Volcanoes in Human History: The Far-Reaching Effects of Major Eruptions Book

Foreword by Robert D. Ballard ix
Preface xi
Acknowledgments xv
Table of Conversion xvii
Chapter 1: Volcanism: Origins and Consequences 1
SIDEBAR: DATING OF VOLCANIC EVENTS
Chapter 2: The Hawaiian Islands and the Legacy of Pelee the Fire Goddess 22
Chapter 3: The Bronze Age Eruption of Thera: Destroyer of Atlantis and Minoan Crete? 47
Chapter 4: The Eruption of Vesuvius in 79 C.E.: Cultural Reverberations through the Ages 74
Chapter 5: Iceland: Coming Apart at the Seams 108
Chapter 6: The Eruption of Tambora in 1815 and "the Year without a Summer" 138
SIDEBAR: MOUNT TOBA: BIGGER THAN TAMBORA
Chapter 7: Krakatu, 1883: Devastation, Death, and Ecologic Revival 157
SIDEBAR: THE GHOSTS OF MERAPI
Chapter 8: The 1902 Eruption of Mount Pelee: A Geological Catastrophe with Political Overtones 186
SIDEBAR: MOUNT PELEE AND THE PANAMA CANAL
Chapter 9: Tristan da Cunba in 1961: Exile to the Twentieth Century 209
Chapter 10: Mount St. Helens in 1980: Catastrophe in the Cascades 228
Afterword 250
Glossary 251
Notes and References 261
Selected Bibliography 279
Index 281