Living with Earthquakes in the Pacific Northwest

Reviewed by Taryn Oakley, Adjunct Faculty, ESR, Portland Community College on 6/20/20

Comprehensiveness rating: 5 see less

This book covers all of the main aspects of earthquakes- from science to policy to preparedness. The book includes an index, a glossary, and appendices, as well as further reading for each section. Each section is thorough, all major ideas are addressed, and the text gives a great overall introduction to earthquakes in the Pacific Northwest and elsewhere.

Content Accuracy rating: 5

Overall, the book is accurate. The scientific information is correct and complete. There are some minor formatting errors (several places where the space between two words has been left out) and a few other places where words are incorrect (in the Plate Tectonics section it says that rock can flow as a solid (I think the author is trying to say that it can flow like a liquid even though it is technically a solid; in Earthquake Basics the author uses the word "asyncline" instead of "syncline"; and in the last chapter he mentions the "Great Shake Our", which should be the "Great Shake Out". However, these are all very minor mistakes and could be easily fixed. I should also note that I read the online version (not the downloaded pdf) in case that makes a difference.

Relevance/Longevity rating: 4

I was not able to find when this text was most recently updated. The science portions all seem relevant to me, however, this book talks quite a bit about policies, and includes many references to specific scientists and politicians, and as we all know, these things are bound to change over time. I think the only way to keep this text completely relevant (in terms of the policies) would be to update it regularly, however, that is a huge time commitment. I think teachers who use this text should just expect to talk about local policy updates that they find relevant for their areas of concern.

Clarity rating: 5

The book is great- things are clear, one idea flows into the next, and it's easy to follow along. Although there are some earthquake-geology specific terms used, the author almost always explains these as he uses them so that it's easy for even non-experts to follow along. Additionally, there is a glossary included, just in case. I thought this was an easy and straightforward book to read.

Consistency rating: 5

The text is consistent. It's obvious that the same author write the text as the same tone is used throughout. Many stories and examples are discussed during the course of the text, and many reemerge again, referenced for another reason.

Modularity rating: 5

The modularity is great. It would be very easy for instructors to only assign certain sections (which might make sense because there is a lot of both science and policy in this text, and in my experience, oftentimes classes don't cover both in such detail). The sections are divided up into perfect sizes, and presented in an order that makes sense; however, I think all of these sections could be used as a stand-alone, assuming that the reader had an adequate background on the subject.

Organization/Structure/Flow rating: 5

The topics are well organized. The author first goes into the science behind earthquakes, building up from the basics of plate tectonics to more specifics of earthquakes like liquifaction and tsunamis. The material is presented so that more general principles lead into more specific principles.
The second half of the text deals with monetary issues, policies, preparedness, design principles. You would first need to have the science background in order to understand why the policy is so important.
I felt that once topic simply flowed into the next- nicely done!

Interface rating: 4

Interface was mostly great. As I mentioned I was reading the online version. There were no page numbers in this version (even in the index), which does make it harder to reference things. I am not sure if there is any way around this though. Also, sometimes the figures were not in the same section of text that referenced them, so I did have to do some scrolling back and forth.

Grammatical Errors rating: 5

No grammar issues that I came across.

Cultural Relevance rating: 5

The book did a great job addressing the indigenous cultures of the Pacific Northwest and their relationship with earthquakes. I loved the stories that were included, especially the Yurok history of Cascadia. I also appreciated the cultural references to Japan, whose subduction zone is similar to ours.

Comments

This book is an overall great choice for a one-stop-shop about earthquakes in the Pacific Northwest. It does assume that the reader has some basic geology knowledge, so it should not be used in it's entirety for a first-year geology class (at least without some extra explanation), although I think that certain modules could be referenced or assigned even for an introductory level class.
I also REALLY appreciate that there is a book about earthquakes specifically for this region in which I live and love.... as most of us are very interested in the place that we call home. The author gives lots of very specific examples from all over the Pacific Northwest, so teachers may want to have students focus on only certain particular events.. otherwise there are a lot of details to keep track of.
I am so thankful that this book exists and that it was made available to students for free. I think it is a very useful reference!