Melting the Earth: The History of Ideas on Volcanic Eruptions

By Haraldur Sigurdsson
First Draft By Matt Lindsey
Geo 103

The book I chose to read was "Melting the Earth" by Haraldur Sigurdsson. This book covers two of my most favorite subjects History and geology, which made this book even more interesting to read. Early Sigurdsson writes on subjects from, the Polynesian people and there fire myth Maui, who lives in the far depths of the earth, and when he turns while dreaming. He causes earthquakes on the earth above to the discovery of radiology. If you want to read a captivating and educational book about the history of volcanoes containing a wide variety of historical an mythical facts, I truly recommend this book.

In the beginning of this book, Sigurdsson explains early source of fire, some possible ways it was first introduced and used throughout the years to come. An excellent example was 600,000 year old ovens in china to burnt clay found in Africa that dated a staggering 1.5 million years old. Once the early homo-erectus learned of fire there culture changed forever, now they were able to heat and shape rocks more efficiently. But the earliest know form of tools made by homo-erectus was 2.5 million years ago in eastern Africa, made of obsidian (volcanic black glass). Later in this book, Sigurdsson touches on such people as, Kelvin, Zeus other Greek gods, Homer, Socrates, Plato. Then he moves on to discus the bible, and many more verities of philosophers and legends in several different cultures from around the world. World tragedies and accounts of mass destruction are accounted throughout this book, from risky sulfur mining in very active volcanoes to earthquakes that kill 800,000 people, with one major eruption.

About 3/4ths the way through the book he starts delegating a lot about the sources of volcanoes and the cause for there mass eruptions, he also discusses many different geologists that have also studied in this area, comparing both his ideas and theirs to form an overall complete analysis of the history of volcanoes.

It isn't till the last part of the book, he actually starts describing the earth and its mantel strictly on plate tectonics and magma generation. With the discovery of the solid mantel below our feet. In the very last page, he also talks about how major volcanic activity is not limited to earth alone, in fact many planets have had explosions almost 10 times what we do today. Leaving the everlasting question, is there life elsewhere in the galaxy?

I thought this was a very good book, mainly the fact that it was able to keep your attention throughout the whole thing, by bringing up myths from the pacific islands to actual catastrophes, from the first know use of fire to radio carbon of today, this book hits you with just about everything from every angle you could possibly imagine, from the philosophers point of view to the geologists findings through many long tedious expeditions.

Something's I really did not like about this book, was that he made constant reference to others work, and many books surrounding this field, though the points made with Sigurdsson references were helpful it was just that in my opinion he had to many and made it a little hard to fallow.

Overall I think this was a good book. I recommend that if you are interested in volcanoes and the earth around us, you should definitely read this book. The good out weights the bad aspects in this book, you will be in for a great treat as you read about the myths and legends of the past world to the facts and seemingly strange properties of the world today.
March 12, 2003

I also have a couple of nits to pick that I would have expected the editors at Oxford University Press to catch before the book reached print.

(1) Early in the book, Homer and Ulysses are referred to in a sequence of two sentences which suggests that Ulysses was a character in Homer's work, which he wasn't. Ulysses stars in Virgil's Latin epic "The Aeneid", which borrows heavily from Homer's Greek epic "The Odyssey", starring Odysseus. So the discerning reader is left not knowing whether the subsequent quotation is from Homer's Odyssey or from Virgil's Aeneid.

(2) Early in the book, the assassination of Julius Caesar is referred to as the death of the Romans' emperor. But Julius Caesar was never emperor. He was assassinated to prevent him from becoming king. His adopted son Octavian invented the title of emperor ("imperator" = commander) years later--specifically to avoid offending the Romans' aversion to kings--when he had defeated his own rivals and had assumed absolute power in Rome as Caesar Augustus.

(3) The conversion from a temperature _difference_ of 3 Celsius degrees into a temperature _difference_ of 37.5 Fahrenheit degrees is completely wrong. It incorrectly includes the 32-Fahrenheit-degree offset for the freezing temperature of water (32F = 0 C), which isn't involved at all in a temperature-difference conversion. The correct conversion is to a temperature difference of 5.5 Fahrenheit degrees. The conversion of a Celsius temperature _level_ to a Fahrenheit temperature _level_ on the same page is done correctly, however. I suspect that the erroneous conversion was done by a literary editor who wasn't as familiar with temperature scales as I am sure the author must be.

But these are minor (though annoying) editorial flaws in a well-written, enlightening book. I recommend it highly.

Now, if I can just get my hands on pages 197-228 somewhere...

.-)
August 08, 2001

Cecile Comp, Caribbean volcanic island native
June 04, 2000

Dr. Sigurdsson has compiled a true treasure a preeminent source book on the history of volcanic theory make for provocative reading, causing, awe and respect for this fearsome force of nature. Led by Dr. Sigurdsson's love of the subject and his apt narrative style, we come away educated, entertained, and hungry for more.
June 16, 1999