Adventures in Volcanoland
What Volcanoes Tell Us About the World and Ourselves
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- £14.99
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- £14.99
Publisher Description
Adventures in Volcanoland charts journeys across deserts, through jungles and up ice caps, to some of the world's most important volcanoes, from Nicaragua to Hawaii, Santorini to Ethiopia, exploring Tamsin Mather's obsession with these momentous geological formations, the cultural and religious roles they have played in the minds of those living around them at different times throughout history, and the science behind their formation and eruptions.
Volcanoes help to make and shape our world, bursting forth from inside of the earth and, in many places, looming over us. Present since the earth's beginning they continue to maintain its life support systems and, their extraordinary chemistry may even have created the ingredients needed for life to kick start.
In some places volcanoes are even beginning to provide us with part of the energy we need to curb our use of fossil fuels. They have fascinated humans for millennia, their eruptions charted throughout history, seeming to show us how the earth has been living, breathing and changing for billions of years.
Why exactly are these geological mammoths found where they are? What can they teach us about our environment, the Anthropocene and the ecological disaster that is climate change? Are there volcanoes on other planets, and what might they tell us about whether we could one day live there if we exhaust our own habitat? How can we predict if or when volcanoes might explode?
Adventures in Volcanoland is an enthralling mix of travel, science and environmental writing for fans of Robert MacFarlane and Raynor Winn.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Mather, an earth sciences professor at Oxford University, debuts with a prosaic deep dive into the science of volcanoes. Expounding on the molecular chemistry of molten rock, Mather explains that silicon and oxygen atoms in magma form larger structures than the "tidy molecular units of water," giving "lava flows a strength and stickiness far greater" than water's. She highlights the fearsome power of major historical eruptions, observing that the 1883 explosion of Krakatau "shattered eardrums on the British ship RMS Norham Castle just 60 kilometres from the volcano" and that the 79 CE eruption of Mount Vesuvius created pumice plumes that "turned day to night as if the gods were at work." Personal anecdotes from Mather's impressive career offer insight into how volcanologists conduct fieldwork, as when she recounts determining that the Pu‘u ‘О‘ō vent in Kīlauea, Hawaii, was at low risk of exploding in 2008 after sampling the chemical composition of its "volcanic smog." Unfortunately, Mather alternates between matter-of-fact scientific discussions and labored descriptions of locales where she's conducted fieldwork (she writes of the Aluto volcano in Ethiopia, "Over the volcano's rim, the topography still feels rough-hewn, with the lobes of multiple previous eruptions building the rugged ramparts in a blocky geological pattern"), struggling to capture the excitement of her subject. Readers would be better off with Clive Oppenheimer's Mountains of Fire.