Volcanoes: An Introduction

Why do volcanoes erupt, and in so many different ways? What happens when a volcano erupts in the sea? How can eruptions be predicted? These are a few of the questions addressed in this wide-ranging introduction to volcanoes. Assuming little background knowledge, and providing a comprehensive glossary explaining technical terms, this title deals with all aspects of volcanic features and processes. It examines them as distinctive, and often dramatic, features of the landscape, as well as potential sources of danger to human beings.; Volcanoes provide an exciting way in which to analyze some of the major geological processes. The author sets them in their world context and explains their formation, especially in relation to the many styles of eruption, and the multitude of volcanic landscape forms that result. Some major eruptions are selected to illustrate this eruptive variety and the impact on surrounding populations. Distinctive landscape forms, from flows to cones and calderas, are described with reference to the "biographies" of the volcanoes. There are chapters devoted to stratovolcanoes, hydrovolcanic features and erosional processes. A final chapter examines the latest methods of predicting volcanic eruptions and moderating their effects.; Drawing on an unusually wide range of sources in the French, Spanish and Portuguese literature, as well as English, the author presents examples and illustrations from around the world, including the Aegean, the French West Indies, the American West, the Azores and the Canary Islands, Italy and central France. He has also translated various eye-witness accounts of volcanic events and has included a revised version of Pliny's account of the eruption of Vesuvius.