faults to be prepared. Earthquakes, and perhaps even a devastating series of earthquakes are inevitable, with significant probabilities in many areas in the next 30 years. It doesn’t seem wise to assume that it won’t happen in one’s lifetime!

This review is based on a complimentary e-galley version of this book provided by the publisher through Netgalley. I have not been in any other way compensated for the review of this book.

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