Geologist and geoscience writer Andrew Alden joins Plutopians to discuss his book Deep Oakland, inspired by the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake. Andrew gives us a guided tour of Oakland’s history and geology.
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Andrew Alden:
It’s a new kind of book. Any of you, if you wanted to, you could write a book like that for your own city. I’m not declaring a franchise, but I’m saying Deep Oakland is a new type of book, and I hope that it gets a wider readership and inspires more books like it. I don’t have to write every book, you know – the more authors who can do this, the better. I want to wake the world up to what modern geology has to offer. Geology is not your grandfather’s geology. It’s your grandchildren’s geology. It’s a geology of the 21st century. It’s the geology the 21st century needs as we face terrible re-structuring of the world economy.
Alden is a geologist and geoscience writer who has worked for the US Geological Survey and reported for KQED and Bay Nature.
Through his writing Alden raises awareness for what he calls the deep present: the appreciation of the ancient underpinnings that shape the modern-day surroundings of daily life. His website is oaklandgeology.com.