Product Description

This enthralling book describes fifteen of the most remarkable volcanic eruptions in history and, using rare firsthand accounts, analyses their impact on the humans in their paths. Alwyn Scarth surveys volcanic disasters from the violent eruption of Vesuvius in 79 A.D. to the eruption of Montagne Pelee that killed 28,000 people in three minutes, to the forest-razing eruption of Mt. Saint Helens in 1980.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #729848 in Books
• Published on: 2001-11-14
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 320 pages

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

Hazel Rymer, Times Higher Education Supplement
"Informative, fascinating, and sobering for the professional volcanologist, anyone attracted by volcanoes and, indeed, anyone interested in human resourcefulness."

Robert Kunzig, Discover
"Gripping and richly illustrated."