Andrew Alden is a geologist, geoscience writer, and author of Deep Oakland, a San Francisco Chronicle bestseller. Alden has worked for the US Geological Survey and reported for KQED and Bay Nature. Long fascinated with rocks and landscapes, Alden found inspiration for Deep Oakland in the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, which, as he writes, "ripped the city open and revealed to us its heart and character." Through his writing Alden raises awareness for what he calls the deep present: the appreciation of the ancient underpinnings that shape the modern-day surroundings of daily life. His website is oaklandgeology.com.