Catastrophes!: Earthquakes, Tsunamis, Tornadoes, and Other Earth-Shattering Disasters

Preface

Preface The idea for this book originated from the horrors of the December 26, 2004, Indian Ocean tsunami. My wife and I watched the news coverage and thought that there was a need for such a book. This need was further emphasized by the 2005 Hurricane Katrina disaster, the 2008 Mississippi Valley floods, and the 2010 Haiti earthquake. However, my heavy teaching load and many other research and writing commitments prevented me from pursuing this project until a summer without a field season (2009) allowed me time to work on it. I’ve been teaching about these events in my introductory physical geology courses for more than 25 years now, but this book gave me a chance to expand on the usual material and to take a novel, more paleontological approach to natural disasters. I thank my editors at the Johns Hopkins University Press, especially editor Vincent J. Burke and copyeditor Andre Barnett, for all their help with producing this book. I thank Eddie Bromhead, Chuck Chapin, and two anonymous reviewers for their comments on the earlier drafts. I thank Kristine Wendt for her wonderful artwork. I especially thank Pat Linse for her incredible transformation of the art in the book, and my wife for cleaning up and improving many of the images. Finally, I am grateful to my wonderful family for letting me focus on this project in peace and quiet while I wrote it over a few weeks in July 2009. It is always fun to show my incredible sons Erik, Zachary, and Gabriel the power of the earth and wonders of rocks and fossils. This work would not have been possible without the loving support of my wife, Dr. Teresa LeVelle, who did everything she could to help me concentrate and to keep at my writing when many other distractions beckoned. This page intentionally left blank Catastrophes! This page intentionally left blank ...