This book offers a crash course in earth science and hands-on learning. Because scientists study earthquakes, volcanoes, and tsunamis through experiments, models, and demonstrations, the authors offer some nifty projects to mimic what goes on in nature. (One demonstration — that includes the use of a Slinky and a bathtub — shows a tsunami’s destructive effect on a coastline.) Readers learn how to earthquake-proof their homes, too.

his is a fantastic book. It has experiments scattered throughout the book along with information about tectonic plates, the Earth’s crust, mantle, liquid core, and the solid core. It explains how the tectonic plates can cause a lot of destruction when they rub together. Tectonic plate movements are behind earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, and tsunamis.

My favorite experiment was “Build a Seismometer.” It was really fun! The seismometer helped me understand a property called inertia. Another fun experiment was “Liquefaction.” Using simple materials — brick, sand, and water — the project helped me understand what will happen to a building built on weak soil during an earthquake.

Through this book, I learned the relationship between tectonic plates, earthquakes, and tsunamis. I have been in an earthquake and it was scary. I crawled under my desk and held on to one of its legs. All that happened was that a couple of my posters fell; there wasn’t much destruction. If it had been a bad earthquake, the ground would have cracked and trees would have fallen down.

If I had to do a project on earthquakes, volcanoes, or tsunamis, I would choose this book for my research.

(Originally published in the July/August 2010 issue of YES Mag.)