Description
Book SynopsisThis volume describes 15 of the most remarkable volcano eruptions in history and, using firsthand accounts, analyzes their impact on humans in their paths. The author surveys volcanic disasters from the eruption of Vesuvius in 79 AD to the eruption of Mount St Helens in 1980.
Trade Review"Scarth's readers will learn what authorities now know about how to predict and prepare for big eruptions, and the riveting accounts he provides of each calamity, eye-witness and secondhand, display the fascination that leads so many scientists to risk their lives to study volcanoes." Publishers Weekly "Informative, fascinating, and sobering for the professional volcanologist, anyone attracted by volcanoes and, indeed, anyone interested in human resourcefulness." Hazel Rymer, Times Higher Education Supplement "Gripping and richly illustrated." Robert Kunzig, Discover "Scarth... has assembled riveting eyewitness accounts from lucky survivors through the ages." Laurence A. Marschall, The Sciences "I found the accounts of each of these contrasting events compelling and highly informative, from both geological and sociological perspectives... Scarth is to be congratulated on an excellent book that is easy to read, difficult to put down, and deserving of a very wide audience." Peter Cattermole, Interdisciplinary Science Reviews
