Island on Fire (Ebook)
The extraordinary story of Laki, the volcano that turned eighteenth-century Europe dark
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The 1783 eruption of Laki led to Europe's year without summer - and it is due again soon
Laki is Iceland's largest 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 long months, the effects of the eruption lingered across the world for years. It caused the deaths of people as far away as the Nile and created catastrophic conditions throughout Europe.
Island on Fire is the story not only of a single eruption but the people whose lives it changed, the dawn of modern volcanology, as well as the history and potential of other super-volcanoes like Laki around the world. And perhaps most pertinently, in the wake of the eruption of another Icelandic volcano, Eyjafjallajokull, which closed European air space in 2010, acclaimed science writers Witze and Kanipe look at what might transpire should Laki erupt again in our lifetime.
Island on Fire (Paperback)
The extraordinary story of Laki, the volcano that turned eighteenth-century Europe dark
Buy from
The 1783 eruption of Laki led to Europe's year without summer - and it is due again soon
Laki is Iceland's largest 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 long months, the effects of the eruption lingered across the world for years. It caused the deaths of people as far away as the Nile and created catastrophic conditions throughout Europe.
Island on Fire is the story not only of a single eruption but the people whose lives it changed, the dawn of modern volcanology, as well as the history and potential of other super-volcanoes like Laki around the world. And perhaps most pertinently, in the wake of the eruption of another Icelandic volcano, Eyjafjallajokull, which closed European air space in 2010, acclaimed science writers Witze and Kanipe look at what might transpire should Laki erupt again in our lifetime.
Reviews for Island on Fire
Nick Crane
Science News
The Seattle Times
Gillian Darley, author of Vesuvius
Tom Henry SEJournal
The Bookbag
Dallas Morning News
David Pyle, volcanologist, University of Oxford, on his Volcanic Degassing blog
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