California Catastrophes

Book excerpt: "California is the most populous state in the nation and has attracted immigrants since the gold rush in 1848, whether by accident or intention. Although California also has more natural hazards per square mile than any other state as a result of straddling a plate boundary and because of its geologic adolescence, this hasn't deterred others from moving here. In addition to active faults and earthquakes, the state has a myriad of other natural hazards that frequently wreak havoc on the state and its residents, whether floods, landslides and debris flows, sea-level rise and coastal erosion, an occasional tsunami, and now we have climate change with its more frequent droughts and wildland fires, and more concentrated winter rainfall. This book is about the state's vulnerability to natural hazards, why and where we have these events, what has happened in the past and what we can anticipate in the future. And no place in the state is far from one natural hazard or another. Most Californians have an innate interest in these events and not many years goes by without a catastrophe of one sort or another, which can affect entire towns or regions. California Catastrophes is the only book focused on the natural disaster history of the state"--