Eos,Vol. 81, No.
45, November 7,2000
the Euphrates River to shut off the flow of
water to Iraq, while the Iraqis intentionally
destroyed desalination plants in Kuwait.
Disputes and even violence over water allo­
cations, water rights, and diversions of water
from one place to another have broken out in
places as diverse as Karnataka and Tamil Nadu
in India, in California, throughout the Middle
East, in North Africa, and in South America. In
recent years, water disputes at the local and
regional level have become increasingly
BOOK REVIEWS
Volcanoes of the World, Second Edition
PAGE 536
T O M SIMKIN A N D L E E SIEBERT
Geoscience Press, Inc., Tucson, Arizona,
349 pp., ISBN 0-945005-12-1,1994, $25.
How do you review an indispensable classic?
In 1981,Tom Simkin and colleagues at the Smith­
sonian Institution's Global Volcanism Project
(GVP) published Volcanoes of the World.This
was the first complete modern English language
listing of volcanoes and their eruptions, and it
became the fundamental reference for such
information. In 1994, Simkin and Lee Siebert
published a second edition, which adds 170 vol­
canoes, 2322 eruptions, and hundreds of
references and corrections to the first edition.
The value of this compilation is indicated by the
fact that even though it is now 6 years old, it war­
rants a review in Eosl
Volcanoes of the World starts with 34 pages
of explanations and summaries, which lead
to a 224-page regional listing of volcanoes.
For each of 7886 eruptions the following
information is tabulated, where known: year,
month, and day of eruption start and stop; 20
indications of the location; nature and fatali­
ties; order of magnitude estimates of the
volumes of lava flows and tephra; and the
Volcano Explosivity Index—a summary
Magmatism and Geodynamics: Terrestrial
Magmatism Throughout the Earth's History
PAGE 536
i(nr]|| O. A. BOGATIKOV ( E D . ) , R . F.
lUdl G. V . LAZAREVA, E. A .
FURSENKO,
MlLORADOVSKAYA, A . Y . MlNEVICH,
AND R. E . SORKINA (TRANS.)
Gordon and Breach Science, Amsterdam, 536 pp.,
ISBN 90-5699-168-X; 2000, $ 175.
Magmatism and Geodynamics presents a
comprehensive review of the origin of
magmas and their relation to geodynamic
processes through the Earth's history by O.A.
common, even as the international communi­
ty seems to be getting better at resolving inter­
state disputes.
It may be true that "no nations have gone to
war strictly over watef but this is a far cry from
saying that water is not a factor in disputes at
the local, regional, and even international level.
Indeed, water has proven over the past
centuries to be a critical factor in many such
disputes. Unless we get better at applying the
approaches available for reducing the risks of
characterization of the size and potential
effects of the eruption.
Another useful 73-page table re-lists each
eruption chronologically, and a 48-page
gazetteer indexes all the volcanoes by name,
including synonyms. These two tables are usu­
ally the first place I look to find the reference
number for a volcano I am seeking.
The book's subtitle describes the contents: "A
regional directory, gazetteer, and chronology
of volcanism during the last 10,000 years." But
this does not fully indicate what I consider
some of the most valuable parts.The endpage
map showing the global distribution of volca­
noes is the best small map of volcanoes avail­
able, and it is a graphical index to the whole
book. The second edition adds regional maps
identifying the locations of all 1511 volcanoes;
I know of no other document that does this.
Finally, Volcanoes of the World ends with a 45-
page bibliography—this is the best place to
start researching volcano literature.
The chief failure of this book is that it is out­
dated.This statement would be true even if I
were reviewing it in its year of publication,
for an average of five eruptions would have
occurred each week since completion of the
manuscript.The Smithsonian's GVP is exploring
ways to improve and update Volcanoes
Bogatikov and three of his colleagues,V I.
Kovalenko, E. V Shakov, and V.V.Yarmolyuk,
from the Institute of Ore Deposits, Petrology,
Mineralogy, and Geochemistry of the Russian
Academy of Sciences.The work presents a
global view of magmatism and its geodynamic
setting through geologic time, and is based
primarily on Russian literature, although the
authors have added an appropriate
discussion of non-Russian studies.
The principal question the authors address is
whether, and to what extent, the geochemical
water-related conflicts and promoting coopera­
tion over the world's shared waters, we may be
entering a period in which such conflicts
become more, rather than less, common.
Author
Peter H.Gleick
Pacific Institute for Studies in Development,
Environment,and Security, Oakland, Calif.,
USA; E-mail: pgleick@pipeline.com
of the World. In 1998, they issued the CD "Volca­
noes of Indonesia" (PKimberly L.Siebert,! F
Luhr, and T Simkin,Smithsonian Institution,
Global Volcanism Program, Digital Information
Series,GVP-1,$ 14.95,shipping included.).This
CD provides color images and other informa­
tion that enhances the basic numeric listings of
the book. I encourage anyone interested in
Indonesian volcanoes or model uses of CDs for
distributing technical information to get a copy
But "Volcanoes of Indonesia" is outdated too.
The World Wide Web obviously provides the
method of choice for distribution of continually
updated dynamic geophysical information
such as eruptions. The Web site of the Global
Volcanism Project (http://vvrww.volcano.si.edu/
gvp/) does provide a variety of data, including
eruption reports in their monthly bulletin and
preliminary notices. So far, however, the Web
site doesn't include the very useful tabular
eruption summaries of Volcanoes of the World.
There is simply no place on Earth to find a cur­
rent listing of all known eruptions for any vol­
cano! Such information is very valuable for
comparisons with climate data, statistical stud­
ies of eruptions, and answering questions from
the news media! Because I rely so heavily on
GVP data—the book, CD, and Web site—and
they have done so well at making information
available to scientists and the public, I eagerly
await complete transmogrification and updat­
ing of Volcanoes of the World on the Web.
Reviewer
Charles A. Wood
Department of Space Studies, University of
North Dakota, Grand Forks, N. D., USA
and tectonic setting of magmatism has changed
during geologic time.This is a difficult task,
because even at the present, no clear and
detailed consensus has been established for
the geochemical and structural setting of many
igneous events.The authors are successful in
illustrating significant changes in the structural
environment of magmatism during the Earth's
history although many of their conclusions rep­
resent a highly personal view and are more con­
jectural than based on solid evidence. Perhaps
the most valuable asset of the book, therefore, is
that it provides a rich and extensive review,
although somewhat dated, of Russian petrologic
literature not previously available in English.
The volume begins with a short chapter on
the principles of petrological analysis of