Mountains of Fire
The Menace, Meaning, and Magic of Volcanoes
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5.0 • 2 Ratings
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- $26.99
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- $26.99
Publisher Description
Meeting with volcanoes around the world, a volcanologist interprets their messages for humankind.
In Mountains of Fire, Clive Oppenheimer invites readers to stand with him in the shadow of an active volcano. Whether he is scaling majestic summits, listening to hissing lava at the crater’s edge, or hunting for the far-flung ashes from Earth’s greatest eruptions, Oppenheimer is an ideal guide, offering readers the chance to tag along on the daring, seemingly-impossible journeys of a volcanologist.
In his eventful career as a volcanologist and filmmaker, Oppenheimer has studied volcanoes around the world. He has worked with scientists in North Korea to study Mount Paektu, a volcano name sung in national anthems on both sides of the Demilitarized Zone. He has crossed the Sahara to reach the fabled Tiéroko volcano in the Tibesti Mountains of Chad. He spent months camped atop Antarctica’s most active volcano, Mount Erebus, to record the pulse of its lava lake.
Mountains of Fire reveals how volcanic activity is entangled with our climate and environment, as well as our economy, politics, culture, and beliefs. These adventures and investigations make clear the dual purpose of volcanology—both to understand volcanoes for science’s sake and to serve the communities endangered and entranced by these mountains of fire.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
"Volcanoes loom at a thrilling crossroads of nature, spirit, climate, geology, technology, society and culture," according to this sizzling study. University of Cambridge geologist Oppenheimer (Eruptions That Shook the World) weaves together the history of volcanology with tales from his own work, discussing how 16th-century Spanish colonizer Gonzalo Fernández de Oviedo y Valdés summited the Masaya volcano in Nicaragua to investigate why the mountaintop appeared to glow, and how French volcanologist Haroun Tazieff undertook daring expeditions to film active volcanoes in the mid-20th century. Detailing volcanoes' stunning power, Oppenheimer explains that pyroclastic flows are "searing hurricanes of gas, ash, pumice and blocks of lava" that can exceed 30 miles per hour, burning everything in their path. He also offers harrowing stories from his own fieldwork, including being captured by rebels wielding AK-47s in Ethiopia and getting caught in an Antarctic blizzard while climbing Mount Erebus. The fervent prose captures the force and excitement of Oppenheimer's subject, and the enlightening science is bolstered by fascinating insights into volcanoes' role in myth (the Mount Paektu volcano was believed by ancient Koreans to have been the birthplace of demigod King Tang'un, and the Incan capital, Cusco, asserted its authority over conquered territories by demanding sacrificial subjects to kill on the Láscar volcano, in modern-day Chile). This will blow readers away.
