Showing results for "Volcanoes" in Environment

As one of the most fascinating and volatile forces on Earth, volcanoes have long been the subject of worship, fear, and study. With the aid of famous case histories, Lopes provides a unique background to volcanoes, what they are, why they form, and how they erupt. From the Sunset Crater in Arizona and Krakatau in Indonesia to the exotic volcanoes of the outer solar system, this guide illustrates the dangers of volcanoes and their importance in shaping the world around us.

This Very Short Introduction takes listeners into the inferno of a racing pyroclastic current, and the heart of a moving lava flow, as understood through the latest scientific research. Exploring how volcanologists forensically decipher how volcanoes work, Michael Branney and Jan Zalasiewicz explain what we do (and don't) understand about the fundamental mechanisms of volcanism, and consider how volcanoes interact with other physical processes on the Earth, with life, and with human society.

In late April 1902, Mount Pelee, a volcano on the Caribbean island Martinique, began to wake up. It emitted clouds of ash and smoke for two weeks until violently erupting on May 8. Over 30,000 residents of St. Pierre were killed; they burned to death under rivers of hot lava and suffocated under pounds of hot ash. Only three people managed to survive: a prisoner trapped in a dungeon-like jail cell, a man on the outskirts of town, and a young girl found floating unconscious in a boat days later.