Mountains of Fire

“Oppenheimer has spent 13 seasons–cumulatively an entire year of his life–living near the summit of Mount Erebus. In Mountains of Fire he regales readers with gripping stories of his travels, as well as those of adventurers past. He does not just describe what the volcanoes look like, but how they feel and what they mean to the people who encounter them… . Mountains of Fire is a love letter to volcanoes and an investigation into all the ways that they have and continue to sustain humanity–spiritually and scientifically.”– “The Economist”
“Beautiful. Mountains of Fire is bursting with poetry, with storytelling. Clive is one of the rarest of men driven by nomadism, courage, and curiosity. What he studies, volcanic eruptions, are in the rank of things that are mighty, grave, and great.”– “Werner Herzog, film director and producer”
“Witty, precise, evocative–Clive Oppenheimer is a beautiful writer and spectacular scholar. He guides us safely through the smelly, noisy blast furnaces of volcanic craters and lava flows. Mountains of Fire tells the story of a volcano doctor who measures the temperature and chemical compounds in volcanic ‘breath’ while recounting the history, adventures, and spirituality surrounding these wonders of the world.”– “Terry Plank, Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, Columbia University”

Clive Oppenheimer is a volcanologist and filmmaker who has conducted fieldwork around the world. He is professor of volcanology at the University of Cambridge. He is the author of Eruptions That Shook the World, and he has made two documentary features with Werner Herzog, Into the Inferno and Fireball: Visitors from Darker Worlds.

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