Super Volcano: The Ticking Time Bomb Beneath Yellowstone National Park | 
 enlarge | Author: Greg Breining
Publisher: Voyageur Press
Category: Book
List Price: $24.95
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Avg. Customer Rating:  4 reviews
Sales Rank: 385588
Media: Hardcover
Edition: 1st
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 256
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.1
Dimensions (in): 9.1 x 6.3 x 1
ISBN: 0760329257
Dewey Decimal Number: 551.21097875
EAN: 9780760329252
ASIN: 0760329257
Publication Date: October 15, 2007
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
Despite growing evidence of geothermic activity under America's first and foremost national park, it took geologists a long time to realize that there was actually a volcano beneath Yellowstone. And then, why couldn't they find the caldera or crater? Because, as an aerial photograph finally revealed, the caldera is 45 miles wide, encompassing all of Yellowstone. What will happen, in human terms, when it erupts?
Greg Breining explores the shocking answer to this question and others in a scientific yet accessible look at the enormous natural disaster brewing beneath the surface of the United States. Yellowstone is one of the world's five "super volcanoes." When it erupts, much of the nation will be hit hard.
Though historically Yellowstone has erupted about every 600,000 years, it has not done so for 630,000, meaning it is 30,000 years overdue. Starting with a scenario of what will happen when Yellowstone blows, this fascinating study describes how volcanoes function and includes a timeline of famous volcanic eruptions throughout history.
Book Description
A 45-mile-wide caldera is brewing under America’s foremost national park. What will happen when it erupts? Greg Breining explores the shocking answer to this question and others in a scientific yet accessible look at the Yellowstone super volcano. When it erupts, much of the nation will be hit hard. Starting with a scenario of what will happen when Yellowstone blows, this fascinating study describes how volcanoes function and includes a timeline of famous volcanic eruptions throughout history.
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| Customer Reviews:
 Well researched and well written October 11, 2008
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.
Yellowstone: America's Nemesis? January 14, 2008
3 out of 11 found this review helpful
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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 yellowstone December 29, 2007
1 out of 8 found this review helpful
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.
Good explanations of complex phenomena November 25, 2007
11 out of 12 found this review helpful
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.
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