Monday 14 September 2009

Article: Tales of the Earth Doctor

This week I acquired a copy of Haraldur Sigurdsson's 'Melting the Earth. The History of Ideas on Volcanic Eruptions' (a bit of light bed-time reading!). Sigurdsson should be known to you all for his important work on Vesuvius and eruption of AD 79, and this book discusses that eruption but also later eruptions of Vesuvius, the work of William Hamilton and the first field volcanologists, and many other volcanoes and early theories about them.
And then, a matter of strange coincidence, I came across an article about Sigurdsson and his foundation of the Volcano Museum in Iceland, the only one of its kind in the world. And, of course, the museum contains artefacts from Pompeii (is there a museum in the world that doesn't?!). It's a short but interesting piece.

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