Simon Winchester, New York Times bestselling author of The Professor and the Madman, examines the legendary annihilation in 1883 of the volcano-island of Krakatoa, which was followed by an immense tsunami that killed nearly forty thousand people. The effects of the immense waves were felt as far away as France. Barometers in Bogotá and Washington, D.C., went haywire. Bodies were washed up in Zanzibar. The sound of the island's destruction was heard in Australia and India and on islands thousands of miles away. Most significant of all -- in view of today's new political climate -- the eruption helped to trigger in Java a wave of murderous anti-Western militancy among fundamentalist Muslims, one of the first outbreaks of Islamic-inspired killings anywhere. Krakatoa gives us an entirely new perspective on this fascinating and iconic event. This P.S. edition features an extra 16 pages of insights into the book, including author interviews, recommended reading, and more.

Documents the human experience of the cataclysmic late-18th-century eruption of Iceland's largest volcano to illuminate how its fallout of disease, famine and revolution changed the course of history. 10,000 first printing.

A history of exploration beneath the surface of our planet, a remarkable voyage of scientific discovery over the past 150 years.

By the world-renowned seismologist, a riveting history of natural disasters, their impact on our culture, and new ways of thinking about the ones to come Earthquakes, floods, tsunamis, hurricanes, volcanoes--they stem from the same forces that give our planet life. Earthquakes give us natural springs; volcanoes produce fertile soil. It is only when these forces exceed our ability to withstand them that they become disasters. Together they have shaped our cities and their architecture; elevated leaders and toppled governments; influenced the way we think, feel, fight, unite, and pray. The history of natural disasters is a history of ourselves. In The Big Ones, leading seismologist Dr. Lucy Jones offers a bracing look at some of the world's greatest natural disasters, whose reverberations we continue to feel today. At Pompeii, Jones explores how a volcanic eruption in the first century AD challenged prevailing views of religion. She examines the California floods of 1862 and the limits of human memory. And she probes more recent events--such as the Indian Ocean tsunami of 2004 and the American hurricanes of 2017--to illustrate the potential for globalization to humanize and heal. With population in hazardous regions growing and temperatures around the world rising, the impacts of natural disasters are greater than ever before. The Big Ones is more than just a work of history or science; it is a call to action. Natural hazards are inevitable; human catastrophes are not. With this energizing and exhaustively researched book, Dr. Jones offers a look at our past, readying us to face down the Big Ones in our future.

An account of the cataclysmic mid-eighteenth-century earthquake also discusses how its related tidal waves, fires, and aftershocks rocked the western world, prompting intellectual debates about the natural world and God's place in human affairs as theorized by such Enlightenment figures as Voltaire, Alexander Pope, and Jean-Jacques Rousseau. 30,000 first printing.

In Catastrophobia Barbara Hand Clow shows that a series of cataclysmic disasters 11,500 years ago rocked the world and left humanity's collective psyche chronically scarred. This unprocessed fear is responsible for our constant expectations of apocalypse, from Y2K to the famed end of the Mayan calendar in 2012. But according to the author there is every indication that the changes in consciousness over the last 30 years are the beginnings of a collective healing from these deep fears.

Everything you need to know about the framework of the body - our bones! Bone is one of the most extraordinary materials in the natural world; flexible, strong, and available in a number of types and densities. Yet we can only absorb quite how amazing it is when we look at the range of different jobs it can do, from supporting a huge and heavy mammal like an elephant, to enabling a bat to fly. It can even teach us about the past! Scientists have gathered all the information they know about the dinosaurs and their dependents from their fossilized bones, extraordinary reminders of the way our world used to be. Skeletons covers everything you need to know about bones! Beautifully illustrated with the engravings of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, learn all about the skeleton and the variety of actions it preforms to enable an animal to survive. Then, go deeper and see how skeletons have evolved over time. They can even adapt to different climates to help animals survive! You'll also find complete directory of skeletons with its own box of key facts and statistics. It's scientific eye candy!

Blending history and geology, this narrative examines the influence of early surroundings on a geologist's choice of field and specialty and vividly describes the terrain of the Wyoming plains

A vivid exploration of the mysteries of the deep Earth profiles the latest discoveries and what they reveal about the planet's history, sharing engaging coverage of such topics as the disciplines of seismology, the planet's vast subterranean subcontinents and the connection between surface conditions and core phenomena.