Furnace of Creation, Cradle of Destruction: A Journey to the Birthplace of Earthquakes, Volcanoes, and Tsunamis

by Roy Chester

Over the past few years, devastating tsunamis off the coast of the Indian Ocean have killed hundreds of thousands of people. Even more alarmingly, scientists predict that these tsunamis, as well as a series of earthquakes and volcanic eruptions, may eventually threaten Hawaii, California, and Oregon. The cause of this trinity of natural disasters is plate tectonics. Perhaps the greatest advance made in the field of earth science, the plate-tectonics theory argues that the surface of the Earth is broken into large plates, which change in size and position over time. The edges of these plates rub against each other, causing earthquakes, volca­noes, and tsunamis that continue to inflict such intense destruction to the surface our planet. In Furnace of Creation, Cradle of Destruction, renowned scientist Roy Chester reveals the fascinating history of this discovery and tells the enigmatic story of one of the great mysteries of our how the surface of our planet was created and how it has evolved. From the early discoveries of Sir Francis Bacon to the begin­nings of geology and the controversy surrounding the theory of conti­nental drift, this impeccably researched book reveals the evolution of a vital sci­en­ti­fic theory. Lucid and compelling, this book offers a long-awaited explanation of the under­ly­ing forces that shape our world.

Genres: Science, Geology, Nonfiction

242 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2008

About the author

I retired as the Proudman Professor of Oceanography in the Department of Earth & Ocean Sciences at the University of Liverpool in 2001.

I am the author of over 125 papers in the mainstream scientific literature and have written a number of textbooks.

I have also served as a lay member of the Mental Health Tribunal for over 25 years.

Since retirement, my writing has focused on crime thrillers.

Reviews

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not what I expected from the jacket, and less interesting. As stated on page 1 of the introduction, the author wonders: "How would volcanoes, earthquakes, and tsunamis have appeared to people in the past, before the advent of modern theories about plate tectonics or, even more intriguing, in the time before science? ... and how did our thinking evolve as we moved toward the system of knowledge in place today?" Right now I'm only interested in about the last hundred-fifty years. The material on earlier times did not engage my interest in comparative anthropology.

Dipping into later chapters, I see there is material that would interest me, such as the beginning of chapter 9 on deep-sea sedimentation; but I can see why general readers would find it dry and technical. I got annoyed at an interesting question "which we will return to later, in chapter 12." (Though it is somewhat explained in the accompanying Figure 9-1.)

Furthermore, I was dissuaded from skimming by a number of niggling errors, which seem to be typos and not just Britishisms. And the Panels on specific events are disruptive and disorienting - is it just modern jerky layout to require sidebar material? - they all prominently display an asterisk leading to a footnote about modern classification numbers, which are clearly estimates for the early events, yet the first panel doesn't have them. They seem to end a third of the way through the book; no list of them in the detailed table of contents. Some trivial entries in the beefy index.

The material I do want would take careful reading to integrate with my current coursework, rather than providing illustration & amplification. The book is already overdue, so away it goes.

[Bookworm · Rating 2 out of 5]

I love geology (and earth science in gener), so I found this book full of fascinating information about its topic; unfortunately it was too dry and technical for me to read. Apparently Chester couldn't shake his professorial background - this would make an excellent textbook for a geology course, but fails miserably as a popular book. Chester presumes a great deal of prior knowledge on the part of the reader; there were many places in the book where I was interested in the information, but didn't know enough about geology to make sense of it.

I was surprised to see that it was published by AMACOM. That's the publishing division of the American Management Association, and solicits books only on management topics. I wonder how they came to publish a book of technical scientific information. My own suspicion is that the book received too many rejections from general and scientific publishers, and Chester knew someone at AMACOM who was willing to publish it for him - but I repeat, that is pure conjecture on my part.

II gave it 2 stars only because I did glean some information from it, albeit disconnected and contextless.

[Jen · Rating 2 out of 5]

I love me some good geology--however this was not it. Compare it with Krakatoa or Crack at the Edge of the World, and you'll see what's missing.

How you can make volcanoes and earthquakes boring is beyond me, but he did it. I gave it two stars because well...at least it was about volcanoes and earthquakes and I did learn something. The writing is pedantic most of the time, and the author uses "I believe" and "I think" and "in my opinion" at completely odd times--like when discussing what is his favorite volcano myth. These were listed in mere sentences and could have been interesting, but they were thrown together with no analysis or context.

By the end, you can tell he's struggling to fill pages...because pages on the DART system (early warning for tsunamis) around page 185 on a 193 page book smacks of desperation.

Read a Simon Winchester book instead. You'll be happier and you'll learn more.

[Ed · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ok but found myself getting bored.

[Todd Martin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Furnace of Creation, Cradle of Destruction is a history of the Earth sciences, in particular geology, oceanography, seismology and volcanology. Roy Chester, retired Professor of Oceanography in the Department of Earth & Ocean Sciences at the University of Liverpool, describes the evolving explanations humans developed to account for natural phenomena such as earthquakes, volcanoes and tsunamis. Chester begins with early religious / mythical explanations of the world, to early naturalistic descriptions, and leading to our present scientific understanding.

The book covers such topics as gradualism vs catastrophism, the Earth’s structure, and of course earthquakes volcanoes and tsunamis. But it really hits its stride when discussing sea floor spreading and plate tectonics (which is obviously where Chester’s expertise and interests lie). This is fine since plate tectonics is the most important discovery in geology and the story is a fascinating one with many independent lines of converging evidence to support it.

I also appreciated the fact that Chester wasn’t afraid to wade into the fray regarding the incompatibility of science and religion. Religions seemingly can’t refrain from making factual claims about the world … and time and time again science has proven them to be false (in contrast, religious claims have proven science wrong … precisely never). Throughout the ages these superstitious beliefs have impeded scientific progress and are still used today by those who wish to spread misinformation regarding: evolution, the age of the earth, global warming and geology.