The human seismograph -- The planet in the village: Comrie, Scotland, 1788-1897 -- News of the apocalypse -- The tongues of seismology: Switzerland, 1855-1912 -- Geographies of hazard -- The moment of danger -- Fault lines and borderlands: imperial Austria, 1880-1914 -- What is the earth? -- The youngest land: California, 1853-1906 -- A true measure of violence: California, 1906-1935.