Volcanoes in Human History

The Far-Reaching Effects of Major Eruptions

Jelle Zeilinga de Boer, Donald Theodore Sanders

• Publisher: Princeton University Press
• Year: 2025
• Print ISBN:
  9780691118383
  9780691050812
• eBook ISBN:
  9780691288192
• Topic: Physical Sciences
• Subtopic: Geology & Earth Sciences

The classic account of how volcanism has shaped human culture and science, from the Bronze Age eruption that destroyed Minoan Crete to Mount St. Helens

When the volcano Tambora erupted in Indonesia in 1815, as many as one hundred thousand people perished from the blast and ensuing famine. Gases and dust particles ejected into the atmosphere changed weather patterns around the world, resulting in the infamous “year without a summer” in North America, food riots in Europe, and a widespread cholera epidemic. And the gloomy weather inspired Mary Shelley to write the gothic novel Frankenstein. This panoramic book tells the story of nine such epic volcanic events, explaining the related geology and exploring the myriad ways our planet’s volcanism has affected human history.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• Foreword by Robert D. Ballard
• Preface
• Acknowledgments
• Table of Conversions
• 1 • Volcanism: Origins and Consequences
• 2 • The Hawaiian Islands and the Legacy of Pele the Fire Goddess
• 3 • The Bronze Age Eruption of Thera: Destroyer of Atlantis and Minoan Crete?
• 4 • The Eruption of Vesuvius in 79 C.E.: Cultural Reverberations through the Ages
• 5 • Iceland: Coming Apart at the Seams
• 6 • The Eruption of Tambora in 1815 and “the Year without a Summer”
• 7 • Krakatau, 1883: Devastation, Death, and Ecologic Revival
• 8 • The 1902 Eruption of Mount Pelée: A Geological Catastrophe with Political Overtones
• 9 • Tristan da Cunha in 1961: Exile to the Twentieth Century
• 10 • Mount St. Helens in 1980: Catastrophe in the Cascades
• Afterword
• Glossary
• Notes and References
• Selected Bibliography
• Index