Fen Montaigne

Fraser’s Penguins is the story of the Adélie penguins, in theory. It’s really both much more and much less. I confess, I picked up this volume up based on the word “penguins” in the title. For years, I’ve been embarrassed at how little I knew about penguins, even though I’m, well, Penguin Girl. Did I learn more than I know before I started the book, yes. Is it the best book to learn about penguins? No. Through a meandering narrative, Montaigne explores the history of the Antarctic through historic expeditions and their interactions with penguins, Fraser’s modern research, and the rapid climate shift that is threatening this species and many others today. Because he worked with Fraser’s research group, we are given some insight into this scientist’s research and the conclusions he draws, but it isn’t what I expected at all before I started to read. That’s ok. I learned quite a bit about a region and a species of which I was ignorant. I cautiously recommend this title to college students wanting to understand the process of field research, though be warned I only had a two-week Latin America field-assistant gig (for psycholinguistics) and Montaigne is a journalist. I’m sure there are other titles out there that provide better introduction to what field scientists (and assistants) do both on the job and off… But I enjoyed these insights into that life. When all the disparate parts of the book are brought together, I found Montaigne does paint a picture of the rapid climate change affecting Antarctica and what that means for the Adélies, several other species, and us.… (más)

I just finished reading Surviving Galeras (by Stanley Williams) and No Apparent Danger (Victoria Bruce), books about Galeras, a volcano in southern Colombia. During a conference field trip in 1993 there was a small eruption which killed 6 scientists and 3 tourists and seriously injured half a dozen other scientists. Most of the killed scientists were in or on the rim of the active cone at the time and were killed instantly by the blast. The others were killed or injured by volcanic bombs -- hot but solid boulders or lumps of rock that rained down from above or burst like bullets upon hitting the ground.

The conference organizer and leader of the field trip, Stanley Williams, was nearly killed, with a badly broken ankle and a brain injury. All the injured were burned from the barrage of hot rocks.

Apart from being an absorbing tale of what it's like on top of an active, steaming volcano, the books have a touch of controversy on whether there was credible warning of the eruption (in which case the field trip could have been cancelled), and on the need for hard hats and fire-protective clothes, both of which were not worn by most of those on the crater.

Both books are excellent, and I'd recommend reading both if you can, because of the controversy. They cover slightly different fields: Bruce tells the tale of Nevado del Ruiz's 1985 eruption in some detail, a devastating event in which 23,000 people died in a mudflow simply due to civic incompetence. Williams spends more time than Bruce discussing other historical eruptions around the world. A better although still complementary book on the consequences of eruptions in general is Volcano Cowboys by Dick Thompson, which describes the role of the United States Geological Survey (USGS) and covers the eruptions of Mt St Helens (1980) and Pinatubo (1991) in great detail.… (más)