Eruption! : volcanoes and the science of saving lives

"At 11:35 p.m., as Radio Armero played cheerful music, a towering wave of mud and rocks bulldozed through the village, roaring like a squadron of fighter jets." Twenty-three thousand people died in the 1985 eruption of Colombia's Nevado del Ruiz. Today, more than one billion people worldwide live in volcanic danger zones. In this riveting nonfiction book--filled with spectacular photographs and sidebars--Rusch reveals the perilous, adrenaline-fueled, life-saving work of an international volcano crisis team (VDAP) and the sleeping giants they study, from Colombia to the Philippines, from Chile to Indonesia.

Sleeping giant -- Never again -- Mount Pinatubo -- To evacuate or not to evacuate? -- Volcano training camp -- How do you watch a volcano you can't see? -- Mount Merapi's next move -- The mystery of the missing ash -- What happened here? -- Living and working in the shadow of a volcano -- Volcanic vocabulary.