Grant Heiken: Dangerous neighbors: volcanoes and cities

Abstract

This book is about the substantial dangers posed by many active (or potentially active) volcanoes around the world to large cities near them. It is written by Grant Heiken, one of the world’s top experts in Bsocietal volcanology^ and volcanic hazards, and edited by his wife Jody Heiken. Whereas I do not work on volcanic hazards, I procured this book out of a general interest in the subject, appreciation of its importance, and a desire to be better informed on it. This small-format book has a beautiful cover with a night photograph of Yokohama city and Mount Fuji which suits the theme of the bookwell. The book begins with a Preface and an Introduction. The Introduction describes some actual volcanic crises (such as Nevado del Ruiz 1985 and Eyjafjallajokull 2010) and discusses questions such as why people should want to live near dangerous volcanoes (beautiful landscapes, fertile soils, etc.). This is followed by eight chapters containing selected case studies of cities near dangerous volcanoes, including Naples (Ch. 1), Mexico City (Ch. 2), Quito (Ch. 3), Manila (Ch. 4), Japanese cities (Shimabara, Kagoshima, and Tokyo, Ch. 5), Auckland (Ch. 6), American cities (Seattle, Tacoma, and Portland, Ch. 7), and the ancient Minoan city of Akrotiri and Plymouth on Montserrat (both combined in Ch. 8). The ninth, final chapter concludes with a general discussion of how a city should respond to a volcanic crisis and presents a summary world map and table of large (>100,000 population) cities near dangerous volcanoes. This chapter is followed by a short recommended reading list, acknowledgements, and an index. Whereas I had expected a technical-level text, this is more a popular science book directed at the layperson. It presents a good amount of historical information about specific places and their volcanoes mixed with the author’s travel accounts. The Introduction contains Bsome basic questions^ at the end, such as howmany volcanoes are erupting now or have erupted in historical time. The source of this information is Simkin and Siebert’s BVolcanoes of the World^ (1984, Geoscience Press), and the recommended reading list includes the second edition of this book (1994, Geoscience Press). Quite surprisingly, the third edition of this work (Siebert et al., 2010, University of California Press), which should be the standard reference for such data, has not been used or mentioned. The language of the text is informal, even casual at times, and there are Bpersonal notes^ at the end of some chapters and distracting trivial information on topics like the suitable time period of consumption of mozzarella cheese (Preface) and the author’s physical height (Ch. 5). Some more desirable information is not given, such as the name of the Ecuadorian volcanologist who received a gold medal from the government Editorial responsibility: K. Nemeth