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

by John Dvorak

Overview

Volcanoes have fascinated--and terrified--us for ages. They have destroyed cities and ended civilizations. This exemplary new book explores the early scientific study of volcanoes, as well as the life of Thomas Jaggar, the man who pioneered the field.

Educated at Harvard, Jaggar went to the Caribbean after Mount Pelée exploded in 1902, killing more than 26,000 people. Witnessing the destruction and learning about the horrible deaths these people had suffered, Jaggar vowed to dedicate himself to the study of volcanoes. In 1912, he built a small science station at the edge of a lake of molten lava at Kilauea volcano in the Hawaiian Islands, with the goal of solving the mystery of why volcanoes erupt and how they could be predicted. Jaggar found something else at Kilauea, too: true love.

She was Isabel Maydwell, a widowed school teacher who came to Kilauea to restart her life. Maydwell would quickly become one of the world's most astute observers of volcanic activity.

Mixed with tales of myths and rituals, as well as the author's own experiences and insight into volcanic activity, The Last Volcano reveals the lure and romance of confronting nature in its most magnificent form.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781681772981
Publisher:	Pegasus Books
Publication date:	01/24/2017
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	336
Product dimensions:	5.60(w) x 8.50(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Originally trained as a lunar scientist, John Dvorak, PhD, spent twenty years operating a large telescope at Mauna Kea for the Institute for Astronomy, University of Hawaii. His writing has appeared as cover stories for Scientific American, Astronomy and Physics Today. His books include Earthquake Storms and The Last Volcano, both available from Pegasus Books.

Table of Contents

Prologue: A City has Perished xv

1 The Bishop's Son 1

2 Yellowstone 15

3 The Caribbean 34

4 Champagne 56

5 Vesuvius 69

6 Alaska 89

7 The Pacific World 106

8 Into the Cauldron 126

9 A Dream Fulfilled 148

10 A Love Lost 165

11 The School Teacher 185

12 The Lava Lake 202

13 Mauna Loa 221

14 The Goddess 239

15 The Last Volcano 251

16 A Forgotten Legacy 271

Postscript 285

Acknowledgments 289

Sources 297

Index 305

Editorial Reviews

"Riveting. It leaves readers wanting to know more about how volcanology has advanced since Jaggar's day."--The American Scholar

"For Dvorak, Kilauea is the last volcano. Fueled by a fire hose of molten rock from deep within the Earth, the volcano will continue to bubble and spurt and flame. And that's just how Thomas Jaggar would have wanted it."--The Dallas Morning News

"A vividly written exploration of Jaggar's life and work. Dvorak brings him to life in a richly researched narrative as thrilling as his topic, creating the sort of popular science history that flies off the shelves."--Booklist (starred review)

"Bubbling and sloughing under the surface of John Dvorak's terrific new book is the quietly terrifying reminder that we somehow manage to live on a tectonically active planet. A remarkable story."--The Christian Science Monitor

From the Publisher

Dvorak has done earthquake science sterling service by writing what is unarguably the best, the most comprehensive and compellingly readable book about the great fault that will one day affect all our lives.

Simon Winchester

The real strength of Earthquake Storms is the clear and comprehensive treatment of geology as well as history, and offers a fascinating up-close look at the often overlooked people and stories behind science. Lastly, the book leaves readers in California with a bottom line as sobering as it is unassailable: We might not know exactly what storms lie ahead, but during all of our lifetimes, we have only ever known the lull.

Susan Hough

Jaggar's thrilling adventures to volcanic hot zones like Alaska and Hawaii, where he explored inside active volcanoes, makes one appreciate the fearless nature required for a life of volcanology. Riveting. It leaves readers wanting to know more about how volcanology how has advanced since Jaggar's day.

The American Scholar

The story of Thomas Jagger and Isabel Maydwell is an inspiring tale of devotion, both to science and to each other.

Scientific American

Captivatingly chronicles the life and times of this vanguard scientist [Thomas Jaggar]. Packed with details about Jaggar’s personal as well as professional life.

Science News

In this vividly written exploration of Jagger’s life and work, Dvorak (Earthquake Storms, 2014) covers not only the early years of volcanology but also dives into what propelled Jagger to fight so hard to learn more about volcanoes and the price he paid—a failed marriage and distant children—to gain that knowledge. Dvorak brings him to life in a richly researched narrative as thrilling as his topic, creating the sort of popular science history that flies off the shelves.

Booklist (starred review)

Reads like a good sci-fi, with colorful characters making startling discoveries.

The Honolulu Star

For Dvorak, Kilauea is the last volcano, the one that will keep on erupting long after anyone who remembers Jaggar is gone. Fueled by a fire hose of molten rock from deep within the Earth, the volcano will continue to bubble and spurt and flame. And that’s just how Thomas Jaggar — despite all he’d seen — would have wanted it.

The Dallas Morning News

A lively biography of the forgotten father of volcanology. Dvorak is a great storyteller with a keen eye for details. There are parts in The Last Volcano where Mr. Dvorak’s descriptions of the intense heat almost singe the page. Riveting.

Wall Street Journal

Bubbling and sloughing under the surface of John Dvorak's terrific new book The Last Volcano is the quietly terrifying reminder that we somehow manage to live on a tectonically active planet. A remarkable story. Every time Kilauea has bubbled and frothed and erupted since then, researchers on site have been indebted to Thomas Jaggar whether they knew it or not. And as for Yellowstone, it's relatively quiet—for the moment.

Christian Science Monitor

Dvorak layers mini-portraits in chronologically complex strata. Volcanos can seem like a distant threat. But Dvorak raises the stakes by examining a wider geologic network of earthquakes and tsunamis—and a human network of scientists who truly saved lives. Their shared passion, and Dvorak's own palpable love for the subject, send up sparks.

The Star Tribune

A welcome addition. Its chief strength lies in combining the lives and personalities of key geologists and seismologists, such as Lawson, Charles Richter, John Tuzo Wilson and Kerry Sieh, with the theoretical essentials and practical details of their scientific work, so that the former really do illuminate the latter.

Geoscientist Magazine

A lively biography of the forgotten father of volcanology. Dvorak is a great storyteller with a keen eye for details. There are parts in The Last Volcano where Mr. Dvorak’s descriptions of the intense heat almost singe the page. Riveting.

Wall Street Journal

11/23/2015
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 Pelée 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.)

Publishers Weekly

★ 2015-10-04
A United States Geological Survey scientist returns with a rich account of one of his predecessors: Thomas Jaggar (1871-1953), a somewhat forgotten pioneer in volcanology. Dvorak (Earthquake Storms: The Fascinating History and Volatile Future of the San Andreas Fault, 2015), who now operates the telescope at Mauna Kea in Hawaii, a site where Jaggar spent some enormously productive years, brings not just a sharp understanding of the scientific issues involved, but also a humanist's heart. We see him as a flawed human being but a ferociously dedicated researcher, a fearless adventurer (who ran toward eruptions), and a visionary. The author begins with Jaggar's Cincinnati boyhood in the home of an important local clergyman, then commences his swift, engaging accounts of Jaggar's numerous visits to remote (and dangerous) sites, travels that make the word peripatetic seem insufficient. Alaska, Japan, the Caribbean, Hawaii—these are a few of the places he traveled to understand what fascinated him the most: the power in the Earth. Dvorak pauses occasionally to chronicle Jaggar's personal life (which became somewhat scandalous), but these stories, though important, are not his focus. He seeks to teach readers about volcanology—and does so in terms that laypeople can comprehend—and he makes us feel the excitement, the fear, and the intense heat of a lava flow. We get some Hawaiian history, as well, with an especially interesting section about the origin of the goddess Pele and how many Hawaiians were quick to credit or blame her for the vagaries of the volcanoes. Occasionally, Dvorak steps into the story to add some information about one of his own related experiences, no more affectingly so than when he visited the Japanese relatives of one of Jaggar's Hawaiian assistants, a family rounded up during the World War II internment-camp period. First-rate reporting and erudition underlie this successful effort to re-establish the reputation of an indispensable scientist.

Kirkus Reviews