IN 1993, volcanologist Dr. Stanley Williams was standing inside Galeras, an active volcano located in Colombia, South America (Figure 1.1). Steam was rising around him, and gases were escaping from nearby fumeroles. He had tested the gases and heat from the volcano earlier, and had determined that it was safe to go inside the volcano.

Volcanoes are the most violent surface expression of the Earth's internal energy. Only impacts of large extra-terrestrial bodies can match the explosive release and devastation of the largest volcanoes. Indeed for some of the most dramatic events the Earth has seen - the large terrestrial extinctions of animal life - the jury is still out as to whether they were brought about by meteoritic impact or by wide-scale effects of volcanic activity. Volcanoes have it too when it comes to sustained visual impact. Earthquakes, tsunamis and avalanches all cause massive devastation, but it is accomplished in the blink of an eye, and floods rise with a progressive and depressing inevitability. Volcanoes are simply the most spectacular of the destructive natural hazards to life on Earth. <...>

Вулканы играют важную роль в формировании верхних оболочек Земли, ее коры, атмосферы и гидросферы. Их воздействие на среду обитания по масштабам варьирует в широких пределах. Некоторые крупнейшие извержения в геологическом прошлом приводили к глобальным катастрофам. В историческое время крупные извержения неоднократно определяли судьбы больших групп людей и даже цивилизаций. Примером может служить извержение вулкана Санторин в 1470 г. до н.э. в Средиземном море, которое привело, как полагают, к исчезновению Атлантиды и Миной-ской культуры. <...>

Volcanic eruptions have been one of the most fundamental influences on the Earth’s evolution throughout its 4.54 Ga history. Volcanic eruptions formed the Earth’s crust, were the source for the atmosphere and oceans and are arguably the basis for life on Earth. Huge eruptions have almost certainly caused climate change and influenced mass extinction events.

Across the face of the central Pacific Ocean, 3,000 kilometers from the nearest continent and 800 kilometers from any other land, lies the row of islands known as the Hawaiian Archipelago. From Kure Island at the northwest, the archipelago forms a southeast-trending line of islands 2,400 kilometers long (fig. 1.1).

Отчего возникают землетрясения и извержения вулканов, чем вызываются громадные волны цунами? Может ли наука предсказать наступление этих грозных явлений природы и как от них уберечься?

Автор этой ярко иллюстрированной книги просто и понятно отвечает на поставленные вопросы

В книге систематизирован материал об основных геолого-промышленных медно-порфировых, жильных, скарновых и смешанных типах месторождений медных и полиметаллических руд в вулканогенно-интрузивных поясах. Рассматриваются типовые обстановки нахождения месторождений, условия ведения их поисков, методы их выявления.

It was a total disaster: tens of millions of yards of lava flowed down the volcano’s lower slopes and into the city of Goma in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. In January of 2002, fissures opened along the southern flanks of Nyiragongo volcano, draining a lava lake and unleashing the massive lava flow. After damaging 14 villages on the volcano’s slopes, lava flowed down Goma’s broad main street; commercial buildings served as the molten river’s banks as it moved at a walking pace. Within hours, lava flows reached the airport, covered most of the runway, and severely disrupted the ongoing United Nations relief effort for war refugees from Rwanda. <...>

Transdisciplinary approach of science appeared in recent years, partially as a result of the urgent need to deal with global and planetary changes [1–12]. Transdisciplinary science is to answer and solve environmental science questions and problems became the foundation of sustainable development, nature conservation and various environmental science education including geoeducation [13–17].