"Witness the power of our restless planet to both create and destroy. Watch red-hot lava flow from an erupting volcano, see how earthquakes create tsunamis, and meet scientists past and present who have helped us understand our turbulent world."--

Richard V. Fisher is Professor Emeritus of Geological Sciences at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Grant Heiken, a volcanologist at the Los Alamos National Laboratory, teaches courses in volcanology at the University of New Mexico. Jeffrey B. Hulen is a research geologist at the Energy and Geoscience Institute of the University of Utah. Whenever a volcano threatens to erupt, scientists and adventurers from around the world flock to the...

Volcanoes are a scary, catastrophic phenomenon that creates mass destruction as far as its deadly lava can reach, right? Not quite . . . Elizabeth Rusch explores volcanoes in their entirety, explaining how they're not all as bad as they're made out to be. Using examples of real volcanoes from around the world, Rusch explains how some volcanoes create new land, mountains, and islands where none existed before, and how the ash helps farmers fertilize...

Introduces kids to plate tectonics and the tumultuous forces brewing beneath the Earth's surface that result in massive volcanoes and earth-shattering earthquakes. Includes over 100 photos and pictures, field notes, quizzes, and an interactive glossary --

Despite growing evidence of geothermic activity under America's first and foremost national park, it took geologists a long time to realize that there was actually a volcano beneath Yellowstone. And then, why couldn't they find the caldera or crater? Because, as an aerial photograph finally revealed, the caldera is 45 miles wide, encompassing all of Yellowstone. What will happen, in human terms, when it erupts? Greg Breining explores the shocking...

Explains, in simple terms, the characteristics of volcanoes and describes some famous eruptions and their aftermath.