--- title: Earthquakes Threaten More of America Than You Might Think description: In her new book "Quakeland," reporter Kathryn Miles travels across the United States to portray the communities most endangered by quakes canonical: https://time.com/4904280/kathryn-miles-quakeland-review-earthquakes/ author: Nate Hopper article:opinion: true article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-08-17T10:55:39.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T17:01:57.046Z article:section: Ideas og:title: The Fall Book That Will Take Your Mind Off Politics og:description: … If not ease it og:url: https://time.com/4904280/kathryn-miles-quakeland-review-earthquakes/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9933e13ecc3cde15/6988d9f897cdff20ee6b20e0/quakeland-san-francisco-earthquake-1906.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: quakeland-san-francisco-earthquake-1906 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: The Fall Book That Will Take Your Mind Off Politics twitter:description: … If not ease it twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9933e13ecc3cde15/6988d9f897cdff20ee6b20e0/quakeland-san-francisco-earthquake-1906.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # The Fall Book That Will Take Your Mind Off Politics  by [Nate Hopper](https://time.com/author/nate-hopper/)  ## Nate Hopper Aug 17, 2017 10:55 AM UTC  Houses in San Francisco, after an April 18, 1906, earthquake toppled them and killed thousands Houses in San Francisco, after an April 18, 1906, earthquake toppled them and killed thousandsBrettman/Getty Images  by [Nate Hopper](https://time.com/author/nate-hopper/)  ## Nate Hopper Aug 17, 2017 10:55 AM UTC “You can be forgiven,” writes Kathryn Miles in [_Quakeland_](https://www.amazon.com/dp/0525955186/?tag=timecom-20) (Aug. 29), “for thinking that the ground beneath your feet is solid.” Yet it isn’t, and by the end of her reporting readers will feel a bit unsteady. The concerns at the core of _Quakeland_ are that seismologists know the most about the potential [earthquakes](http://time.com/4172564/oklahoma-hit-with-70-earthquakes-this-week/) that are the least alarming, and that we all know little about quakes to begin with. They remain the least [predictable](http://time.com/4412694/how-we-might-predict-earthquakes/) of natural disasters and possibly the most [catastrophic](http://time.com/4296784/japan-earthquakes-aftermath-photos/). While many of us know that California will likely suffer a sizable earthquake within three decades (or of the threats facing the coastal [Pacific Northwest](http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/07/20/the-really-big-one), thanks to a Pulitzer Prize–winning 2015 _New Yorker_ article by Kathryn Schulz), few realize that New York City sits atop “a brittle grid” of rock and is overdue for a destructive quake. The city also resides about 25 miles downriver of Indian Point Energy Center, a nuclear plant that one retired consultant calls “Fukushima on the Hudson” after the 2011 Japanese nuclear disaster, which was caused by an earthquake and led to an evacuation covering hundreds of square miles and more than 1,000 deaths. (The state recently announced that Indian Point will close in 2021.) Miles renders a map of other endangered municipalities, like the Oklahoma city that houses tanks containing tens of millions of barrels of oil, in a state where quakes are increasing. Or the stretches of Mississippi River communities where survivors would struggle to receive relief depending on how one bridge fares. Or the several states where the mining and oil- and gas-drilling industries are causing more and more [unnatural quakes](http://time.com/4687456/earthquakes-fracking-wastewater-injection/) and whose paychecks allow impoverished people to buy houses their work could end up cleaving. There are also plausible not-even-worst-case scenarios where thousands die, hundreds of thousands become homeless and billions of dollars’ worth of property and resources disintegrate — and that’s only for the known seismic faults. Scientists worry more about the many they have yet to find. That fear you feel? It’s intended. Miles prefers the most provocative possibilities as _Quakeland_ seeks to rattle us free of the ignorance, uncertainty and short memory that have paralyzed plans for prevention and survival. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"OpinionNewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4904280/kathryn-miles-quakeland-review-earthquakes/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4904280/kathryn-miles-quakeland-review-earthquakes/"},"headline":"The Fall Book That Will Take Your Mind Off Politics","datePublished":"2017-08-17T10:55:39.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T17:01:57.046Z","description":"…If not ease it","url":"https://time.com/4904280/kathryn-miles-quakeland-review-earthquakes/","keywords":["Books"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9933e13ecc3cde15/6988d9f897cdff20ee6b20e0/quakeland-san-francisco-earthquake-1906.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Nate Hopper","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/nate-hopper/"}],"articleSection":"Ideas","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9933e13ecc3cde15/6988d9f897cdff20ee6b20e0/quakeland-san-francisco-earthquake-1906.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"quakeland-san-francisco-earthquake-1906","caption":"quakeland-san-francisco-earthquake-1906","creditText":"Brettman/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/ideas/","name":"Ideas"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/books/","name":"Books"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4904280/kathryn-miles-quakeland-review-earthquakes/","name":"The Fall Book That Will Take Your Mind Off Politics"}}]}] ```