The Roadside Geology series has been around and growing for over 50 years. I have over a dozen and they're wonderful. Each focuses on the geology you'll see as you travel along roads in regions the US. They vary a bit in style given the variety authors and the publication dates. They're very accessible to the beginner and useful for the amateur. They're also small for easy storage when you travel.
The trigger for the post was the most recent eruption in Iceland. Iceland may well be going into a period of great volcanic activity - the sort of thing that comes around every millennia or so. Yesterday's eruption was the sixth in a few months. There are usually webcams covering these events, but Shawn Willsey posts videos with expert discussions. He's a hard rocker (soft rockers study fossils or formations associated with organics like oil and natural gas) and co-author of the Idaho edition of Roadside Geology. Hard rockers are among the most gonzo scientists - the types who are willing to take what seem like unreasonable risks.1 Shawn does most of his work in the West, but interviews geologists from around the world. His videos are unpolished, but often fascinating. Check out his live section for recent eruptions.
Any vulcanology discussion usually involves rheology - the study of how materials deform under pressure. It's one of those areas that describes what goes on in the eye under pressure, much of geology, toothpaste, why cake batter goes up the beater in an electric mixer, and non-Newtonian fluids. Studying it requires differential equations, but if you're curious here's an easy to read discussion that gets into the science most people never see as undergrads.
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Two of the key concepts in rheology were developed by scientists who also made significant contributions to optics: Isaac Newton and Robert Hooke. (Hooke and Newton lived in England in the 17th century. Newton (a Cambridge man) poked things in his eye as he developed theory of optics. Hooke (an Oxford man) discovered cells and published the first book on microscopy. They did not get on.)
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1 A good friend who did his PhD in geophysics at Caltech likes to freeclimb frozen waterfalls for fun. You don't want to go hiking with him (speaking from experience). A storied geophysics professor at Stony Brook was known for being the first person set foot on Surtsey shortly after it emerged from the North Atlantic. He left in his Zodiac a few hours before it exploded and vanished from view for a month or so.
Shaun, in an interview of a vulcanologist from North Carolina State University, noted they met a few years ago in Iceland. A large number of Icelanders and tourists had hiked to a safe distance. He noticed the only other person dressed in protective gear and taking samples of the flow and decided to introduce himself.
Sukie (my wife) would counter that some wildlife field work is as crazy. She's been stung by hundreds of wasps, has growled down a jaguar and still suffers from something unknown she caught in the Amazon. Her people, when they get together, tell stories and show wounds (like missing fingers)
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