Alien Volcanoes

At once terrifyingly destructive and awe-inspiringly beautiful, volcanoes have long fascinated humankind. From Vesuvius and Etna to Krakatau and Mount Saint Helen’s, these molten rock- and ash-spewing geysers have destroyed whole cities and countless lives, and altered the course of history. Yet our understanding of volcanoes on Earth—and throughout the celestial world—remains maddeningly incomplete. With Alien Volcanoes, Rosaly M. C. Lopes and Michael W. Carroll offer a dynamic tour of volcanic activity across the solar system. Through eight gracefully written chapters laced with gripping photographs and stunning artwork, Lopes and Carroll survey the complete spectrum of volcanism in time and location, from the solar system’s origin to the modern era and from the familiar shield volcanoes of the terrestrial worlds to the bizarre superchilled geysers on distant ice moons. In the process, they entertain the possibility of hidden lakes on Saturn’s moon Enceladus, discuss the potential effects of greenhouse gases on Neptune’s moon Triton, reconstruct the last moments of life for Pompeiians in the face of an erupting Mount Vesuvius, and explain how a 4,000-mile-long river of lava could have once flowed freely across the plains of Venus. Richly illustrated with original paintings supplemented by NASA and European Space Agency photographs, Alien Volcanoes advances our knowledge of volcanoes on other heavenly bodies, enhances our ability to comprehend how they came into being on Earth, and describes how we might better predict the impact of future eruptions.

Oceans were long thought to exist in all corners of the Solar System, from carbonated seas percolating beneath the clouds of Venus to features on the Moon's surface given names such as "the Bay of Rainbows” and the "Ocean of Storms." With the advent of modern telescopes and spacecraft exploration these ancient concepts of planetary seas have, for the most part, evaporated. But they have been replaced by the reality of something even more exotic. For example, although it is still uncertain whether Mars ever had actual oceans, it now seems that a web of waterways did indeed at one time spread across its surface. The "water" in many places in our Solar System is a poisoned brew mixed with ammonia or methane. Even that found on Jupiter's watery satellite Europa is believed similar to battery acid. Beyond the Galilean satellites may lie even more "alien oceans." Saturn's planet-sized moon Titan seems to be subject to methane or ethane rainfall. This creates methane pools that, in turn, become vast lakes and, perhaps, seasonal oceans. Titan has other seas in a sense, as large shifting areas of sand covering vast plains have been discovered. Mars also has these sand seas, and Venus may as well, along with oceans of frozen lava. Do super-chilled concoctions of ammonia, liquid nitrogen, and water percolate beneath the surfaces of Enceladus and Triton? For now we can only guess at the possibilities. 'Alien Seas' serves up part history, part current research, and part theory as it offers a rich buffet of "seas" on other worlds. It is organized by location and by the material of which various oceans consist, with guest authors penning specific chapters. Each chapter features new original art depicting alien seas, as well as the latest ground-based and spacecraft images. Original diagrams presents details of planetary oceans and related processes.

Ever since the Montgolfier's hot air balloon carried a chicken, a goat, and a duck into the Parisian skies, scientists have dreamed of contraptions to explore the atmosphere. With the advent of the space age, new airborne inventions were needed. From the Soviet Venus balloons to the advanced studies of blimps and airplanes for the atmospheres of Mars and Titan, Drifting on Alien Winds surveys the many creative and often wacky ideas for exploring alien skies. Through historical photographs and stunning original paintings by the author, readers also explore the weather on planets and moons, from the simmering acid-laden winds of Venus to liquid methane-soaked skies of Titan.

The Ancient Alien Theory: Part Four and ancientalienpedia.com is both a written and online resource. The written guide serves as an opportunity to log out, shut down, and unplug from the online world. The online guide serves as a gateway to the Ancient Alien Theory, with links to online sources, books, and authors. Just as Bill BirnesÕ created The UFO Magazine Encyclopedia to provide a comprehensive guide to UFOs and extraterrestrial contact, AncientAlienPedia is providing a database to the Ancient Alien Theory. This all-inclusive guidebook saves readers countless of hours of searching for this information which is scattered in hundreds of websites and books. The AncientAlienPedia will prove to be an essential reference for the highly controversial Ancient Alien Theory.

In this book, students see the NextGen Science process at work in a real-world situation. Readers practice close reading as they look for clues that will lead to a deeper understanding of volcanoes and scientists study them. The NextGen Science process pushes students to apply critical thinking as they learn new methods of exploration and build on concepts they may already know. Additional tools, including a glossary and index, help students learn new vocabulary and locate information.

Volcanoes are essential elements in the delicate global balance of elemental forces that govern both the dynamic evolution of the Earth and the nature of Life itself. Without volcanic activity, life as we know it would not exist on our planet. Although beautiful to behold, volcanoes are also potentially destructive, and understanding their nature is critical to prevent major loss of life in the future. Richly illustrated with over 300 original color photographs and diagrams the book is written in an informal manner, with minimum use of jargon, and relies heavily on first-person, eye-witness accounts of eruptive activity at both "red" (effusive) and "grey" (explosive) volcanoes to illustrate the full spectrum of volcanic processes and their products. Decades of teaching in university classrooms and fieldwork on active volcanoes throughout the world have provided the authors with unique experiences that they have distilled into a highly readable textbook of lasting value. Questions for Thought, Study, and Discussion, Suggestions for Further Reading, and a comprehensive list of source references make this work a major resource for further study of volcanology. Volcanoes maintains three core foci: Global perspectives explain volcanoes in terms of their tectonic positions on Earth and their roles in earth history Environmental perspectives describe the essential role of volcanism in the moderation of terrestrial climate and atmosphere Humanitarian perspectives discuss the major influences of volcanoes on human societies. This latter is especially important as resource scarcities and environmental issues loom over our world, and as increasing numbers of people are threatened by volcanic hazards Readership Volcanologists, advanced undergraduate, and graduate students in earth science and related degree courses, and volcano enthusiasts worldwide. A companion website is also available for this title at www.wiley.com/go/lockwood/volcanoes

How alien would aliens be? Would they look like us or perhaps more like an octopus? How would they communicate? Could we even hear their voices, assuming they have them? Like us, aliens would be constrained by the physical world. Understanding how those physical constraints apply both to us and to aliens is the theme of this book. The constraints imply that they will not be all that different from us, perhaps half to twice as big as we are. They will depend on vision and hearing as we do and they will live on a planet much like ours. But where will they be? Do they even exist? The odds are not good. We may be the only intelligent life in the universe.

Throughout our planet's history volcanoes have played a large role in shaping landscapes, the climate, and biological evolution. This book explains the fundamental mechanisms of volcanism, considering why volcanoes are essential for life on Earth, and how they interact with the Earth's other physical processes, and with human society.