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Island on fire : the extraordinary story of a forgotten volcano that changed the world / Alexandra Witze & Jeff Kanipe.

By: Contributor(s): Material type: TextTextPublisher: New York : Pegasus Books, [2015]Copyright date: ©2014Edition: First Pegasus Books hardcover editionDescription: 224 pages : illustrations, maps ; 22 cmContent type:
  • cartographic image
  • still image
  • text
Media type:
  • unmediated
Carrier type:
  • volume
ISBN:
  • 1605986747
  • 9781605986746
Subject(s):
Contents:
Preface : Heimaey, 1973 -- 1. Laki erupts : June 1783 -- 2. Land of ice and fire : the volcanoes of Iceland -- 3. Supervolcanoes : the world's hotspots -- 4. Fire, famine and death : the poisoning of Iceland -- 5. Horrible phenomena : Europe's 'year of wonders' -- 6. The big chill : Laki's global fallout -- 7. Laki today : life in the mountain's shadow -- 8. Death by volcano : the many ways eruptions can kill -- 9. The next big bang : how worried should we be? -- Epilogue : Return to history.
Fiction notes: Click to open in new window
Holdings
Item type Home library Collection Call number Materials specified Status Date due Barcode Item holds
Adult Book Adult Book Main Library NonFiction 551.2109 W833 Checked out 06/12/2024 33111007938950
Total holds: 0

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

Laki is Iceland's largest and potentially most dangerous 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 months, the effects of the eruption lingered across the world for years, causing the death of people as far away as the Nile and creating catastrophic conditions throughout Europe, including extreme weather and crop failures that may have triggered the French Revolution. Island on Fire is the story not only of a volcano but also of the people whose lives it changed, such as the pastor Jon Steingrimsson, who witnessed and recorded the events. It is the story, too, of the dawn of modern volcanology and the history and potential of supervolcanoes around the world. And perhaps most pertinently, in the wake of the eruption of another Icelandic volcano, Eyjafjallajökull, which closed European air space in 2010, acclaimed science writers Witze and Kanipe looks at how events might transpire should Laki erupt again in our own time.

"January 2015"--Title page verso.

Originally published with subtitle: The extraordinary story of Laki, the forgotten volcano that turned eighteenth-century Europe dark. London : Profile Books, 2014. With new foreword.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 205-213) and index.

Preface : Heimaey, 1973 -- 1. Laki erupts : June 1783 -- 2. Land of ice and fire : the volcanoes of Iceland -- 3. Supervolcanoes : the world's hotspots -- 4. Fire, famine and death : the poisoning of Iceland -- 5. Horrible phenomena : Europe's 'year of wonders' -- 6. The big chill : Laki's global fallout -- 7. Laki today : life in the mountain's shadow -- 8. Death by volcano : the many ways eruptions can kill -- 9. The next big bang : how worried should we be? -- Epilogue : Return to history.

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