The classic account of how volcanism has shaped human culture and science, from the Bronze Age eruption that destroyed Minoan Crete to Mount St. Helens When the volcano Tambora erupted in Indonesia in 1815, as many as one hundred thousand people perished from the blast and ensuing famine. Gases and dust particles ejected into the atmosphere changed weather patterns around the world, resulting in the infamous "year without a summer" in North America, food riots in Europe, and a widespread cholera epidemic. And the gloomy weather inspired Mary Shelley to write the gothic novel Frankenstein. This panoramic book tells the story of nine such epic volcanic events, explaining the related geology and exploring the myriad ways our planet's volcanism has affected human history.

Jelle Zeilinga de Boer (1934-2016) was the Harold T. Stearns Professor of Earth Science at Wesleyan University and the author (with Donald Theodore Sanders) of Earthquakes in Human History (Princeton). Donald Theodore Sanders (1930-2014) was a petroleum geologist and science editor.