Quake Alert:
At 5:45 p.m. on January 17, 1995, school children busily jumped rope and played hide and seek near their homes in Kobe, Japan. Mothers handled the business of the home and fathers put the finishing touches on another workday. At 5:46, the ground began to shudder as the worst earthquake in more than 70 years struck the Akachi prefecture, killing 5,500 people, injuring another 35,000 and razing 200,000 buildings in 14 Japanese prefectures. Because of tragedies like the Kobe quake, seismologists...
Photonics Spectra, May 1997