The Last Volcano: A Man, a Romance, and the Quest to Understand Nature's Most Magnificent Fury

In this fine combination of science, history, and biography, geophysicist Dvorak (Earthquake Storms) turns his attention to Thomas Jaggar, a pioneer in the field of volcanology. Jaggar, the son of an Episcopal bishop, chose to dedicate himself to the "missionary field" of volcano studies after participating in the relief efforts for the eruption of Mount Pel%C3%A9e on Martinique in 1902, when he was a young geology instructor at Harvard. He went on to found the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory at Kilauea and study volcanoes and earthquakes in Hawaii, Alaska, and elsewhere. Jaggar is also responsible for numerous firsts, including the first ascent of the Pavlof volcano in Alaska, the first tsunami prediction, and (with a coworker) the construction of the "world's first durable amphibious vehicle," which became the model for the DUKW landing craft used by U.S. forces in WWII. Dvorak sketches the lives of Jaggar's numerous colleagues and contributors to the field, chief among them his second wife, Isabel Maydwell. Dvorak delights in describing to readers the complete nonchalance with which Jaggar and Maydwell approached and worked around lava, and brief passages on the goddess Pele and WWII's effects on Jaggar's Japanese-American colleagues round out this fine work. Agent: Laura Wood, Fine Print Literary. (Dec.)