Pacific: Simon Winchester's New Collection of Essays on Geology, Colonies Lost, Nature and Wars



The UK's Simon Winchester, 72-year old best selling author, has recently released a new book about natural and human-caused events that occurred around and in the Pacific Ocean.  It is a fascinating read filled with bits of history and the natural events that took place in the Pacific.  It also brings to life some unimaginable stories about the formation of the Sony Corporation and the transistor radio.  There is a chapter on the discovery and confirmation of continental drift, now known as "Plate Tectonics."  The story of the discovery of the deep sea, black smokers and life in the deep ocean.

It is an eclectic collection of stories of non-fiction, written in easy-reading prose.

 

Simon Winchester's website

This is the table of contents of the book which I have made brief annotations of what the various chapters are about.  As you can read it is a very wide range of topics.  All the chapters are enjoyable and will improve your knowledge of many interesting events.  The book will be enjoyed by geologists, history buffs, environmentalists, military buffs, nerds and anyone desiring to learn about their world.

I highly recommend  the "Pacific."  If you like John McPhee's books you will enjoy Winchester's writing.

Other Winchester books that I have read and recommend are:  The Map That Changed the World, about William Smith's geologic mapping in the British Isles, Krakatoa, and The Man Who Loved China.  And there are many more that I have yet to read but plan to in the near future, specifically "Korea."

 

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The Cascade Volcanoes as seen in Satellite Images

The Cascade volcanoes are a fantastic result of plates tectonics.  Seven of the volcanoes have erupted in the last 200 years and three of these have erupted in the last 100 years.  The eruption of Mount St. Helens on May 18, 1980 was both spectacular and tragic.  I am sure many of you saw some of the ash clouds and eruptions.  I saw it once from a passenger jet flying east from Seattle; mainly steam and some ash.

The Cascade volcanic arc extends northward from northern California, through Oregon and Washington, extending into British Columbia (Mount Garibaldi and Mount Meager).



Cascade volcanic arc formed by the subduction of the Juan de Fuca plate beneath the North American plate.  USGS

 

 

 



Map of the Cascade volcanoes, the historic eruptions are highlighted.

I have captured satellite images of the Cascade volcanoes that have had historic eruptions from Google Earth.  They are presented in the following as a slide show.





Oblique view of Mount St. Helens showing the various volcanic deposits and the lava domes (USGS).  The view is approximately the same as the satellite image in the previous illustration.

Note the well developed flow ogives (pressure ridges) emanating from the felsic volcanic dome field.

A first hand account of the eruption of Mt. St. Helens is available.  The book is:  Mt. St. Helens, Surviving the Stone Wind. The author is Catherine Hickson.

 

Mt. St. Helens, Surviving the Stone Wind, by Catherine Hickson, 2005

Catherine Hickson