Vocano Observatory balances near-death experiences with lighthearted anecdotes and the science behind the lava."--Lara Caldwell, The Nature ConservancyIn 1969, as Neil Armstrong set foot on the Moon, a young geologist known as Duff was preparing to set foot on a rocky landscape of another sort: Kilauea Volcano on the island of Hawai'i, where he would spend three years at the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory. volcanologists and general readers alike will enjoy this entertaining account of living and working at Kilauea--one of the world's most active volcanoes and the home of Pele, goddess of fire and volcanoes. Duff's narrative encompasses everything from the scientific (observations that the movements of a cooled crust on a lava lake mimicked plate tectonics) to the humorous (his dog's discovery of a snake on the supposedly snake-free island) to the life-threatening (a colleague's plunge into molten lava).

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