When The Earth Shakes

Earthquakes, volcanoes, tsunamis. Headline-making natural disasters with devastating consequences for millions of people. But what do we actually know about these literally earth-shaking events? New York Times bestselling author, explorer, journalist, and geologist Simon Winchester—who’s been shaken by earthquakes in New Zealand, skied through Greenland to help prove the theory of plate tectonics, and even charred the soles of his boots climbing a volcano—looks at the science, technology, and societal impact of these inter-connected natural phenomena. A master nonfiction storyteller, Winchester digs deep into the powerful natural forces that shape the earth, exploring the how and why of world-changing events from the 19th-century’s infamous volcanic eruption at Krakatoa and the earthquake that flattened San Francisco, to the 21st-century tsunamis that devastated Indonesia and Japan. It’s a gripping story about what happens when our seemingly unmovable planet shakes, explodes, and floods—all richly illustrated with fascinating historical and stunning contemporary photographs.

On the 2021 Green Earth Book Award Long List! For the 50th anniversary of Earth Day, a mythic framing of climate change and one little girl’s response. Alya and Atik are stars. Their job is to twinkle in the night sky over Earth, and for billions of years they do it well. Plants stretch toward them. Animals look up at them. And, eventually, humans gaze up at them and marvel. But then humans invent powerplants, factories, and cars, and smog pours into Earth’s atmosphere. It becomes harder and harder for Alya and Atik to do their jobs—until, finally, the stars yell at Earth, and Earth feels sick and begins to shake, and things look pretty dire. The clueless king’s response is to command Earth to stop shaking. But a little girl named Axiom tells the king to hush, then tells humans what they must do to make the Earth feel better. When the Earth Shook provides a mythical framing for kids to understand that it will be their job to help save the Earth. Bravo, Axiom! Keep using that huge megaphone until the earth no longer shakes! Axiom’s list of instructions to humans—some well-known and others new but critically important—appears in the back of the book.

When an earthquake of historic magnitude leveled the industrial city of Tangshan in the summer of 1976, killing more than a half-million people, China was already gripped by widespread social unrest. As Mao lay on his deathbed, the public mourned the death of popular premier Zhou Enlai. Anger toward the powerful Communist Party officials in the Gang of Four, which had tried to suppress grieving for Zhou, was already potent; when the government failed to respond swiftly to the Tangshan disaster, popular resistance to the Cultural Revolution reached a boiling point. In Heaven Cracks, Earth Shakes, acclaimed historian James Palmer tells the startling story of the most tumultuous year in modern Chinese history, when Mao perished, a city crumbled, and a new China was born.

This book shares the results of a symposium held to honor the work of Walter Brueggemann and Charles Cousar at Columbia Theological Seminary on the occasion of their retirement. Each author and each chapter of the book simultaneously engages the Bible, the church and the world--a three-part engagement that was fundamental to the acclaimed careers of Brueggemann and Cousar.

Little Parisa—Farsi for "like an angel"—goes to bed one night only to be shaken from sleep by an earthquake that rocks her home of Bam, Iran. Frightened and alone—the earthquake has left her town deserted—Parisa knocks on the doors of various animals, only to be rebuffed again and again. Boar accuses her of being a hunter; Owl blames her for taking his food and leaving him hungry. Lion just gives a ferocious roar. Left with nothing but her resolve, Parisa turns to the most natural of human instincts: She walked as a human child under the sun. She dances. She laughs. She waters neglected flowers. She shares. And one by one, her generous spirit inspires the animals around her to put aside their differences and revel in the simple delights that unite them. Donna Jo Napoli's accomplished storytelling is beautifully complemented by Gabi Swiatkowska's dramatic oil paintings to celebrate the courage and fortitude of the human spirit.

Fifty years ago, no one could explain mountains. Arguments about their origin were spirited, to say the least. Progressive scientists were ridiculed for their ideas. Most geologists thought the Earth was shrinking. Contracting like a hot ball of iron, shrinking and exposing ridges that became mountains. Others were quite sure the planet was expanding. Growth widened sea basins and raised mountains. There was yet another idea, the theory that the world's crust was broken into big plates that jostled around, drifting until they collided and jarred mountains into existence. That idea was invariably dismissed as pseudo-science. Or "utter damned rot" as one prominent scientist said. But the doubtful theory of plate tectonics prevailed. Mountains, earthquakes, ancient ice ages, even veins of gold and fields of oil are now seen as the offspring of moving tectonic plates. Just half a century ago, most geologists sternly rejected the idea of drifting continents. But a few intrepid champions of plate tectonics dared to differ. The Mountain Mystery tells their story.