Volcano books

This summer with all its rainy weather has allowed me the time to read two books about volcanic eruptions. One fictional novel ‘Eldarnir – Ástin og aðrar hamfarir’ by Sigríður Hagalín Björnsdóttir from Iceland, and one biography ‘Surviving Galeras’ by the American volcanologist Stanley Williams. Both of them very educational and highly recommendable! Sigríður Hagalín Björnsdóttir’s book has recently been translated into Danish (Ilden) and that’s the version I have been reading (see photo below). The author has done her research well and describes very correctly the working environment for volcanologists in Iceland. Interestingly, the novel deals with volcanic eruptions on the Reykjanes peninsula close to the international airport Keflavik and the capital Reykjavík and the dramatic consequences they have for the people inhabiting that densely populated area of Iceland. The book was written before the onset of the current eruptions on Reykjanes. Thus, quite spooky she managed to write a novel that’s not far from the real scenario in Iceland. The other book about the Colombian volcano Galeras was lent to me by volcanologist Michelle Parks at the Icelandic Meteorological Office (IMO) after we had been working together on Icelandic volcano Askja last summer. A volcano that shows clear signs of inflation meaning magma flowing in, and we were discussing the risks of an eruption while working in the field around Askja. The last thing you want to mimic is the tragic accident at Galeras in 1993, where six volcanologists and three civilians lost their life when the volcano suddenly erupted during a volcanic excursion into the crater. Stanley Williams and his co-author does an excellent job at describing the accident itself and its dire consequences, but also provides a thorough description of all major historical eruptions like Vesuvius 79 A.D., Mount St Helens, Pinatubo, Tambora, and Unzen that killed 43 people including the charismatic couple Maurice and Katia Krafft.