Playing Against Nature: Integrating Science and Economics to Mitigate Natural Hazards in an Uncertain World
by S. Stein & J. Stein, 2014
About the book and ordering information
EOS article about course based on the book
Figures and tables from the book
Powerpoint lectures based on the book
Powerpoint lecture to science teachers based on the book: Part 1; Part 2
Story Corps interview about writing the book: Part 1; Part 2
Class project resulting from the book
Disaster Deferred: How New Science is Changing our View of Earthquake Hazards in the Midwest
by S. Stein, 2010
In the winter of 1811-1812, a series of large earthquakes in the New Madrid seismic zone, often incorrectly described as the biggest ever to hit the United States, shook the Midwest. Today the federal government ranks the hazard in the Midwest as high as California’s and is pressuring communities to undertake expensive preparations for disaster.
Coinciding with the two-hundredth anniversary of the New Madrid earthquakes, Disaster Deferred revisits these earthquakes, the legends that have grown about them, and the predictions of doom that have followed in their wake. The book explains the techniques seismologists use to study Midwestern quakes and estimate their danger. Detailing how limited scientific knowledge, bureaucratic instincts, and the media’s love of a good story have exaggerated these hazards, Disaster Deferred calmly debunks the hype surrounding such predictions and discusses a more sensible, less costly policy. The book explains how new geological ideas and data, including those from the Global Positioning System, are painting a very different and much less frightening picture of the future.
About the book and ordering information: To save 30%, add the book to your shopping cart, and enter code STEDI in the “Redeem Coupon” field at check out. Click on the “redeem coupon” button and your savings will be calculated.
Preview the book with Google books
For Chicago Public Radio interviews about the book click here or here
St. Louis Public Radio interview about the book
Arkansas Public Radio interview about the book
Earth magazine article about the book
Using the book to teach about New Madrid
More about the research described in the book
Lecture series based on the book: Teaching about New Madrid earthquakes: science and hazards including figures from the book, class activities, and additional material
Introduction to Seismology, Earthquakes, & Earth Structure
by S. Stein & M. Wysession, 2002
More about the book, including downloadable figures and Power point
Reviews of the book from EOS, Physics Today, Seismological Research Letters, and Natural Hazards
Seismicity, Fault Rupture and Earthquake Hazards in Slowly Deforming Regions,
edited by A. Landgraf, S. Kübler, E. Hintersberger & S. Stein, 2017
Subduction Dynamics: From Mantle Flow to Mega Disasters
edited by G. Morra, D. A. Yuen, S. D. King, S. M. Lee & S. Stein, 2016
Continental Intraplate Earthquakes: Science, Hazard, and Policy Issues, edited by S. Stein & S. Mazzotti, 2007
The Adria Microplate: GPS Geodesy, Tectonics and Hazards,
edited by N. Pinter, G. Grenerczy, J. Weber, S. Stein & D. Medak 2005
Plate Boundary Zones,
edited by S. Stein & J. Freymueller, 2002
The Mesozoic Pacific: Geology, Tectonics, and Volcanism,
edited by M. Pringle, W. Sager, W. Sliter & S. Stein, 1993