Showing results for "Fire" in Earth Sciences

World-renowned volcanologist Clive Oppenheimer has worked at the crater's edge in the wildest places on Earth. He's faced down AK47s, learned from tribal elders, and watched red hot rocks shoot into the sky. More people have been into space than have set eyes on the fiery depths of Mount Erebus in Antarctica, where he has measured the Earth's powerful forces. In Mountains of Fire, he paints volcanoes as otherworldly, magical places where our history is laid bare, and shows us just how entangled volcanic activity is with our climate, economy, politics, culture and beliefs.

The volcano - among the most familiar and perhaps the most terrifying of all geological phenomena. However, Earth isn't the only planet to harbour volcanoes. In fact, the solar system, and probably the entire universe, is littered with them. Our own Moon, which is now a dormant piece of rock, had lava flowing across its surface billions of years ago, while Mars can be credited with the largest volcano in the solar system.

More than half a billion years ago, our world was completely covered by glaciers, a "Snowball Earth" that persisted for millions of years. Incredibly, this unimaginable cold led to the remarkable diversification of life on earth known as the Cambrian explosion. With a geologist's eye and a knack for storytelling, Graham Shields explores when and how such inhospitable conditions enabled animals to evolve, radiate, and diversify into our earliest ancestors.

Four-and-a-half billion years ago, Planet Earth was formed from a vast spinning nebula of cosmic dust, the detritus left over from the birth of the sun. Within the next 100 years, human life on swathes of the Earth's surface will end in a haze of heat, drought, and, again, dust. Dust is a legacy of 20th-century progress and a profound threat to life in the 21st century. And yet dust is something we hardly ever consider--it is so small and so mundane as to be beyond the threshold of thought. Jay Owen's Dust sparks curiosity and corrects that oversight.

Fire is rarely out of the headlines, from large natural wildfires raging across the Australian or Californian countrysides to the burning of buildings such as the disasters of Grenfell tower and Notre Dame. Fire on these scales can represent a serious risk to human life and property. But the advent of fire made and controlled by humans also represented a crucial point in our evolution, allowing us to cook our food, forge our weapons, and warm our homes.

From the number-one international best-selling author of The Revenant - the book that inspired the award-winning movie - comes the remarkable true story of the worst mining disaster in American history. In 1917, the lives of a company of miners changed forever when the underground labyrinth of tunnels in which they worked burst into flames. Within an hour, more than 400 men would be locked in a battle to survive. Within three days, 164 of them would be dead.

Raging wildfires have devastated vast areas of California and Australia in recent years, and predictions are that we will see more of the same in coming years as a result of climate change. But this is nothing new. Andrew C. Scott tells the whole story of fire's impact on our planet's atmosphere, climate, vegetation, ecology, and the evolution of plant and animal life. It has caused mass extinctions, and it has propelled the spread of flowering plants. The exciting evidence we can now draw on has been preserved in fossilized charcoal, found in rocks hundreds of millions of years old....

Every year, droughts, floods, and fires impact hundreds of millions of people and cause massive economic losses. Climate change is making these catastrophes more dangerous. Now. Not in the future: now. This book describes how and why climate change is already fomenting dire consequences and will certainly make climate disasters worse in the near future.

Coined after famous youth climate activist Greta Thunberg’s famous speech, “House on Fire” is a youth-centered podcast about the climate crisis based in ‘ground zero’ Miami, Florida, powered by The CLEO Institute. Hosted by Miami resident & climate activist, Dania Maria Toledo, “House on Fire” holds impactful, intersectional conversations with scientists, activists, artists, and more. Each action-oriented episode brings guests, influencers, experts in the field of science, advocacy, and communications, educating and motivating listeners to become activated in the climate crisis ...

Wildfire is a major ecological issue, especially in the Western United States. On the Living With Fire podcast, you'll hear perspectives and stories from land managers, scientists, fire professionals and community members about the history of fire, how fire is currently managed in the landscape and the role that humans play in living more safely with wildfire. This podcast was funded by the Bureau of Land Management - Nevada State Office. The Living With Fire Program is a multiagency effort and is managed by the University of Nevada, Reno Extension. An EEO/AA institution.

As climate change rages on, House on Fire is a podcast from the World Economic Forum about our greatest environmental nightmares and the plans we’re hatching to solve them. From seed vaults to tree plantations, plastic bans to carbon capture, we ask the powerful and the expert for their creative ideas. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Iceland's Volcanic Unrest: Is it A Cause for Concern? Iceland, a land of fire and ice, is no stranger to volcanic activity. With around 30 active volcanic systems, the country experiences an eruption on average every five years. However, recent volcanic disturbances in the Reykjanes Peninsula, southwest of Iceland's capital, Reykjavík, have raised concerns among locals and tourists alike. Since late March 2021, the Reykjanes Peninsula has experienced a significant increase in seismic activity. Thousands of earthquakes, some reaching magnitudes of 5 or higher, have rattled the region. This ...