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Books
Earthquake
and its Aftermath
Sanyat
Sattar
 Earthquakes
in Human History
Jelle Zeilinga de Boer & Donald Theodore Sanders
Princeton University Press; January 2005
ISBN: 0691050708
Weekend
scholars and disaster fans will find the physical and the
social sciences blend interestingly, if sometimes a bit awkwardly,
in this study of earthquakes across the centuries. As in their
previous book, Volcanoes in Human History, coauthors de Boer
and Sanders consider the repercussions of natural disasters
on everything from literature and religion to politics and
science. Early chapters consider biblical references to a
quaking earth and show how 14th- and 18th-century earthquakes
in England and Portugal were taken as signs from God (encouraged
by fiery preacher John Wesley, Londoners who had suffered
through several small quakes in 1750 saw Portugal's disastrous
1755 quake as yet another warning of God's displeasure with
sinners). A discussion of the New Madrid, quake of 1811 notes
that while it was one of the strongest ever recorded in North
America (it was followed by 1,874 aftershocks), it remains
relatively unknown because the region was little populated.
Modern-era quakes in San Francisco (1906), Kanto, Japan (1923),
Peru (1970) and Nicaragua (1972) round out the book; the links
between seismic aftermath and revolutionary ferment in the
latter two countries nicely pinpoint the significant interplay
between planetary and sociopolitical upheaval.
 Disaster
by the Bay
H. Paul Jeffers
The Lyons Press; October 2003
ISBN: 1592281397
In this
vivid, fast-paced chronicle of what has been called the worst
peacetime disaster to ever befall America, veteran journalist
and author H. Paul Jeffers provides a gripping account of
those nightmarish days in April 1906. Drawing on a wide range
of eyewitness material, Jeffers follows a variety of individuals
as they come to grips with an unthinkable event. Celebrities
like Enrico Caruso and John Barrymore; the civil and military
authorities who tried to bring order out of chaos; merchants
who struggled heroically to save their shops and goods from
the ruins and the flames; the suddenly homeless ordinary men
and women who composed messages on scraps of paper and sticks
of wood to tell of their survival (all of which, incredibly,
the Postal Service actually delivered): from all these and
many other perspectives Jeffers creates a riveting mosaic
of catastrophe and its aftermath. With the one-hundredth anniversary
of the quake approaching, this skillful narrative will be
of keen interest to readers from West Coast to East. Includes
forty-eight black-and-white illustrations.
 Stochastic
Structural Dynamics in Earthquake Engineering
G. D. Manolis & P. K. Koliopoulos
Computational Mechanics, Inc.; May 2001
ISBN: 1853128511
Earthquake
engineering is a vast subject encompassing seismology, geology,
geotechnical engineering, structural mechanics, dynamics,
and the design and construction of civil engineering works,
as well as issues of earthquake preparedness, post-seismic
recovery and reconstruction. Tailored specifically to the
needs of the earthquake practitioner, this book applies stochastic
structural dynamics to typical problems in earthquake engineering.
Material on random vibrations and stochastic mechanics is
retained or adapted where relevant to the needs of civil engineers
practicing a seismic design of structures. Also accessible
to graduate students and researchers working in this field,
the text contains many examples and exercises with solutions.
Copyright (R)
thedailystar.net 2004
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