Crammed into the San Francisco Bay area and the Los Angeles Basin is a population greater than that of both Ontario and Quebec. Both these drought-prone regions of California need to import water over 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 a compelling chronicle of a man-made eruption of development and progress over the last 150 years. It also explores the even bigger problem facing these two megalopolises—their location in major earthquake zones—and provides a clear and concise explanation of plate tectonics. Finally, it offers a chillingly realistic description of the impact of a future earthquake, in 2005, originating in the sixty-mile Hayward Fault running from San Francisco to San Jose.