Customer Reviews

Super Volcano: The Ticking Time Bomb Beneath Yellowstone National Park

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Review by Rik Lantz, R.G. on Ann Logue's Amazon account: This was a very interesting book and a nice, thorough discussion of hot spot volcanism. The book gave me a good appreciation that the hot spot that created the Snake River Basalt flows and Yellowstone is still down there cooking away and could cause another major volcanic event with profound consequences for the area, North America, and the world.

Mr. Breining does a nice job of describing some complex phenomena in plain English and making them accessible to the layman. I thought he did a very good job of describing what happens during an eruption and the hazards of ash falls and climate alteration in addition to the more immediately obvious effects of pyroclastic eruptions and lava flows. I felt that he didn't do as good a job of describing why these hot spots would remain stationary in the mantle, which by all accounts is moving around as much as the crust, but perhaps that's because it's not very well understood in the first place. Explanations of other phenomena were direct, concise, and understandable, but the discussion of hot spots stood out to me because it was not very cogent or convincing in comparison. I would have liked to see him explore the link between volcanism and climate more thoroughly.

I enjoyed his description of the Ashfall Fossil Beds in Nebraska, and how they demonstrate that volcanic events can have far-reaching consequences for animals half a continent away. The description of how fine ash affects a faunal assemblage and helps explain the sequence in which they die, and thus which ones are on top, was fascinating. I'm going to have to stop and check the place out next time I drive through Nebraska.

In summary, this a very readable overview of volcanism in general and how it relates to the geology of Yellowstone in particular, with a lot of good information about the significant eruptions during recorded history thrown in for good measure. The title ("ticking time bob"!) is a bit alarmist, but it's a good read and sober assessment of the risks of future volcanism at Yellowstone.

Super Volcano
The Ticking Bomb Beneath Yellowstone National Park

If you know nothing about volcanoes, plate tectonics, or geologic history, then this book is a reasonable, basic, and accessible introduction. The author leans toward verbosity and is a bit florid, but not excessively so. But if you are interested in the geology of Yellowstone Park then there are better places to look.

The sub-title is "The Ticking Time Bomb Beneath Yellowstone National Park". This is why I bought this book and why I was disappointed. Only one chapter (less than 25%) deals with the relevant geology and that at a very low level. One chapter concentrates on the human history of Yellowstone where the geology is incidental. There is an overlong chapter on the history of plate tectonics and the rest of the book, by far the majority, is simply a catalog of volcanic eruptions through history (and even at that he misses Novarupta, AK in 1912, the biggest of the 20th century and Mt. Etna, Sicily, in eruption since 2001). The volume of ash and magma, the number of casualties, and social affects are reported in great detail. This is not uninteresting in itself, but is hardly geology. The attitude throughout is rather 'Gee Whiz' than scientific. In fact there is very little science in the book at all. There is not a diagram of a typical volcano let alone a super volcano. There is little about the mechanism of geysers and even less on fumaroles. And, in fact, he uses a rather limited definition for 'caldera'. This makes for a nice campfire story but is not very enlightening.

On top of that the book loses a star for design. It has a plethora of the annoying insertions so prevalent in magazines; a sentence of two from the text is enclosed in a box and scattered at random throughout. These are even more distracting in a book than they are in a magazine article. They add nothing to the text, they breakup continuity and they take up space.

If you are after human history of volcanic activity then you will get it here, if a little redundant. If, like me, you are looking for a scientific explanation, or, at least, a description of Yellowstone geology it is not here.

I have no doubt that the author's travel writing is very good; he should stick to that.

If you don't know anything about geology or volcanos, fear not. This book, written by a respected Twin Cities travel author, is very well researched and written in concise, entertaining, plain talk. I am a geologist with a fascination for such things as Yellowstone, but I truely despise authors who publish papers so calcified with 25-cent words that it looks as though they consulted William F. Buckley for an editor. Thankfully, such is not the case here. Breining does all the work and you reap all the rewards easily.

I've read several well-written books about volcanism in Yellowstone National Park, and really looked forward to reading yet another one. However, I was very, very disappointed.

The reading is slow-paced, very elementary. I was expecting a slightly more scientific approach, but the author basically just quotes Doss the whole time and re-enacts the experience of the class he took in Yellowstone. The language is simple, plain and quite boring in some parts, the excerpted quotes are out of place and just kind of throw you off, since they're just randomly placed in the middle of paragraphs or pages.

If you know nothing of YNP and want just a simple, easy read, this is the book. For those wanting a more scientific read, I suggest something else. This will bore you.

The authors researched very well. It is an informative read. Educational even if you don't know geology. An easy explained look at Yellowstone, the Supervolcano that is the biggest hazard in North America. Many tourists and their children visit Yellowstone National Park to see the bears and wildlife. They haven't a clue that they are walking on the ground of a Supervolcano.

The authors take the reader on a great journey of discovery and explain the mysteries of Yellowstone. I have been to Yellowstone and saw the fumeroles and geysers, not knowing they were powered by an enormous lava chamber below. I think every citizen should read this book and learn about Yellowstone. While an eruption doesn't seem to be imminent, everyone should be aware of this enormous threat.

Sara Howard, Author of "Something Funny Happened on The Way to The Moon" and "The Biggest Explosions in The Universe".

If you are interested in volcanoes and are not a scientist, this book is for you. If you are not interested in volcanoes, after reading this you might be. A clear, concise, down to earth account of how the earth recycles itself. And, whoa, if Yellowstone belches in my lifetime, I'll be very glad I live east of the Mississippi. A very good companion to read with "Volcanoes in Human History" by Jelle Zeilinga de Boer and Donald Theodore Sanders.

Much of Yellowstone National Park is the caldera of a giant volcano that exploded 640,000 years ago. The source of magma appears to be hot spot far beneath the earth's surface, that has remained in place as the North American plate moves. The Yellowstone caldera is the latest in a string of eruptions going back 16.5 million years, which can be traced geographically to where Oregon, Nevada, and Idaho meet. The hot spot beneathYellowstone will probably erupt in the future, but no one knows when or how forcefully. The last eruption in Yellowstone was much more violent than Mount St. Helens or Krakatoa. The author is enjoyable when he focueses on Yellowstone, but spends a bit too much time on the deaths caused by other volcanic eruptions.

Boring book and was not what I expected...too technical...did not really explain what was going on with Yellow Stone.

A general overview and discussion. Insufficient depth for my purposes. Would like to have seen supportive charts and research results on previous eruptions and current events. Author mentioned ashfall in Nebraska, but offered no data other than a general discussion. No ashfall pattern or intensity. No maps of projected Lahars, pyroclastic flows, or global impact. Author mentioned that geologist are maintaining a vigil on yellowstone, but again, no supportive data. Such information, if it exists at all, will be found in non related geology papers and may require extensive research to compile it.

Although I've long been interested in volcanoes, it took me awhile to fully accept the reality of supervolcanoes. I had orginally thought that the most dangerous category of volcano was the stratovolcano which arises along coastlines in subductions zones, as a picturesque conical mountain (for instance Mt. Fuji, Mt. St. Helens before it erupted). How could a relatively flat space on the earth, such as Yellowstone or Long Valley Caldera in California, compare with my beautiful and beloved stratos? But now I understand why a supervolcano is more destructive. Greg Breining's SUPERVOLCANO: THE TICKING TIME BOMB BENEATH YELLOWSTONE, although not written by a scientist, provides a good answer. Most of the rock that is found in the center of continents is rhyolite, harder than the andesite and dacite found along coasts. So even a relatively flat area, if found inland, has can create sufficient resistence to cause an explosive volcanic eruption. And resistence to pressure is what explosive eruptions are all about. The pressure comes not only from hot magma but from chemicals which are usually gases when hot, above all water. But when under pressure in a volcano, these chemicals are not in a gaseous form. They are superheated liquid, like the liquid in a pressure cooker. When there is a sufficient build-up of them, they will blow the lid off the volcano and flash to steam, expanding 1000 times in the process, and thus creating an explosive eruption.

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