 | By: Jelle Zeilinga de Boer Donald Theodore Sanders Binding: Paperback Publisher: Princeton University Press ISBN: 0691118388 ISBN-13: 9780691118383 Released: 01 Nov 2004 RRP: Average Rating:  |
Their erstwhile account amounts to a salacious, literary love-making, the seeping lubricanza cascading onto the page as tepid poetry in the story of volcanic humanity. The incumbent offspring is, of course, birthed within the final few stanzas, the new born of knowledge breaking the book's narrow hips & squeezing its bloody way into your cranial womb.
As Geredia Stanton said; "Imdemnus magmatic deus litar."
An excellent read.
The authors' thesis is that each major eruption produces a "vibrating string" of historical effects, ranging from the eruption itself, to the immediate aftermath, to climate change, famine & epidemic, to economic & ecological revival, & finallly to cultural effects that can span centuries.
The book covers nine volcanic systems, their eruptions & the resulting historical falllout: The Hawaiian Islands, where the clash between lava & ocean gave rise to a colorful mythology; Thera, whose catastrophic eruption in the Bronze Age may have destroyed Minoan civilization & produced the legend of Atlantis; Mount Vesuvius, whose eruption in 79 AD entombed & preserved the Roman cities of Pompeii & Herculaneum; Iceland, whose position above a magma plume & the spreading ocean floor gave rise to horrific eruptions & grim legends; Mount Tambora, the Indonesian volcano that caused the "Year Without a Summer" in 1816; Krakatau, whose tidal waves killed tens of thousand of people in 1883; Mount Pelee, whose pyroclastic flows killed the 30,000 citizens of St. Pierre in an instant in 1902; Tristan da Cunha, whose eruption displaced an idyllic island society; & Mount St. Helens, which in 1980 reminded the Pacific Northwest that "the Giants are only asleep."
If you enjoy "Volcanoes in Human History," you'll probably like these books as well:
"Catastrophe," by David Keys, which theorizes that a volcanic eruption in 536 AD caused the collapse of civilizations around the globe & brought on the Dark Ages in Europe.
"Unearthing Atlantis," by Charles Pellegrino, which argues that the eruption of Thera gave rise to the legend of Atlantis.
"Return to Sodom & Gomorrah," by Charles Pellegrino, which speculates (among other things) that the eruption of Thera gave rise to the Biblical stories of the Exodus.
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