A Dangerous Place

One in two people living west of the 100th meridian in the United States resides in California. Crammed into the San Francisco Bay Area and the Los Angeles Basin is a population greater than that of Texas. Both these drought-prone regions need to import water over seemingly improbable distances. Reliance on imported water, however, is not their Achilles' heel; it is the fact that each sits astride one of the most violently active seismic zones in the world. "A Dangerous Place" is both a compelling chronicle of the man-made eruption of development and progress over the last 150 years and a natural history of the subterranean upheavals that have threatened that human achievement. Reisner describes in chillingly realistic detail the potential impact of an earthquake originating in the sixty-mile Hayward Fault running from San Francisco to San Jos-, 'sixty of the most populous, industrialized, economically valuable miles in the U. S.' Here is a subject and a writer perfectly matched in a narrative that harnesses fact and a gloriously inventive intellect. "A Dangerous Place" is a riveting parable of the rise and fall of civilization.
And it is, as well, the coda to the brilliant career of the late Marc Reisner.