Volcanoes in the Sea: The Geology of Hawaii

by Gordon Andrew MacDonald

Well written and superbly illustrated, this work includes chapters on tectonic plates, volcanoes, erosion by water and wind, the ocean, ice and glaciers, earthquakes and tsunamis.

Genres: Geology, Science, Nonfiction, Stem

544 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1970

Reviews

[Paul · Rating 5 out of 5]

I mean, it's the book that made me a geologist, so obviously it left an incredible impression on me. I love the in-depth descriptions of historical eruptions and particularly the chapters on the regional geology of each island and volcano. It's the storytelling that sold me on geology, I guess. I really love chemistry... REALLY love chemistry... and so once in the geosciences I gravitated to mineralogy, petrology, and geochemistry, but I wanted those stories to be the structure of why I studied and worked on what I did.

The first edition was written just as plate tectonics was getting settled, primarily by an elder statesman who had done his core work prior to that time, and a lot of that survived into the second edition. Pu'u O'o had just gotten started when the second edition came out, and of course there's been a metric shit ton of other work since then as well. This book badly needs either a third edition or someone to write a new book to address the same themes. If that has already been done, leave a comment with the title / author / isbn...