Themes: Hi-Lo, headlines, nonfiction, disasters, world events. Earthquakes are caused by shifts in the earth's plates. Shock waves from these events cause varying amounts of destruction based on their magnitude. Often, earthquakes incite other disasters as well, such as fires and tsunami. Read here about major earthquake calamities in San Francisco, Mexico City, Japan, Lisbon, and Haiti. This series of nonfiction readers will grab a student's interest from the very first page! Designed with struggling readers in mind, these riveting 92-page books offer short chapters on significant disasters. Each chapter is its own mini-book, which includes a timeline, key terms, and interesting facts. Fascinating black and white photographs keep the pages turning. A bibliography encourages further topical reading.