Jelle Zeilinga de Boer

Volcanoes in Human History: The Far-Reaching Effects of Major Eruptions

Foreword by Robert D. Ballard ix Preface xi Acknowledgments xv Table of Conversion xvii Chapter 1: Volcanism: Origins and Consequences 1 SIDEBAR: DATING OF VOLCANIC EVENTS Chapter 2: The Hawaiian Islands and the Legacy of Pelee the Fire Goddess 22 Chapter 3: The Bronze Age Eruption of Thera: Destroyer of Atlantis and Minoan Crete? 47 Chapter 4: The Eruption of Vesuvius in 79 C.E.: Cultural Reverberations through the Ages 74 Chapter 5: Iceland: Coming Apart at the Seams 108 Chapter 6: The Eruption of Tambora in 1815 and the Year without a Summer 138 SIDEBAR: MOUNT TOBA: BIGGER THAN TAMBORA Chapter 7: Krakatu, 1883: Devastation, Death, and Ecologic Revival 157 SIDEBAR: THE GHOSTS OF MERAPI Chapter 8: The 1902 Eruption of Mount Pelee: A Geological Catastrophe with Political Overtones 186 SIDEBAR: MOUNT PELEE AND THE PANAMA CANAL Chapter 9: Tristan da Cunba in 1961: Exile to the Twentieth Century 209 Chapter 10: Mount St. Helens in 1980: Catastrophe in the Cascades 228 Afterword 250 Glossary 251 Notes and References 261 Selected Bibliography 279 Index 281