Whether worshiped, feared, or studied, volcanoes have always been a subject of fascination and awe. Lopes explains the importance of volcanoes in shaping worlds, the dangers of volcanic eruptions, and some of the best places in the world to see eruptions, as well as including famous “case histories”. Dr Rosaly Lopes is a Principal Scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, where she is also Lead Scientist for Geophysics and Planetary Geosciences. She was honoured in the 2006 edition of the Guinness Book of World Records as the discoverer of the most active volcanoes anywhere.
I thought this was a great introductory book on volcanoes, how they're formed, the different types, locations, how are they studied and when things to terribly wrong by not acting or noticing the signs of a change in its processes indicating potential eruption. It also explores some areas of other planets and moons which have volcanoes, how they differ and the impact on the landscape, temperature, soil etc.
A straight forward little book relaying a lot of facts, some of them very dry, about all the different types of volcano imaginable on this and other planets and moons. I'm interested to do a holiday that will include a volcano so each chapter's tips on how and where to see certain volcano types was a nice surprise - and I will take her advice and avoid any super plynnian volcanoes that happen to be going off.