Man Against Volcano

Man Against Volcano PDF Author: Richard S. Williams
Publisher: DIANE Publishing
ISBN: 1437900429
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 33

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Book Description
Discusses the impact of the 1973 volcanic eruption of Eldfell on the fishing port of Vestmannaeyjar on the island of Heimaey, Vestmannaeyjar, Iceland. Before the eruption was over, approx. one-third of the town had been obliterated, but, more importantly, the potential damage probably was reduced by the spraying of seawater onto the advancing lava flows. There was interest in the course of the Heimaey eruption because of the possibility that the procedures used to control flowing lava & to reduce the damage to a modern town may some day be useful in Hawaii & possibly even in the continental U.S. Photos, maps & drawings.

Man Against Volcano

Man Against Volcano PDF Author: Richard S. Williams
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Eldfell (Iceland)
Languages : en
Pages : 32

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Book Description


Vulcan's Fury

Vulcan's Fury PDF Author: Alwyn Scarth
Publisher: Yale University Press
ISBN: 9780300091236
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 316

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Book Description
This book describes fifteen of the most remarkable volcanic eruptions across the centuries along with first-hand accounts of the different ways people reacted to them.

The Last Volcano

The Last Volcano PDF Author: John Dvorak
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1605989223
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 285

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Book Description
John Dvorak, the acclaimed author of Earthquake Storms, looks into the early scientific study of volcanoes and the life of the man who pioneered the field, Thomas Jaggar. Educated at Harvard, Jaggar went to the Caribbean after Mount Pelee exploded in 1902, killing more than 26,000 people. Witnessing the destruction and learning about the horrible deaths these people had suffered, Jaggar vowed to dedicate himself to a study of volcanoes. In 1912, he built a small science station at the edge of a lake of molten lava at Kilauea volcano in the Hawaiian Islands. Jaggar found something else at Kilauea: true love. For more than twenty years, Jaggar and Isabel Maydwell ran the science station, living in a small house at the edge of a high cliff that overlooked the lava lake, Maydwell quickly becoming one of the world’s most astute observers of volcanic activity.Mixed with tales of myths and rituals, as well as the author’s own experiences and insight into volcanic activity, The Last Volcano reveals the lure and romance of confronting nature in its most magnificent form—the edge of a volcanic eruption.

The Control of Nature

The Control of Nature PDF Author: John McPhee
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
ISBN: 0374708495
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 272

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Book Description
While John McPhee was working on his previous book, Rising from the Plains, he happened to walk by the engineering building at the University of Wyoming, where words etched in limestone said: "Strive on--the control of Nature is won, not given." In the morning sunlight, that central phrase--"the control of nature"--seemed to sparkle with unintended ambiguity. Bilateral, symmetrical, it could with equal speed travel in opposite directions. For some years, he had been planning a book about places in the world where people have been engaged in all-out battles with nature, about (in the words of the book itself) "any struggle against natural forces--heroic or venal, rash or well advised--when human beings conscript themselves to fight against the earth, to take what is not given, to rout the destroying enemy, to surround the base of Mt. Olympus demanding and expecting the surrender of the gods." His interest had first been sparked when he went into the Atchafalaya--the largest river swamp in North America--and had learned that virtually all of its waters were metered and rationed by a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' project called Old River Control. In the natural cycles of the Mississippi's deltaic plain, the time had come for the Mississippi to change course, to shift its mouth more than a hundred miles and go down the Atchafalaya, one of its distributary branches. The United States could not afford that--for New Orleans, Baton Rouge, and all the industries that lie between would be cut off from river commerce with the rest of the nation. At a place called Old River, the Corps therefore had built a great fortress--part dam, part valve--to restrain the flow of the Atchafalaya and compel the Mississippi to stay where it is. In Iceland, in 1973, an island split open without warning and huge volumes of lava began moving in the direction of a harbor scarcely half a mile away. It was not only Iceland's premier fishing port (accounting for a large percentage of Iceland's export economy) but it was also the only harbor along the nation's southern coast. As the lava threatened to fill the harbor and wipe it out, a physicist named Thorbjorn Sigurgeirsson suggested a way to fight against the flowing red rock--initiating an all-out endeavor unique in human history. On the big island of Hawaii, one of the world's two must eruptive hot spots, people are not unmindful of the Icelandic example. McPhee went to Hawaii to talk with them and to walk beside the edges of a molten lake and incandescent rivers. Some of the more expensive real estate in Los Angeles is up against mountains that are rising and disintegrating as rapidly as any in the world. After a complex coincidence of natural events, boulders will flow out of these mountains like fish eggs, mixed with mud, sand, and smaller rocks in a cascading mass known as debris flow. Plucking up trees and cars, bursting through doors and windows, filling up houses to their eaves, debris flows threaten the lives of people living in and near Los Angeles' famous canyons. At extraordinary expense the city has built a hundred and fifty stadium-like basins in a daring effort to catch the debris. Taking us deep into these contested territories, McPhee details the strategies and tactics through which people attempt to control nature. Most striking in his vivid depiction of the main contestants: nature in complex and awesome guises, and those who would attempt to wrest control from her--stubborn, often ingenious, and always arresting characters.

Under the Volcano

Under the Volcano PDF Author: Malcolm Lowry
Publisher: New Amer Library
ISBN: 9780451132130
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 328

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Book Description
Geoffrey Firmin, a former British consul, has come to Quauhnahuac, Mexico. His debilitating malaise is drinking, an activity that has overshadowed his life. On the most fateful day of the consul's life--the Day of the Dead, 1938--his wife, Yvonne, arrives in Quauhnahuac, inspired by a vision of life together away from Mexico and the circumstances that have driven their relationship to the brink of collapse. She is determined to rescue Firmin and their failing marriage, but her mission is further complicated by the presence of Hugh, the consul's half brother, and Jacques, a childhood friend. The events of this one significant day unfold against an unforgettable backdrop of a Mexico at once magical and diabolical. Under the Volcano remains one of literature's most powerful and lyrical statements on the human condition, and a brilliant portrayal of one man's constant struggle against the elemental forces that threaten to destroy him.

A Volcano Beneath the Snow

A Volcano Beneath the Snow PDF Author: Albert Marrin
Publisher: Knopf Books for Young Readers
ISBN: 0307981525
Category : Juvenile Nonfiction
Languages : en
Pages : 258

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Book Description
Examines the life of abolitionist John Brown and the raid he led on the United States arsenal at Harpers Ferry, West Virginia, in 1859, exploring his religious fanaticism and belief in "righteous violence,"--and commitment to domestic terrorism.

Volcanoes

Volcanoes PDF Author: John P. Lockwood
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 1118687949
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 677

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Book Description
Volcanoes are essential elements in the delicate global balance of elemental forces that govern both the dynamic evolution of the Earth and the nature of Life itself. Without volcanic activity, life as we know it would not exist on our planet. Although beautiful to behold, volcanoes are also potentially destructive, and understanding their nature is critical to prevent major loss of life in the future. Richly illustrated with over 300 original color photographs and diagrams the book is written in an informal manner, with minimum use of jargon, and relies heavily on first-person, eye-witness accounts of eruptive activity at both "red" (effusive) and "grey" (explosive) volcanoes to illustrate the full spectrum of volcanic processes and their products. Decades of teaching in university classrooms and fieldwork on active volcanoes throughout the world have provided the authors with unique experiences that they have distilled into a highly readable textbook of lasting value. Questions for Thought, Study, and Discussion, Suggestions for Further Reading, and a comprehensive list of source references make this work a major resource for further study of volcanology. Volcanoes maintains three core foci: Global perspectives explain volcanoes in terms of their tectonic positions on Earth and their roles in earth history Environmental perspectives describe the essential role of volcanism in the moderation of terrestrial climate and atmosphere Humanitarian perspectives discuss the major influences of volcanoes on human societies. This latter is especially important as resource scarcities and environmental issues loom over our world, and as increasing numbers of people are threatened by volcanic hazards Readership Volcanologists, advanced undergraduate, and graduate students in earth science and related degree courses, and volcano enthusiasts worldwide. A companion website is also available for this title at www.wiley.com/go/lockwood/volcanoes

Man Against Volcano

Man Against Volcano PDF Author: Richard S. Williams
Publisher: DIANE Publishing
ISBN: 1437900429
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 33

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Book Description
Discusses the impact of the 1973 volcanic eruption of Eldfell on the fishing port of Vestmannaeyjar on the island of Heimaey, Vestmannaeyjar, Iceland. Before the eruption was over, approx. one-third of the town had been obliterated, but, more importantly, the potential damage probably was reduced by the spraying of seawater onto the advancing lava flows. There was interest in the course of the Heimaey eruption because of the possibility that the procedures used to control flowing lava & to reduce the damage to a modern town may some day be useful in Hawaii & possibly even in the continental U.S. Photos, maps & drawings.

The Volcano Lover

The Volcano Lover PDF Author: Susan Sontag
Publisher: Macmillan
ISBN: 9780312420079
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 436

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Book Description
Set in 18th century Naples, based on the lives of Sir William Hamilton, his celebrated wife Emma, and Lord Nelson, and peopled with many of the great figures of the day, this unconventional, bestselling historical romance from the National Book Award-winning author of In America touches on themes of sex and revolution, the fate of nature, art and the collector's obsessions, and, above all, love.

Island on Fire

Island on Fire PDF Author: Alexandra Witze
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781781252666
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 224

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Book Description
Laki is Iceland's largest volcano. Its eruption in 1783 is one of history's great, untold natural disasters. Spewing out sun-blocking ash and then a poisonous fog for eight long months, the effects of the eruption lingered across the world for years. It caused the deaths of people as far away as the Nile and created catastrophic conditions throughout Europe.Island on Fire is the story not only of a single eruption but the people whose lives it changed, the dawn of modern volcanology, as well as the history and potential of other super-volcanoes like Laki around the world. And perhaps most pertinently, in the wake of the eruption of another Icelandic volcano, Eyjafjallajokull, which closed European air space in 2010, acclaimed science writers Witze and Kanipe look at what might transpire should Laki erupt again in our lifetime.