Eruption!: Volcanoes and the Science of Saving Lives

This terrific addition to the Scientists in the Field series features the dedicated geologists of the Volcano Disaster Assistance Program, a U.S. agency that provides technical expertise in eruption prediction, as they work with their scientific counterparts in countries with potentially dangerous volcanoes. Gripping accounts of the team’s successful work at the 1991 Mount Pinatubo (Philippines) and the 2010 Mount Merapi (Indonesia) eruptions expose the complicated scientific and social dimensions of predicting the intensity of volcanic eruptions and their potential impact on human populations, where the costs of being wrong could be devastating. The portrayal of scientific investigation is exceptional: scientists build and monitor equipment, interview residents, collect ash and rock samples, survey the geography, and, in a particularly informative conversation (the dialogue captured by Rusch, who is in attendance), draw on their collective expertise to develop knowledge that will help prevent future disasters. Excellent photographs by Uhlman and from other sources not only feature awe-inspiring shots of the various volcanoes but also depict human vulnerability to these natural disasters, contrasting images of everyday life with those of ruined homes, evacuation shelters, and chilling post-eruption landscapes. Chapter notes, a glossary, a selected bibliography, and an index are appended. danielle j. ford