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DE BOER, J. Z. & SANDERS, D. T. 2004. Volcanoes in Human History. The Far-Reaching Effects of Major Eruptions.

xix + 295 pp. Princeton: Princeton University Press. Price £12.50 (paperback). ISBN 0 691 11838 8.

The first 20% of the full text of this article appears below.

This book takes a different stance from most books on volcanoes by focusing on the interaction between volcanoes and the human population. It does this in terms of different scales both in time and in space. The impact of eruptions on the adjacent human community is described as well as, in the case of larger events, regional and global implications. Much attention in the literature has been devoted to describing famous eruptions, including many of those considered in this book, but how communities respond and adapt to the aftermath is not so well reported. The structure of the book is based on nine case study examples. The first chapter provides a context to volcanism within the earth sciences with a brief description of volcanic processes. This chapter is brief, well presented and achieves the right balance between being scientifically sound without sinking the reader in technical jargon and detail.

The first case study chapter is on the Hawaiian Islands and starts with a description of how the Hawaiians believed that the volcanic eruptions were the work of goddess Pele, and that the islands were built up through the interaction of her powers and those of her sister, Namaka o Kahei, the goddess of the sea. The main island of Hawaii is an appropriate place to start as the shield volcanoes of Mauna Loa and Mauna Kea are among the largest topographic features on the surface of the solid Earth and yet were built up over a very short period of time, a clear demonstration of volcanism as a manifestation of a dynamic planet. The tectonic setting of the Hawaiian Island chain and its formation as the Pacific plate moved north-westwards over a hot spot formed by a mantle plume is described. This is followed by a discussion of the volcanic . . . [Full Text of this Article]