When I turned 13, I decided to become an oceanographer. To prepare for my future career, I majored in geology and biology in college. I mapped ancient volcanic outcrops around Boston, explored a deep mine and dug for minerals on a geology tour of the southeastern United States, and sampled sand from a tropical beach on a tiny island in the Bahamas. I discovered that geologists have fun! A geology field trip to Kilauea in Hawaii inspired me to examine how volcanoes, on land and beneath the sea, impact our oceans. After that, a week in Iceland, the Land of Fire and Ice, further cemented my love of rocks and volcanoes.
Sometimes, it’s the supporting characters in a book that steal the show. In this case, it was Alvin. Alvin was a pioneer in the field of deep ocean exploration. I was introduced to him at a rare open house at the legendary Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. I gazed at concept plans for Alvin displayed on a bulletin board.
Alvin was one of the first deep-sea submersibles to carry scientists down to the otherworldly (literally) hydrothermal vents in the cracks in the earth’s crust. Alvin was named for oceanographer Allyn Vine, who helped develop a national program for manned undersea vehicles.
Scientists have mapped less than 10 percent of the ridge of underwater mountains in the middle of the Atlantic ocean. It is here that 95 percent of the volcanic activity on earth occurs. And it is also where the scientist Rich Lutz has tracked the remarkable evolution of bizarre creatures that spawn in hydrothermal vent fluids that are poisonous to most other forms of life. How can life exist in this world of utter darkness?
For Rich Lutz, a pioneer in marine biology, each dive to the frontier of the deep holds the possibility of discovering more clues that might…
As soon as I opened the pages of this book, I thought, “I want to be her!” …if only I were braver and not claustrophobic. At least I could accompany writer Susan Casey vicariously on her lifelong quest to go as deep in the ocean as humanly possible.
When I graduated college, I volunteered on an oceanographic cruise to study the Gulf Stream. Even in my most adventure-seeking days, I am pretty certain that I would not have lobbied to dive to the deepest ocean trenches or to an erupting undersea volcano that will one day be the sixth island in the Hawaiian Islands chain. Tourists won’t be able to view Lo’ihi until it breaks the ocean surface in 10,000 to 100,000 years.
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • From bestselling author Susan Casey, an awe-inspiring portrait of the mysterious world beneath the waves, and the men and women who seek to uncover its secrets
“An irresistible mix of splendid scholarship, heart-stopping adventure writing, and vivid, visceral prose." —Sy Montgomery, New York Times best-selling author of The Soul of an Octopus
For all of human history, the deep ocean has been a source of wonder and terror, an unknown realm that evoked a singular, compelling question: What’s down there? Unable to answer this for centuries, people believed the deep was a sinister realm of…
I remember the date of May 18, 1980, when the eruption of Mount St. Helens was heard worldwide—thanks to news media, some of whom were on the scene. An earthquake triggered an eruption that tore a gaping hole in the side of the mountain, turning 230 square miles of Washington state into a moonscape. As in the news stories, the dramatic photos in this book documented the devastation.
After the news coverage ended, another saga began within months. I was struck by the side-by-side images of just-after eruption photos juxtaposed with images of sparkling lakes and green pastures. It amazed me how quickly survivors and colonizers populated the gray and lifeless landscape, thanks to fireweed fungi, mosquito larvae, red-tailed maggots, and gophers.
1
author picked
Volcano
as one of their favorite books, and they share
why you should read it.
This book is for kids age
7,
8,
9, and
10.
What is this book about?
In this extraordinary photographic essay, Patricia Lauber details the Mount St. Helens eruption and the years following in Volcano: Eruption and Healing of Mt. St. Helen's.
Through this clear accurate account, readers of all ages will share the awe of the scientists who witnessed both the power of the volcano and the resiliency of life.
So many volcanoes! So how would you choose among the 1400+ active volcanoes on the earth’s surface (not to mention that three-quarters of all volcanoes on Earth are on the ocean floor.)
Apparently, the volcanologists duo, Donna O’Meara and her husband Steven, have been trying to hit them all. They are always on call for the next eruption, not just to capture amazing photographs and death-defying experiences but also to try to improve volcano eruption prediction.
I was intrigued by their adventures and photos, but even more, I admired that they spent weeks camping alongside temperamental volcanoes to assess how/if the moon influences volcanic eruptions. Their theory that the moon’s phases and closeness to the Earth could affect volcanic activity could someday help save lives.
In a helicopter with no doors, she hovers over a lava lake the size of two football fields --- then lands! She runs through clouds of scalding steam, dodging lava bombs, to photograph glowing hot lava as it pours into the sea. She sets up camp on the edge of a volcano's cone, only to be hit with hurricane-force winds, poisonous gases and acidic ash.Witness a typical day in the life of Donna O'Meara --- volcano researcher, writer and photographer. Donna's photographs and accounts of treacherous journeys get readers up close and personal with some of the world's most dangerous…
If you could choose, would you want to view a gently erupting volcano where you could outwalk the lava flowing to the sea? Or would you go for an earth-shaking explosion that releases boiling lava, choking ash, and burning gases?
In this book, you can take your pick! I loved the variety of volcanoes she explored, as well as the mission of many scientists to better predict eruptions to protect those who live near volcanoes.
“At 11:35 p.m., as Radio Armero played cheerful music, a towering wave of mud and rocks bulldozed through the village, roaring like a squadron of fighter jets.” Twenty-three thousand people died in the 1985 eruption of Colombia’s Nevado del Ruiz. Today, more than one billion people worldwide live in volcanic danger zones. In this riveting nonfiction book—filled with spectacular photographs and sidebars—Rusch reveals the perilous, adrenaline-fueled, life-saving work of an international volcano crisis team (VDAP) and the sleeping giants they study, from Colombia to the Philippines, from Chile to Indonesia.
Deep inside the earth, powerful forces that constantly reshape the landscape and impact life within the ocean are unleashed. Lava shoots into the air, then bubbles down mountains, flattening, burning, and boiling everything in its path. The destructive forces of volcanoes are terrifying and well-known.
Did you know that as much as volcanoes destroy, they also create? Nowhere is that more evident than in the islands of Hawaii, built by volcanic eruptions that are still happening today. Volcanoes spur new growth of plants and trees on land. Oceanic volcanoes build islands, anchor coral reefs, and fuel a deep-sea ecosystem that doesn’t depend on the sun's energy. In fact, the meeting of volcanic fire and ocean water gave way to all life on Earth.
I come by my interest in history and the years before, during, and after the Second World War honestly. For one thing, both my father and my father-in-law served as pilots in the war, my father a P-38 pilot in North Africa and my father-in-law a B-17 bomber pilot in England. Their histories connect me with a period I think we can still almost reach with our fingertips and one that has had a momentous impact on our lives today. I have taken that interest and passion to discover and write true life stories of the war—focusing on the untold and unheard stories often of the “Average Joe.”
October 24, 1944, is not a day of national remembrance. Yet, more Americans serving in World War II perished on that day than on any other single day of the war.
The narrative of No Average Day proceeds hour by hour and incident by incident while focusing its attention on ordinary individuals—clerks, radio operators, cooks, sailors, machinist mates, riflemen, and pilots and their air crews. All were men who chose to serve their country and soon found themselves in a terrifying and otherworldly place.
No Average Day reveals the vastness of the war as it reaches past the beaches in…
October 24, 1944, is not a day of national remembrance. Yet, more Americans serving in World War II perished on that day than on December 7, 1941, when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, or on June 6, 1944, when the Allies stormed the beaches of Normandy, or on any other single day of the war. In its telling of the events of October 24, No Average Day proceeds hour by hour and incident by incident. The book begins with Army Private First-Class Paul Miller's pre-dawn demise in the Sendai #6B Japanese prisoner of war camp. It concludes with the death…
