Adventures in Volcanoland

A powerful new voice erupts onto the scene of popular science. Mather is the perfect guide to take you on a journey through time and place to explore the fascinating science of volcanoes. Bubbling with a wonderful combination of personal insights and intriguing science * Marcus du Sautoy, author of Around the World in 80 Games *A collision of high adventure and vital science. You cannot find a more inspiring introduction to nature’s most awesome power. Written with beauty, wit and clarity by one of the world’s most brilliant Earth scientists, it puts volcanoes centre stage in the eternal drama of geology, climate and life * Professor Clive Oppenheimer *Adventures in Volcanoland is a real treasure, a fascinating, beautiful book on volcanology that is also the story of Mather’s fascination with volcanoes and her own globe-trotting career on the front lines of scientific enquiry. Reading it feels like an adventure; it moves fearlessly across scales that range from the molecular to the celestial, and spans both intellectual history and cutting-edge scientific enquiry. Danger, sublimity, devastation and rebirth course through its pages, and Mather is a glorious guide to this extraordinary subject. She shows us the joys and trials of fieldwork, teaches us to read the secret meanings of volcanic landscapes, and gifts us with new understanding of the power of volcanoes to shape both the physical world and the inner world of our imagination * Helen Macdonald, author of H is for Hawk *Mather combines a personal story with an era-spanning scope, turning esoteric information into a colorful, engaging account * Kirkus *A magical scientific exploration of volcanoes, and how they’ve shaped both nature and human destiny… This detailed, impeccably researched study hints at the kind of divine intervention we may soon need * Guardian *[Mather’s] eloquent and enchanting book, which is rich in analogies and anecdotes, weaves together geological, historical and personal stories to explain how volcanoes work, how they have shaped our planet and how they have been understood through history * Nature *Readers will easily imagine they are along for the ride in this crucial contribution to the geology of volcanoes… This marvelous, earnest work is impressive * Library Journal *Tamsin Mather has a lovely style, making the mechanics of volcanology easy to visualize, while her prose has real finesse. Fascinating * Irish Sunday Independent *Mather effortlessly integrates science and technology, geological and social history, harrowing scenes of skin-rippling heat and flying boulders, and thoughtful analysis of where our planet has been and where it may be going * Booklist *

Tamsin Mather MAE is a British Professor of Earth Sciences at the Department of Earth Sciences, University of Oxford and a Fellow of University College, Oxford.