INTRODUCTION

The second part of this book describes some of the earthquake time bombs that threaten large populations around the world. Some are selected because of their cultural history, including the fourteenth- and fifteenth-century earthquakes in central China, the 1755 Lisbon, Portugal, earthquake, and earthquakes in Palestine, including some described in the Bible. Some are discussed because the cities are in the news for other reasons, such as Kabul, Tehran, and Caracas. Caracas is an example of a city in which its leaders take no interest in the earthquake threat the city faces, and, instead, appear to go out of their way to ignore the problem.

Caracas is an end-member city well known for taking no steps against earthquakes. In contrast, Istanbul is a city with a violent earthquake past, most recently the pair of earthquakes in western Turkey in 1999, but Istanbul is taking major steps to strengthen the city against the next earthquake. Those steps are a work in progress, and the corruption that has been so costly after past earthquakes may frustrate the city's efforts to upgrade its buildings and protect its citizens against earthquakes. Time will tell if Istanbul is successful.

On the other hand, the first time bombs discussed in this section are cities that have been taking steps against earthquake damage and have provided leadership elsewhere in the world. These include cities in California, the Pacific Northwest, Japan, New Zealand, and Chile. In all of these places, the paradigm shift has occurred among the scientists and engineers living there, but for various reasons, the general public is not fully engaged in the problem and its solution. This may come as a surprise to people living in each of these cities, especially in California. But in places like Los Angeles, the job is not done, and the millions of people living there are at great risk, in part because of budget cuts and loopholes in existing laws and bending the rules to accommodate the rush to urban development. In Los Angeles, the mayor has taken on this problem with technical assistance from the USGS and committees within the mayor's office and from other specialists, and if the earthquake takes its time striking southern California, the city may get lucky.