Volcanoes

Since the dawn of time, volcanoes have been both worshipped and feared. Celebrated by some cultures as a source of life and dreaded by others as the ultimate manifestation of the gods' anger, their volatile outbursts have left massive, indelible pockmarks on the planet's landscape. Today, scientists better understand the natural phenomena behind volcanic eruptions, but their impact is no less destructive. In Volcanoes, award-winning photographer Philippe Bourseiller documents the awesome power and devastating aftermath of these rumbling giants. More than 170 full-color images, including satellite photographs, depict rivers of fire and red-hot oceans, massive craters and islands formed from molten rock, silt-coated towns and hapless inhabitants struggling to cope with chaos. From the ancient city of Pompeii, wrecked long ago by the wrath of Vesuvius, to the recently reawakened Guagua Pichincha, near the equator, Bourseiller visually traces the history of volcanoes - including those responsible for the four great eruptions of the latetwentieth century: Mount Saint Helens (1980), Nevado del Ruiz (1985), Pinatubo (1991), and Rabaul (1994).Extensive captions accompany each photograph, and the text, by noted volcanologist Jacques Durieux, discusses technical facets of the field, such as the new ecological niches resulting from eruptions; the development of infrastructures for the containment of destruction and evacuation of humans; and satellite-tracking of volcanic activity - in hopes of one day learning to reliably predict this natural disaster.