Introduction: Our Extreme Planet vi -- Inside the Planet 2 -- Getting the Drift: Earthquakes and volcanoes are bred in the subterranean zones where giant tectonic plates collide 12 -- Cracks in the Crust: When earthquakes fracture the planet, man's most substantial works can be erased in a heartbeat 16 -- Target: Faults Alarms: Scientists drill into the San Andreas Fault in California, hoping to learn to anticipate quakes 22 -- Smoke in the Water: On the silent, dark floors of the oceans, hot seams in the planet's crust breed strange life-forms 24 -- Portals of Fire: Volcanoes bring us explosive messages from the underworld, written in flames, ash and lava 26 -- Blast from the Past: Yellowstone Park sits on the remains of an ancient supervolcano-and it's due for an encore 32 -- Data Download 34 -- Water Planet 36 -- Waters of Woe: Tsunamis are stealth disasters: a single small ripple at sea can become a deadly wall of water on land 46 -- Next Wave: Megatsunamis?: A scientist explores the calamitous effects if a comet were to land in an ocean 52 -- Here's That Rainy Day: Eagerly awaited, India's celebrated monsoons are among nature's most regular phenomena 54 -- Dust, the Destroyer: A slow, silent killer, drought squeezes the life from the land, then from the people who till it 56 -- Irresistible Force, Movable Objects: Nature offers few more destructive forces than masses of water in motion 58 -- From Ice to Water: The polar ice caps, which store mighty reserves of water, are melting. Should we be concerned? 60 -- Data Download 66 -- Land Planet 68 -- Torrents of Slime: Mudslides are highly efficient killing machines, as Colombians learned to their horror in 1985 78 -- White Death: If the recipe for an avalanche is simple-snow, gravity and steep slopes-the results can be horrifying 82 -- Paradise Lost: Rain forests are earth's lungs and hothouses of blodiversity. Yet today they are increasingly imperiled 84 -- In the Line of Fire: Drought's flamboyant partner, wildfires are among nature's most unruly, unpredictable calamities 88 -- Genies of Grit: From America's Dust Bowl to the Sahara's haboobs, the planet's skin is too often gone with the wind 94 -- Data Download 96 -- Above the Planet 98 -- Storms on Steroids: Bulking up on warm tropical waters, hurricanes breed high winds and deadly storm surges 108 -- It's A Twister!: Along Tornado Alley in the Midwest, roaring spirals of wind threaten lives, homes and farms 116 -- Fatal Splendor: Lightning is a natural high, a rushing discharge of energy-and the No. 2 weather killer in the U.S. 120 -- Beauty and the Blast: Most scientists agree: an impact with a comet killed the dinosaurs. Our turn may be next 122 -- Catching any Rays?: The sun brings life to our world, but when its surface erupts in giant flares, we feel the impact 126 -- Heat Wave: The argument is over: global warming is for real. But what we can do about it remains highly uncertain 128 -- Data Download 134.
