Super Volcanoes: What They Reveal about Earth and the Worlds Beyond

by Robin George Andrews

Volcanoes are capable of acts of pyrotechnical prowess verging on magic: they spout black magma more fluid than water, create shimmering cities of glass at the bottom of the ocean and frozen lakes of lava on the moon, and can even tip entire planets over. Between lava that melts and re-forms the landscape, and noxious volcanic gases that poison the atmosphere, volcanoes have threatened life on Earth countless times in our planet’s history. Yet despite their reputation for destruction, volcanoes are inseparable from the creation of our planet.


A lively and utterly fascinating guide to these geologic wonders, Super Volcanoes revels in the incomparable power of volcanic eruptions past and present, Earthbound and otherwise—and recounts the daring and sometimes death-defying careers of the scientists who study them. Science journalist and volcanologist Robin George Andrews explores how these eruptions reveal secrets about the worlds to which they belong, describing the stunning ways in which volcanoes can sculpt the sea, land, and sky, and even influence the machinery that makes or breaks the existence of life.


Walking us through the mechanics of some of the most infamous eruptions on Earth, Andrews outlines what we know about how volcanoes form, erupt, and evolve, as well as what scientists are still trying to puzzle out. How can we better predict when a deadly eruption will occur—and protect communities in the danger zone? Is Earth’s system of plate tectonics, unique in the solar system, the best way to forge a planet that supports life? And if life can survive and even thrive in Earth’s extreme volcanic environments—superhot, superacidic, and supersaline surroundings previously thought to be completely inhospitable—where else in the universe might we find it?


Traveling from Hawai‘i, Yellowstone, Tanzania, and the ocean floor to the moon, Venus, and Mars, Andrews illuminates the cutting-edge discoveries and lingering scientific mysteries surrounding these phenomenal forces of nature.

Genres: Science, Nonfiction, Nature, Geology, History, Natural History, Audiobook

336 pages, Hardcover

First published November 2, 2021

About the author

Robin is perpetually curious and often ridiculous. He’s a doctor of experimental volcanology (blew stuff up for science) a full-time, freelance, award-winning science journalist (rearranges letters for money), a part-time award-winning photographer (takes photographs that aren’t awful), a scientific consultant (tells people how to do science right), an occasional lecturer (rearranges letters and says them aloud for money), a public speaker (rearranges letters and says them aloud, sometimes for free), and a frequent explain-how-volcanoes-work TV guest (gesticulates wildly on live television). His work has appeared in The New York Times, The Atlantic, National Geographic, Scientific American, Quanta Magazine, Vox, Nature, Earther, Gizmodo, Forbes, The Verge, Atlas Obscura, New Scientist, Supercluster, Discover Magazine, WIRED, CNN, the Guardian, the Observer, The Times, The Daily Beast, and elsewhere.

(He’s enjoyed all his assignments, but he’s especially pleased three of his stories made the front page of The New York Times – with two of these and one other making the cover of the Science Times section – and another tale was made Scientific American’s cover story. Although all that might pale in comparison to his National Geographic story on an unsolved “murder” mystery—because that one went viral and got turned into TikToks, which was adorable. Oh, and one of his pieces – this one – was listed as a notable essay in the 2021 edition of the Best American Science and Nature Writing, which was lovely. He’s also appeared multiple times on Science Shortform’s best science journalism roundups, both as Honorable Mentions and Top Picks.)

You can also sometimes see his goofy face appear on TV, including on BBC News, Sky News, Al Jazeera, and Good Morning America. If faces aren’t your thing, you can hear his exceedingly British accent on the Guardian’s podcasts.

He’s also the author of a popular science book published by W.W. Norton & Company — SUPER VOLCANOES: WHAT THEY REVEAL ABOUT EARTH AND THE WORLDS BEYOND — and it’s about (you guessed it) volcanoes. Many see volcanoes as little more than unpredictable magmatic killers. But for the most part, they are fantastical masterworks of molten rock capable of near-magical acts. And as they put on a pyrotechnical performance, they reveal secrets about the planets to which they belong. In other words, volcanoes aren’t frightening; they’re breathtaking, bizarre, and bonkers. They are citadels built by frozen lava that provide revelation after revelation about the Stygian depths and the strange surfaces of worlds near and far, including the only home we’ve ever known.

He is also the 2022 recipient of the European Geosciences Union's Angela Croome Award for continued, excellent and successful reporting of Earth, space & planetary science topics—something he received the day after his first book was published in the US, making those 48 hours pretty damn exciting.

Find him here, sometimes on this, and elsewhere. If you happen to be in London, he'd much prefer to meet at the Mayor of Scaredy Cat Town. Yes, he's always available to cameo in Star Wars and Doctor Who.

Reviews

[Jenna ❤ ❀ ❤ · Rating 5 out of 5]

"We all need a good escape, especially when so much about the world is broken. We all need a good story. And, through science, these volcanoes and planets give us stories that are both true and fantastical beyond our wildest imaginations."

I knew little about volcanoes so when this book with its cool ass cover caught my eye, I had to read it. 

Fortunately or unfortunately, the day after I downloaded Super Volcanoes, I bought a new RPG for my PlayStation. You all know how much I love reading, but probably do not know that I love gaming just as much. And when I get a new RPG, just about everything else ceases to exist. I am consumed.



Because of that, it has taken me eight days to read this not-very-lengthy book even though I found it fascinating. I blame the author too because at one point, just as I was so engrossed in the book that Stardew Valley disappeared from the horizon, Mr Andrews said how much he enjoys gaming and mentioned The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. 



And there my brain flew right back to the Valley. 

(In case you're wondering why he wrote about a game in a book on volcanoes, there is a volcano to explore in Ocarina of Time and that's what first got him interested in those lava-belching mountains.)

It's amazing I have been able to read at all the last week and only a 5 star book could keep my attention long enough to read even a page. The only thing you need to know to know I loved this book is that I read it all in the last week.

Robin George Andrews is a terrific writer and brings even extinct volcanoes to life. The notebook on my Kindle is full of highlights and bookmarks. 

He explains plate technology and how plate movements are responsible for forming volcanoes. He delves into Earth's tumultuous history, describing volcanoes both past and present.

Did you know that "On average, there are about 40 volcanoes on Earth spewing lava or ash at any single moment in time."? That's a lot of lava and ash gushing from the bowels of the earth!

Mr Andrews explores volcanoes, both on earth and off. He takes us to Hawaai, Indonesia, Tanzania, and Yellowstone. He describes how the people of Pompeii would have died when Vesuvius erupted back in 79 CE. And to think people still live on and around this volcano!



My favourite chapters were the two on Venus and Mars. Wow, talk about cool shit! Mars, for instance, has a volcanic region so large (12 million square miles) that it deformed the entire planet and tipped it over by 20 degrees! It has the largest volcanoes known to science. And Maat Mons on Venus is 5.5 miles (9 km) high. 

If you enjoy learning about volcanoes and the formation of earth and its sister planets, you don't want to miss this book.  

And as for my gaming..... Addiction? Who has an addiction?



I thank Krishan Khurana, quoted in this book, for helping me feel less guilty about all the time spent playing video games:

“I think, in general, people who have another world to escape to ... they’re happier people.”

Both great books and fun games are good for our mental health. 

[Mark Hartzer · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a good book with a misleading title. This is really a book about vulcanism in general as true super volcanoes make up only a fraction of the contents, as there is only a single chapter (out of 8) devoted to super volcanoes per se. I really enjoyed his detailed and in depth coverage of Yellowstone. Contrary to popular opinion, the Yellowstone caldera is not going to erupt anytime soon, and likely never again. We also learn that there are no such things as 'magma chambers' as there have been exactly zero instances where they have been observed or detected by scientists. Dr. Andrews (he has a PhD in volcanology) advises that underneath the caldera, it is actually more like a giant sponge filled with "hellish gelatin". The liquid is more buoyant than the surrounding crystalline structure, and rises to the surface.

I didn't know this, but eruptions are measured in strength much like the Fujita scale for tornadoes. The scale is called the Volcanic Explosivity Index (VEI), and runs from zero to VEI 8. Like the EF scale each level higher is exponentially more powerful than the previous. A VEI zero "...is assigned to eruptions that effuse a modicum of lava and debris and have ash plumes no more than a few hundred feet high." "A VEI 8 eruption, the very top of the scale, is anything that produces at least 240 cubic miles of volcanic material during its explosive eruption." (240 cubic miles = 1,000 cubic kilometers.) The 1st Yellowstone eruption 2.1 million years ago ejected 588 cubic miles of material and the the Doha super volcano explosion of 74,000 years ago ejected 270 miles of material.

Unfortunately, this is pretty much all we hear about super volcanoes. We don't even get a list of exactly how many we have here on Earth. An even bigger failing is the utter lack of maps, diagrams or photos. The book discusses Jupiter's moons extensively, yet each chapter gets a single black and white photo.

Finally, I found Dr. Andrews' breezy narration distracting. I've read doctoral dissertations, so I'm OK with footnotes and endnotes not to mention fairly dry reading of various facts. Thankfully, this is not a dissertation, but I think it could have done with less 'humorous' interludes. Science does not have to be comedy. Here is a random example on pp. 143-144. "But it wasn't long before he and his colleagues used their knowledge of the Moon's chemistry gained from these samples to cook up their own batches of lunar lasagna. 'You can make a synthetic Moon rock really easily,' he nonchalantly tells me. You play about with different compounds-a pinch of iron oxide here, a cup of titanium oxide there-and eventually, you get a rock that can replicate not just the chemistry, but also the textures and crystalline structures you see in the real deal. This sounds like witchcraft to me. 'It's an art.' Grove replies, with a slight shrug."

This isn't terrible by any means, but I find this kind of narration distracting.

But that is a minor quibble. There is a lot of information here and everyone has their own style. If you want to read about about volcanoes in general, and how they erupt both here on Earth as well as other parts of the solar system, here you go.

[Mark · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was an interesting book about Volcanoes especially the super variety, which is the mass murderer of mankind were one to explode in a modern world. Yellowstone is considered a super volcano even if nobody expects it to ever act like a super volcano as its day as a superstar seems to be over.

This book is about the influence volcanism has on our world and even on the other planets in our planetary system. The writer is able to tell his story in a way that most people can understand and he tells an interesting story about volcanos on our planet and it influence on humanity. Then he leaves our planet and tells about volcanos on the planets in our own system. And there the story remains interesting even if I did not expect that.

This is a really nice collection of stories and insight of the science of Volcanos, for anybody who gets tickled by the force of nature and watches every documentary on the subject and he/she will find new interesting material in this lovely little book.

[Justin Pickett · Rating 3 out of 5]

Having wanted to be a volcanologist growing up (after watching Dante’s Peak), I thought I would enjoy this more. The book is informative and expansive, maybe too much so, covering moonquakes, Venus’s volcanic ruination (volcanoes broke the world there), and underwater volcanism (e.g., how it shows the range of life’s possibilities). The book also explains the problems with the “super volcano” label—namely, that it is sticky, being based on having a single eruption that reaches a score of 8 on the volcanic explosivity index, but that once the label is applied it always remains, even if no further eruptions reach the same scale. The coolest thing in the book was the discussion of Yellowstone’s prolonged, segmented eruptions, which can last a human lifetime.

[aPriL does feral sometimes · Rating 5 out of 5]

'Super Volcanoes, What They Reveal about Earth and the Worlds Beyond' by Robin George Andrews sent rivers of intellectual fire through the fissures of my brain matter! Boom! Boom! Boom! The shocking facts and figures of volcanoes on Earth and on the planets and moons in our solar system exploded off of the page! Like fireworks going off in the night, the excitement of the author for volcanoes lit up the pages and chapters of his wonderful book!

The chapters:

-Prologue: The Gate in the Sky
-Introduction
-The Fountain of Fire
-The Supervolcano
-The Great Ink Well
-The Vaults of Glass
-The Pale Guardian
-The Toppled God
-The Inferno
-The Giant's Forge
-Epilogue: The Time Travelor

The author has a PhD in volcanology and he is an excellent writer, so I am using an overused word - Awesome book!

How are volcanos made? What happens when one erupts? Why are Earth's volcanoes so special scientifically for us? Are there volcanoes on other planets?

They are all described here: Martinique's Mount Pelée; Italy's Vesuvius; Hawaii's Kīlauea; Yellowstone, Mount St. Helen ( I lived through this one which was only a 148 hundred miles away, thank the gods, from me); New Zealand's Taupo; Indonesia's Toba; Tanzania's black-lava (yes! -black lava- the only one we know of on Earth) spewing volcano, Ol Doinyo Lengai.

And that is just some of the superstars, most appropriately having been given a single name fitting for these celebrities of Earth. There are also the underwater volcanoes, which are ever only briefly seen and very rarely discovered except by accident. However, due to the fact living microbes and other life forms were found feasting on the boiling output of volcanic smokers near the under-ocean volcanoes scientists are now hoping the odds of finding life on other planets has gone up.

But that's not all!

NASA and other space agencies have been sending little robots and investigative spaceships to the Moon, Venus, Mars, Saturn, Jupiter, that little whatever rock called Pluto. The stories of all of the amazing new discoveries of absolutely confounding volcanoes on planetary moons as well as some of the planets are told in Andrew's book. Why confounding? Because they are incredibly strange, having developed on what are now airless frozen moons or deep in pressurized atmospheres beyond anything in the experience of Humanity on Earth. The history of Mars is being told by discoveries in its now cold lava fields, being explored currently by rovers.

The best is IO:

https://youtu.be/Jfv-2OYDNCw


◉_◉

If that doesn't blow you away, I question your sentience! But certainly not the author of this wonderfully appealing science book!



The book has an extensive Notes and Index.

[Barbara K · Rating 3 out of 5]

I had mixed reactions to this one. The first half was full of fascinating information about volcanos all over the earth. Although I found Andrews’ use of adjectives and analogies over the top at times, overall it was engaging reading. For instance, it turns out that the term “supervolcano” applies to any volcano that at some point in its history was exceptional in its output, not that there is a likelihood this destructive event will happen again. So no need to fear visiting Yellowstone.

But I lost some interest during the chapters describing volcanic activity on other planets. That isn’t Andrews’ fault, just a reflection of my own preference for reading about the Earth. With that said, the section on Jupiter’s moons had me sitting up as I learned about the effects of the interactions of their rotations around the planet.

To Andrews’ credit, he takes pains to share the story of Marie Tharp, a geologist who in 1952 mapped the floor of the Atlantic based on sounding profiles taken by ships in previous years. In the process, she discovered the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, which contributed to the acceptance of the theory of plate tectonics. In all-too-typical fashion, her work went unacknowledged at the time, with all credit going to her collaborator. Eventually she produced a map of the global ocean floor, and was ultimately recognized for her many contributions to “earth science”.

In contrast to Tharp’s poor treatment by the male-dominated scientific world, Andrews quotes, and gives credit to, many women volcanologists and other scientists. It’s nice to see this form of progress.

[Yigal Zur · Rating 4 out of 5]

great read about volcanoes. smart, clever, full of amazing and mostly unknown facts to general reader and written with a lovely touch of fun and humor. i have been on quite a lot of volcanoes worldwide and was and still fascinated by them so it gave me a lot to wonder and think about. great work.

[Cade · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is better than a 2-stars, but it was just 2 stars for me. The topics are well selected and are intrinsically interesting. I liked that half the chapters were about volcanoes on other bodies in the solar system besides Earth.

However, I didn't personally enjoy the writing. The author's explicit and repeated desire to infuse the reader with awe instead of just communicating and letting the awe come naturally was irritating and somewhat pretentious. I also found the author's casually conversational writing style not so much easy to read as bland and borderline condescending. Lastly, I felt the text was driven too much by interviews with scientists with extensive quoting of them self-consciously trying to provide sound bites. The book would have been better if it had focused instead on more plainly laying out the information to be conveyed.

[Richard Thompson · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a book that would work better as a Discovery Channel or Nat Geo series than as a book. Maybe that is what Mr. Andrews was hoping for when he wrote it. Volcanoes are visually beautiful and the things about them that you cannot photograph lend themselves to explanatory animated graphics, plus none of the concepts presented in the book are so hard that they could not be compressed into a television show that an average television viewer could understand. So I felt that Mr. Andrews chose the wrong medium of expression for the information that he presented, but with that caveat the book was pretty good. I enjoyed learning about the black lava in Tanzania and why the Yellowstone super volcano is probably not a threat. The best part of the book was the discussion of volcanic activity on other planets and moons around the solar system. I had not previously known about ice volcanoes, and I was interested to find out about how the movement of tectonic plates, which is closely connected with volcanic activity, is driven at least in part by the gravitational pull of nearby celestial bodies.

[Ian McGaffey · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an awesome read, I forgot how fun volcanoes are. They represent a vital process of our planet and the solar system. I wasn't very aware how much we knew about extraterrestrial volcanoes, but the author does a great job covering volcanoes on earth and elsewhere.

[Emma · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have always been fascinated with Volcanoes so this was a treat to read from start to finish, with very little scientific 'jargon'.
Robin takes you on a fascinating journey from the submarine volcanoes in the deepest parts of the ocean, to Mars, Venus and the Moon.
What I love about this book, is that it doesn't just focus on the popular 'supervolcanoes',' such as Yellowstone.
The interviews with other scientists are a brilliant touch. People who are passionate about their research can explain things better than anyone else, and they make the book even more interesting.
It took me longer than expected to finish this, because I spent most of it Googling bits and pieces that really interested me.
Would highly recommend this to readers of a certain newspaper that seems to be obsessed over Yellowstone

[Susan Paxton · Rating 2 out of 5]

Dropped after about 150 pages. Misleading title; ridiculously happy-clappy approach to a geological phenomenon that is neither "fun" nor "cool."

[Maja Ina Ruparcic · Rating 5 out of 5]

how does one ditch one’s phd in linguistics and switch to volcanology, asking for a friend??????

[Laurie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very well-organized and easy to read book about volcanoes on Earth and other terrestrial objects. I especially enjoyed the chapter on volcanoes on the ocean floor.

[James Easterson · Rating 5 out of 5]

An extremely readable book, fun and informative. Not just about earthbound volcanoes but about our fellow planets and the instance of life and possibly of life beyond what you might realize before reading this book. Along with some fascinating history written in a familiar and informal way, this is a book worth the read.

[Ben · Rating 4 out of 5]

I would have preferred to have *much* more detail about terrestrial volcanoes and volcanologists. Still, I enjoyed what Andrews gave us.

> Around 252 million years ago, a planet already suffering from ecological turmoil was also baking thanks to the ~2-million-year-long eruption of lava gushing out of what is now Siberia. This continental-scale volcanism, unleashing climate-perturbing gases of its own, also ignited a huge reservoir of coal, triggering a global warming offensive. When all was said and done, this Murder on the Orient Express–style apocalypse killed more than nine out of every ten marine species and seven out of ten terrestrial vertebrate species—birds, amphibians, reptiles, mammals, and so forth—on the planet. This event, aptly known as the Great Dying, was easily the worst mass extinction in Earth’s history and its darkest chapter.

> that heat isn’t extreme enough at present to keep both [Yellowstone] reservoirs completely molten. Get a fresh injection of hot molten rock from below, say, and sure, more of the reservoir cooks and melts. But what you have for the most part is solid rock, with a network of molten ponds, pools, and slivers. Sometimes more of it is molten, sometimes less. Think of it as a strange sponge, with the holes filled with a hellish gelatin. That gelatin, being hotter than the cooler, frozen volcanic crystals around it, is naturally buoyant, and the laws of physics demand that it rise as best as it can. It exploits zones of structural weakness, like big holes in the sponge, as it makes its ascent. Magma chambers aren’t really cavernous gaps in the crust at all, but reservoirs of mush, serpents of partially molten rock confined within a labyrinth of crystals. They are Beelzebub’s sponges. … Yellowstone’s sponges may be gigantic, but they are mostly frozen right now. Seismic data suggest that the upper reservoir is between 5 and 15 percent molten. The lower reservoir is only 2 percent molten

> The crust being thicker on the farside could be explained by a really cool idea from 2014 named Earthshine. Back when the Moon formed, it was much closer to Earth, perhaps only 8,000 miles away, compared with today’s distance of nearly 240,000 miles

> Several thermometers were buried in the lunar soil by the Apollo 15 and Apollo 17 missions and kept running from 1971 to 1977. It was hoped they would take the Moon’s internal temperature, but as they only went a few feet into the ground, they were affected by whatever was happening at the surface. Scientists found that they registered a curious uptick in temperature during the duration of the heat-flow experiment. This was found to be the astronauts’ fault: as they bounded about, they kicked up a lot of lunar soil. This made the surface rougher, making it less able to reflect sunlight, and causing the surface to warm up

> Mars, like the Moon, also has two hemispheres that are vastly different from each other: a southern, highly cratered highlands section with crust up to 62 miles thick, and a northern, smooth lowlands section with a paltry 19-mile-thick crust

> Mars, like Earth, also has mud volcanoes. They are exactly what they sound like: buoyant or pressurized mud bubbles up out of holes in the ground. Terrestrial mud is fairly runny. But Mars’s thin atmosphere means that the average surface temperature is –81 degrees Fahrenheit. This quickly freezes the tops of these mud flows, insulating the mud below and letting it flow over long distances like gloopy lava in tunnels in Hawai‘i.

> The trapped gases within martian meteorites, when compared with present-day measurements by robots suggest that most of Mars’s early atmosphere had been obliterated just 500 million years or so after Mars was born. If true, that implies Mars was almost always an acutely frigid place with a very low atmospheric pressure. It would have been incredibly difficult, if not impossible, to have long-lived river systems, lakes, and oceans much later in its history—and yet the once wet valleys and basins suggest otherwise. So did the planet dry up or didn’t it? Most researchers I spoke to are coming around to the idea that Mars was never warm and wet, but icy and damp. The ancient martian atmosphere would have had so little carbon dioxide that it would be impossible to get the global Mars temperature above freezing and keep it there. Fortunately, that’s no problem for liquid water. In Antarctica’s McMurdo Dry Valleys, you still have substantial lakes trapped beneath ice. The mercury only rises above freezing for a couple of days per year, but that’s enough to melt glaciers and snow to supply meltwater to underground lakes

> Mantle plumes, aiming at tectonic plates on Earth, have moving targets to hit. On Mars, their targets are stationary.

> on Io, so much new magma keeps gushing up through massive, diabolical esophaguses and onto the surface that the crust gets squashed down. This, says Davies, sometimes snaps the crust upward, forming sudden mountains 12 miles high.

> what are the odds that you have a planet like the Earth in the Goldilocks zone—not too hot, not too cold, where all the conditions are just right—versus having moons around the larger planets we know, like Neptune-size and up … there’s a lot of these bigger planets and they might have moons where tidal heating may be a factor. You may have more ocean worlds with frozen icy crusts than Goldilocks worlds like the Earth.”

[Karrie Stewart · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this book for my nonfiction book club.

I never thought I would be excited to keep listening to a book on Volcanoes but here we are. Robin does such a great job keeping the book fun so you aren't bogged down by all the science.

[Pancha · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very engaging book that made me feel better about living on the near side of the continental divide from Yosemite and also took me into space to see ICE LAVA!

[Sheila · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found this interesting. He starts with the recent Hawaiian volcano and works his way across Earth then into space and the other planets explaining how volcanoes have affected the Earth and the other planets. He also delves into what make other planets uninhabitable using their volcanoes as the point of reference. Mr. Andrews gets into some of the debates between scientists and volcanologists.

There were times I did not understand what he was saying (not a big science person) but as I read more I understood more. By the time I got to the last chapters with Venus, Jupiter, and Saturn I did understand what was happening and why in the world of volcanoes. Worth the read.

[The Inquisitive Biologist · Rating 5 out of 5]

Unabashedly enthusiastic, Super Volcanoes is a deeply informed piece of popular science written by a knowledgeable author. Read my full review at https://inquisitivebiologist.com/2022...

[Marko Kivimäe · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Oli külm, nagu oli olnud juba miljardeid aastaid. Hõbedaste merede pind püsis vaikne, sest polnud tuult, mis oleks need virvendama pannud. Kõrgel säras tähevalgus. Pinnas kriuksus kõikudes nagu vana puulaev, kuid mäed püsisid liikumatult. Sügavused olid vaiki. Põrgulikke minevikuajastuid mälestasid kaljused amfiteatrid. Aeg-ajalt kukkus eksistentsi äärealadelt mõni jääkild või kivi, mis purunes alla jõudes. Kivilumi lendas üles ja hõljus maapinna kohal, langedes vaiku- ses alla kusagil mujal selle võrratu kõleduse keskel."

On see nüüd mõnus ulme või tõsiteadus, kaunis ilukirjandus või kirjastus Argo väljaantud populaarteadus?

Robin George Andrews on teadusajakirjanik ja vulkanoloog, kelle supervulkaanide raamat on stiili poolest kohati nagu lustlik ilukirjanduslik põnevuslugu. Autor keskendub küll rohkem teaduslikule poolele ning see raamat on selgelt populaarteadus - samal ajal on väljendusviis ning keelekasutus kohati üsna ladna, mis ühtepidi muudab raamatut elavamaks, teisalt vahel tekitab mulje, et autor justkui ei võta teemat tõsiselt.

Hea küll, nii hulluks asi ka ei lähe, see on ikkagi väga asjalik ja tõsine teema, mul endal tekkiski peas paralleele tigeda koka Anthony Warneriga, kus oli ka keelekasutus kohati vabam. Kui nüüd neid kahte autorit ja raamatut võrrelda, siis Warner meeldis mulle selgelt rohkem. Isegi mitte temaatika tõttu, pigem kohati jäi Andrews mu jaoks natuke kaugeks ja hüplevaks, aga sellest allpool.

"Jättes kõrvale süüdistused "plikade lobas", kogus Tharp paremate sonarite abil andmeid juurde ja muudkui ühendas punkte. Kui jääb mulje, nagu olnuks see lihtsa, ehkki gargantualiku pusle kokkupanek, on tegu tema töö suure alahindamisega. See polnud pelk punktide ühendamine tühjal paberilehel. Tohutud lüngad andmepunktide vahel vajasid täitmist, et sügavusprofiilid omandaksid mingisugusegi tähenduse. Geoloogiaalase hariduse ja märkimisväärse vaistu abil, mis ei jäänud palju maha Jedi omast, visandas ta olemasoleva sügavusprofiili andmete alusel merepõhja väljanägemise. Ta reprodutseeris tegelikke kõrgendikke ja sügavikke ning nendevahelist ala, mitte ei vedanud seeriat sakilisi jooni, mis kujutasid järske muutusi reljeefis."

Pealkiri on selles mõttes huvitav, et autor ise ütleb ka kohe alguses, et "supervulkaan" on emotsionaalne klikimagnet, pikalt ka kirjeldab seda, et kuidas vulkaane ei pea kartma, sest kuigi ka nad on ajaloos teinud hävitustööd, siis tegelikult statistiliselt juhtub seda üliharva. Pigem kütab kollane meedia jälle kirgi üles, kui kusagil mõni volkaanike popsutama hakkab, või veel hullem, tumeda pilve välja ajab. Samal ajal paneb Andrews sellesama klikimagneti raamatukaanele - saa nüüd aru.

Ma olen nüüd tavatult palju raamatut karvustanud. Tegelikult oli see infost tihke ja väga hea raamat, tüüüpilise eestlasena ma hakkasin kohe algul teose kallal nokkima. "Supervulkaanid. Mida need räägivad Maast ja kaugetest maailmadest" on siiski väga asjalik ja vajalik raamat, mis aitab Maad paremini mõista. Mingi piirini.

Oeh. Nüüd tuleb teine, suur ja jäme "aga". Mulle tõesti istub väga raamatu sees osa, mis tegutseb Maa peal. St maa all. St... no saate aru küll! Mingil hetkel saadab autor lugeja Kuu peale, siis Marsile, Veenusele, möödaminnes vaadatakse ka Jupiteri kuu Io üle. Ning see osa raamatust jäi mu jaoks tõesti kaugeks (kõige hullemal puhul ca 930 miljonit kilomeetrit, eksole). Et oli nagu ühtepidi huvitav, kui autor siinsamas lugeja ninapidi musta laava sisse toppis. Aga see kaugete maade... planeetide tutvustamine, see oli natukene huvitav, siis natuke täis oletusi, arvamisi, hüpoteese.

Kokkuvõttes: kui mu virinast mööda vaadata, siis raamat on tegelikult tehniliselt, sisuliselt, populaareaduslikult väga tuumakas. Vulkaane on nende kaante vahel ka, ikka parasjagu. Mulle meeldis rohkem see osa, mis oli käe-jala juures, kaugete planeetide osa ei kütkestanud niipalju. Milles võis paras osa olla lugeja peakuju sobimatuses.

[Claudia · Rating 4 out of 5]

The appeal of disaster or doomsday films still fascinates the theater-goers and television watchers. Yellowstone National Park and the volcanic plume that moves as the North American tectonic plate moves slightly southwest, leaving behind remnants of eruptions from thousands, even millions of years ago. In the 1960's, the term super-volcano was attached to the underground magma chambers that generate the geyser, hot springs and mud pots.

By definition, so any volcano has had a VEI8 eruption - volcanic explosivity index (8 being the highest current magnitude) which produces 240+ cubic miles (or 1000 cubic kilometers) of material ejected is classified as a super-volcano. It only needs to happen once and the label remains stuck to the volcano for the rest of its geological life.

So, after talking about what a super volcano is - and the author dispenses additional geological and historic information as he moves along - he starts to discuss eight different examples both on Earth and on other worlds in our solar system.

*First is the 2018 eruption of Hawaii's Kilauea and the numerous fissures that opened with different types of lava as well as a short history of the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory.
*Then on to Yellowstone.
*Ol Doinyo Lengai in Tanzania (or the "Old Ink Well" for as its lava is fast moving, very fluid and black in color. It's a form of liquid limestone and also 'gloopy' and explosive silica magma due to the compressed gases within. Andrews also talks abut the East African Rift and the Danakil Depression and how plate movement if tearing that part of Africa apart.
*Undersea or rather under-ocean volcanoes. Specially at the Mid-Atlantic Ridge and hydrothermal vents with the extremophile life that survives there.
*Volcanic activity o the moon which is mostly ancient but maybe dinosaurs saw the glow of volcanic plumes.
*Mars and the Tharsis shield volcano region which is so huge at 12 million square miles that its 3 times the size of the continental United State and has deformed the planet with its concentrated weight.
*Venus and the runaway greenhouse gases and the discovery of phosphine in the atmosphere which is a compound mostly made by life and exceedingly difficult to form by geological or chemical means. NASA and other space agencies are starting to focus their future attention on our sister world.
*Lastly, various other moons like Enceledus, Europa, Ceres and Pluto and their cryovolcanoes which eject not rock and magma but ice and brines.

A fascinating look at the variety of volcanoes and even if the reader isn't that familiar with geology or space or even volcanoes themselves, it provides an insightful look at not only a vital part of our world but ties us to the moons and planets of our solar system and even further outside our local neighborhood.

2022-055

[Walt · Rating 3 out of 5]

I learned a lot reading this book. I have a lot of questions, which is a reflection on the author. Perhaps he wants to inspire further research. He does try to make a complex scientific phenomenon - volcanology - into a more accessible form of understanding for lay audiences. He succeeds, somewhat. For all of his enthusiasm and excitement, his writing style was very distracting. The book improved immensely when he began discussing volcanoes outside of Earth. Puzzled by this observation, I re-read the book and confirmed it. The Earthen chapters are harder to read and digest than the alien chapters.

The book is divided into 8 chapters. Mercifully, these are broken down into unnamed subdivisions. The text opens with a somewhat exciting chapter on an eruption in Hawaii. Picture a Hollywood blockbuster where the earth trembles, the volcano explodes, and the lead actors run. But then realize, they don't need to run. In fact, they could leisure walk through homes or offices carefully taking things safely to their car or moped. Then decide there is time for a dip in the pool....Maybe get out of harm's way after a good nap....Andrews does try to liven things up. He describes lava bombs as items weighing as much as refrigerators flying through the air at 1500 mph....and what it can do to a human body on impact.

He certainly built the rest of the book around the most fascinating aspects of volcanology. A volcano spewing out black lava, underwater volcanoes made of glass, ice volcanoes on Pluto, etc. By comparison, the opening chapter was a drag. But it provides an opening to the book. He nicely segues that opening into a brief section on Yellowstone, the most famous super volcano on the plant. Depending upon the reader, he calms fears about an eruption, or disappoints anticipation for another super eruption. He informs readers that volcanologists do not use the term super volcano, that is something for science fiction. But it is a catchy name.

Andrews tries to blend science and mass readership. And he does an admirable job. However, he glosses over important concepts. Plate tectonics is a crucial topic in multiple chapters, and reader probably only have a bare understanding. Mars is a failed world, in part because plate tectonics either did not function or ceased altogether. Venus seemingly has only one "plate" - the crust. The idea that the North American Plate is pushing the Farallon Plate is somehow responsible for the Yellowstone super volcano is not detailed. The explanation rests on the theory that there is a magma plume (not clearly defined in the book, but illustrated on the cover) sitting just below a really thin piece of crust that is migrating away from the contact zone of the two plates begs for more interpretation. Andrews does offer an explanation, but in a way that is flippant and difficult to follow. And that is my principal criticism of the book: his writing style.

His enthusiasm for the subject shines through. That is fine. He could be a very dynamic speaker who turns out to be a terrible author (James Burke, Simcha Jacobovici). But he is not a terrible author. He tries to make the subject matter accessible for all audiences. He intersperses passages of hard science next to philosophical musings, trivia, and the coolness of his fellow scientists. The result is a lot of fluff that buries the science. I don't care about each hiking trip of the volcano by countless volcanologists. I kinda care about what they see (the book is woefully under-illustrated). But I cannot conceptualize Io displaying every hue of color. Even the black lava is hard to conceptualize. An excursion to Youtube solves the conundrum. The distractions are very frustrating, as Andrews seems to be equally enthusiastic about name-dropping his peers as he is about describing awesome volcanoes.

It is as though he asked his social circle to provide him with a paragraph on why they became a volcanologist, a second paragraph on their research (phrased is coolest way possible), and finally a great quote like "What the Hell, Moon?" At one point Andrews and another scientist were so excited to be talking about how to make moon rocks in a lab, the passage read more like an exercise in cool linguistic description, rather than moon rocks and their significance. "We're making lunar lasagna." But it is not just the chapter on the moon. Consider this description of Tharsis on Mars. "It's a messy magmatic cake, built by countless eruptions onto and into the Martian crust. Thousands of volcanoes sprinkled on atop a rocky rise, are somewhat buried by a generous pouring of lava icing. Like decorative figurines, several huge shield volcanoes, including the Tharsis Montes trio, adorn the uppermost icing layer. Undoubtedly, Mars' volcanic masterpiece, it would triumph in the Great Cosmis Bake-Off" (p. 179).

I suspect the alien volcanoes chapters are more interesting because readers are not burdened by the fluff of hiking up Mount Doom on Io that would occupy way too much space if it was on Earth. There are a lot more guesses about the volcanoes in the solar system. Andrews informs readers that ice volcanoes are a hotly contested concept. He includes them because they are the coolest explanation for the volcano-like structures on the ice planets. And the cool observations about Tharsis toppling the planet Mars on its side, or the tidal affect that Jupiter has on Io results in the entire crust behaving like an ocean - raising a partly magmatic crust hundreds of feet, and tumbling it back down to keep the heat necessary for volcanic activity (and a source of life), are cool explanations.

Overall, the content is fascinating. The author makes the science far more accessible to lay audiences than is otherwise available. He reveals truly amazing science to his readers. But there is a lot of fluff and far too much...surfer talk that distracts way too much from the substance of the book. I removed 1-2 stars from my rating because it. Crucial details are either omitted or glossed over so that they are lost even though readers need that extra knowledge. Read the book if you are slightly interested in volcanoes. It has great material. Getting past the Earthen chapters can be a slog; but they do get better.

[Magdalena Hai · Rating 5 out of 5]

Informative, entertaining and at times even delightfully funny book about super volcanoes on Earth and other planets and moons in our solar system.

Mainio populääritietokirja supertulivuorista Maassa ja muualla aurinkokunnassa. Kirjoitettu informatiivisesti, mutta silti niin hauskasti ja kevyesti, että lukeminen oli nautinto. Eurooppalaisena lähinnä kompastelin tekstin feeteihin, mileseihin, fahrenheiteihin... Huoh. Kunpa tiedetekstit kirjoitettaisiin aina niin, että olisi vaikka suluissa myös metrit, kilometrit ja celsius-asteet. Nyt piti joko googlata tai arvioida vähän sinnepäin, miten iso mikäkin kuvattu asia on. Mutta tällaista tää on. Suosittelen lämpimästi kaikille tulivuorista kiinnostuneille!

[Mehtap exotiquetv · Rating 3 out of 5]

Supervulkane werden immer als das Ende der Menschheit gesehen und Mythen darüber verbreitet. Wird Yellowstone bald ausbrechen und uns alle vernichten? Der Autor relativiert diese Ansichten und Vorurteile, die man gegen Vulkane hegt.
Im zweiten Teil des Buches, erklärt er welche Rolle Vulkane auf dem Mars, der Venus und der Ia gespielt haben und wie sie sogar die Neigung der Planetenachsen provoziert haben könnten.

[Aimi Tedresalu · Rating 4 out of 5]

Kui pealkirjast lähtuda, siis mulle see kaugete maailmade vulkaanide osa meeldis oluliselt rohkem. Maa peal purskajatest ja podistajatest on ikka ühtteist kuuldud, teistele planeetidele potsatades aga sain oluliselt rohkem uut ja huvitavat teada. Samuti oli põnev veealuse maailma osa. Lisaks meeldis autori tõdemus, et kui vulkanoloogia teadusena igavavõitu tunduma hakkab, siis saab ju hakata teadusajakirjanikuks ja seda teemat ka laiemale üldsusele valgustada. Igal juhul on see raamat huvitav ja lugejatele põnevaks kirjutatud sissevaade tulemägede maailma.

[LeastTorque · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well done tour of volcanoes near and far. I learned much in spite of already knowing quite a lot.

[Hadley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Came for the Yellowstone, stayed for the space.

[Maria · Rating 4 out of 5]

I learned so much from this book. This is filled with facts and makes an excellent reference book on anything to do with volcanoes. I particularly liked the sections about the moon and Mars, and was a little taken aback when I realized I have never questioned where the moon came from, which this book (and probably tons of people way smarter than me) does. It wasn’t necessarily about supervolcanoes, but there is extensive information about Yellowstone which was fascinating (and reassuring since they don’t believe it will erupt anytime soon). So much science that was explained well enough that I could keep up. Very enjoyable read.

[Pat · Rating 4 out of 5]

Got a bit too detailed for me but a great reference.