Volcano Cowboys: The Rocky Evolution of a Dangerous Science [Hardcover]

Dick Thompson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 14, 2000 | ISBN-10: 0312208812 | ISBN-13: 978-0312208813 | Edition: 1st

Twenty years ago, Mt. St. Helens, in Washington State, "blew." It was the volcano's first eruption in recorded time, although as early as 1978 a team of scientists from the US Geological Survey had labeled it "the most dangerous volcano in the Cascade Range." In June 1991, Mt. Pinatubo in the Philippines spewed forth its own mix of ash, gases, mud, lava, and all the other debris that had been building within the mountain for centuries.

Between those two events, USGS scientists had been working at warp speed to learn more about predicting violent eruptions. Data from the nation's only Volcano Center was not helpful. Work there centered on volcanoes that responded to interior pressure by quietly releasing a slow-moving flow of lava, rather than spewing its entrails out in a blast.

Survey members were presented with a rare opportunity when Mt. St. Helens showed signs of activity. Camped on the mountains flanks, daring the crater itself, they dug out rocks, tended recorders, began to learn how to use newly developed instruments. Here was an active volcano, believed to be on the verge of eruption by some, if not all, experts. Along with new instruments they had computer programs that saved them days and weeks of work. They learned techniques that revealed the dates of previous major eruptions and provided patterns for future predictions. After the eruption, studying Mt. St. Helens and other volcanoes, they learned more and more. By the time a newly-active Pinatubo threatened tens of thousands of villagers and the U.S. military's Clark Air Force Base, the men of the USGS were far better able to feel secure in urging local authorities and the Air Force brass to evacuate. It was still a gamble, but the odds were far better. And the work goes on.

Thompson, a veteran science reporter for Time Magazine, spent many hours with the relative handful of scientists whom he calls "volcano cowboys." (Considering their lifestyle and their rugged "laboratories" - the volcanoes themselves -- the sobriquet is earned.) They have loaned him their field notes, and one geologist gave him his as yet unpublished autobiography. The vivid material and Thompson's skill in bringing a good story to life has resulted in a book that celebrates these "cowboys" their tough and hazardous lives and the often harrowing decisions they must make.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Vulcanology is not the sexiest of sciences, despite Hollywood movies in which clenched-jawed heroes tame ferocious floods of lava that are busily swallowing up some crowded metropolis or another, racing against the clock to save humankind from the elements. It turns out that those movies aren't really so far-fetched, though, and in the pages of Volcano Cowboys the world's small corps of magma hunters acquire well-deserved élan.

The study of volcanoes, Time magazine writer Dick Thompson notes, is largely an observational and not theoretical science; where the vital memory of a molecular biologist "generally drops off after a decade," a vulcanologist will carry reams of data about the behavior of the earth gleaned from reports stretching back to the time of Plato and Pliny the Elder, those amateur volcano-watchers of antiquity. They've had plenty more to do in recent years, though, than to quote the ancients. Thompson's vigorous narrative begins with the eruption of Mount St. Helens on May 18, 1980, an event that U.S. Geological Survey scientists had been able to predict with some accuracy. They lacked, however, a coordinated means to effect an evacuation of the area, and 57 people died. Battling institutional inertia and struggling for funding, teams of these scientists, the "volcano cowboys" of Thompson's title, set about trying to develop methods to predict more accurately dangerous volcanic events and to trim the body count when such events took place. His story recounts their eventual victory when, in 1991, the Philippine volcano Pinatubo exploded--but, thanks to the work of these dedicated field scientists, "less than one quarter of one percent of those at risk had died during the eruption."

Tens of millions of people around the world live within the reach of volcanoes. Thompson's narrative reveals that the "volcano cowboys" have made their lives safer--and it's much better than the movies. --Gregory McNamee

From Publishers Weekly

The day before Mt. St. Helens erupted in 1980, releasing "the largest landslide in human history," U.S. Geological Survey scientists had no inkling that the volcano was close to blowing outAeven though a network of high-tech instruments girdled the mountain, monitoring its vital signs. The heated debate among survey scientists over what the volcano would do next after the first rumblings was kept hidden from the public, as Time staff writer Thompson reveals. Fifty-seven people were killed, and the cataclysm devastated a 230-square-mile area. Unlike other volcano books, this engrossing field report offers an unusually candid look at the learning curve men and women travel as they practice the messy, ego-driven, error-riddled pursuit called science. Happily, reports Thompson, volcanology made significant strides between the Mt. St. Helens disaster and the 1991 explosion of Mt. Pinatubo in the Philippines. Although Pinatubo killed more than 200 people (mostly from roof collapses), 80,000 lives were saved thanks to an evacuation. Volcanology is a tricky science because volcanoes blow their stacks infrequently, and one volcano may erupt in a style completely different from a neighboring volcano. Figuring out these molten dynamicsAin cataclysms from Indonesia to ColombiaAare daredevil scientists whom Thompson dubs "volcano cowboys." They perch their outdoor labs on smoldering peaks, often risking their lives to get gas samples from fuming vents. Among the cowboys are Harry Glicken, an eccentric itinerant volcano-landslide expert killed in a Japanese eruption in 1991, and seismologist/ex-Vietnam marine Dave Harlow, the "Indiana Jones of volcanology." Decked out with remarkable photographs, this solid report captures the human drama of a dangerous science. Agent, Kris Dahl. (Aug.)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 336 pages
• Publisher: Thomas Dunne Books; 1st edition (July 14, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312208812
• ISBN-13: 978-0312208813
• Product Dimensions: 9.7 x 6.3 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,315,272 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #96 in Books > Professional & Technical > Professional Science > Earth Sciences > Geology > Volcanology

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

29 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A pretty good book, November 1, 2000

By 

wendell duffield (Flagstaff, AZ) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Volcano Cowboys: The Rocky Evolution of a Dangerous Science (Hardcover)

It's easy to like a book when virtually all the characters are friends and professional colleagues. And it's equally easy to enjoy a story that recaps significant parts of your own satisfying career. So, as a (recently retired)32-year career volcanologist with the U.S. Geological Survey ... who spent three years on the staff of the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory and who was later involved to varying degrees with the eruptions of Mount St. Helens in 1980, El Chichon in 1982 and Mount Pinatubo in 1991 ... I enjoyed reading Dick Thompson's "Volcano Cowboys."

My degree of enjoyment was muted, though, by Thompson's over emphasis on discord and disagreement within the cadre of USGS volcanologists. In my experience, cooperation and agreement dominated. I think I made this feeling clear when Thompson interviewed me. However, I remember his questions tending to be phrased in such a way that almost any answer would bolster the notion of internal USGS discord, between his "Musketeers and Stratigraphers" and between his "Coneheads and Meatheads". My impression was then, and is now, having read the book, that Thompson's mind was made up before he talked with me. Of course, if there aren't SOME disagreements during a group scientific endeavor, the scientists aren't doing their jobs. Whether such wrangling is the rule, rather than the exception, is a call difficult to make by an outside party.

It's often said that sex and violence are what sell books. Perhaps the pursuit of this notion helped shape this book's story emphasis? Incidentally, speaking of sex, the book almost completely ignores female scientists who have made significant contributions to USGS volcano studies. Terry Keith, Maggie Mangan and Tina Neal come quickly to mind.

Here's another reason for my muted enjoyment. Thompson repeatedly marginalizes and denigrates the value of studying Hawaiian volcanoes as training for understanding the more-violent types, such as Mount St. Helens and Pinatubo. In fact, near the end of the book, he pooh poohs the idea that such training is valuable. No one would disagree that composite volcanoes and Hawaiian shield volcanoes differ in many ways. It may be equally important to remember, though, that every volcano is unique in ways that make broad generalizations virtually useless, even perhaps dangerous. Training at a Mount St. Helens, rather than at HVO, is not necessarily a better way to prepare for understanding the behavior of a Pinatubo, and vice versa.

An important consideration in trying to learn about volcano behavior, one not pointed out in the book, is the frequency with which the different types of volcanoes erupt. Composite volcanoes, like Mount St. Helens and Pinatubo, tend to erupt with repeat times of hundreds of years. Most of the dormant interval is quiet time, with little if any volcano unrest. When they do come back to life, composite volcanoes seem to give volcanologists a few weeks or months of lead time to gather information that can help with forecasting eruption. In stark contrast, a Hawaiian type of volcano tends to erupt with repeat times of only a few years, and provides lots of scientific information about its behavior in the interim. Imagine the folly and futility of establishing a volcano observatory at a composite volcano and then having to wait through multiple human generations before having even one eruption to study! A volcano SWAT team is great for helping to address short-fused needs. But only long-term systematic studies at one volcano (or more, if necessary resources are available) hold much promise of making breakthroughs in a more generic understanding of these powerful outlets for Earth's internal energy.

The book's shortcomings notwithstanding, I recommend it to anyone interested in volcanoes and their eruptions. It has much to offer, in understandable and engaging language, about the complex workings of volcanoes and of human societies that complicate the mission of those "volcano cowboys", who are just trying to round up enough information to make life a bit safer for us all.

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Really a Winner, August 6, 2000

By 

Mark K. Mcdonough "Mark McDonough" (Reston, VA USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Volcano Cowboys: The Rocky Evolution of a Dangerous Science (Hardcover)

This is a first-rate book -- interesting subject matter, exciting tales well told, and an extremely well-informed easy-to-grasp look at modern volcanology.

The book follows the adventures of a dozen or so United States Geological Survey geologists (the "volcano cowboys") from the late 1970s through the early 1990s, focusing on two major episodes -- the Mt. St. Helens eruption of 1980 and the eruption of Mt. Pinatubo in 1991.

Mr. Thomspon, a long-time science correspondent for Time Magazine, has really done it right. The stories and travails of the researchers are related in an interesting and intimate manner, but never mined for soap opera or cheap drama. The power of volcanic eruptions is made vividly clear (I've been a lifelong geo buff, but I had no idea). And Mr. Thompson has a particuar flair for explaining complete scientific matters with such grace and economy that you hardly notice that you're absorbing technical material. He knows precisely how much detail to leave out for the general audience -- his perfect two-sentence description of why geologist study road cuts (bottom of page 294) should be studied by every science writer.

This is not a book that will satisfy someone looking for extremely fine-grained detail on volcanology, but presumably if you are looking for information on mathematical modelling of particle-size interaction in pyroclastic flows, you'll go to the scientific literature. As someone who knows a fair amount about geology, but didn't know much about volcanoes, I was entirely satisfied. My only gripe -- I would have loved a list of further reading & resources. This book left me hungry for more info!

I also thought it had just enough info on the political context of volcanology -- the explanation of how and why the USGS fouled up an attempt at eruption prediction near Mammoth Lakes, Californa was a great little tale. Once again, Thompson gives you enough, but not too much. This book is the work of an extremely talented writer with a great sense of balance and control.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating!, August 2, 2000

By 

Kelley Hunt (Texas, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Volcano Cowboys: The Rocky Evolution of a Dangerous Science (Hardcover)

This is a fascinating book about the evolution of volcano science written in language easy enough for the layperson to understand. The author discusses how the eruptions of Mt. St. Helen's, plus several other volcanoes around the world helped develop methods for making more accurate predictions and alert systems. This book is also about the sometimes explosive relationship between volcano scientists, journalists, politicians, and people living near volcanoes. There are so many interesting facts about volcanoes in this book, including the many, many ways in which volcanoes can be an extremely dangerous and deadly force of nature. A must read for anyone living near a volcano.