Editors: Geoff Hicks and Hamish Campbell
RRP: $29.99
ISBN: 978-0-909010-58-4
PB
This book is now in it's fifth reprint.
New Zealand is a long, thin country, situated on the boundary between two of the Earth’s gigantic crustal plates. The central ridge of mountain ranges, stretching from Fiordland to East Cape like a knobbly backbone, has been pushed up as one plate collides and grinds against the other. Combine this with a climate of heavy rain and you have a formula for collapse - landslide!
The huge faults that run like railway tracks through the central part of the country are also created by the confrontation of the plates, as the Pacific Plate tries to squeeze under the Australian Plate. The result of this: about 17,000 earthquakes each year. The lofty volcanic cones of the central North Island are minor compared with mighty Taupo, one of the most explosive and active volcanoes in the world. Our position in the Southwest Pacific, surrounded by deep ocean, also makes us vulnerable to tsunami - and some rather vigorous weather!
All New Zealanders will encounter at least one of these hazards in their lives, just by virtue of living here. Awesome Forces is a book everyone needs to read in order to understand the hazards that threaten this beautiful and unstable land. This is an informative and colourful book written by some of New Zealand’s leading scientists.
Order this book online from Te Papa Store
Produced in association with EQC and GNS Science.
