Island on Fire: The Extraordinary Story of a Forgotten Volcano That Changed the World

 Island on Fire: The Extraordinary Story of a Forgotten Volcano That Changed the World by Alexandra Witze and Jeff Kanipe is the story of Laki, the massive Icelandic volcano whose 1783 eruption plunged Europe - and possibly the wider world - into the dark (and subsequently the cold). In Iceland they died of the direct of effects of a poisoned environment; in western Europe of the prolonged effects of breathing in an unrelenting poisonous fog; further afield - as far as the Nile - of the effects of climate change wrought by this massive explosion.

Using the meticulous records of one Jón Steingrímsson, Witze and Kanipe reconstruct the terrifying days following the eruption of Laki. However, Island on Fire is more than the simple retelling of what happened to Iceland in 1783. It is a treatise on volcanology, from plate tectonics and magma build-up to detailed explanations on the scale and after-effects of eruptions from Mount Vesuvius (the one that buried Pompeii) and Krakatau (the Indonesian volcano whose eruption and final collapse could be heard as far as Singapore) to Mount Pelée (the Caribbean monster who erupted with devastating force in 1902) and Mount St. Helens. Even better, Witze and Kanipe bring the study of ice cores, atmospheric conditions, magma formation, lava flows, and killer gases emitted by underwater volcanoes to a level that laypeople can easily comprehend.

That said, I felt the title of this book didn't really do it justice. I read Island on Fire for two reasons. I'm getting ready to run a program in Iceland and I'm trying to read widely of the country before this happens. I came away with relatively little knowledge about Iceland, but a tremendous amount of knowledge about volcanoes in general. I would guess that roughly 50 percent of the book deals with Iceland directly, and perhaps 70-80 percent of that is about the Laki eruption. This isn't a complaint and shouldn't be an issue for most readers (ardent researchers of Laki aside), but it is something to note.

The bottom line: calling all science geeks, and those with a healthy appetite for science reading. On the other hand, if plate tectonics bores you, it would be best to find another book.