Includes bibliographical references (pages 297-304) and index

A city has perished -- The Bishop's son -- Yellowstone -- The Caribbean -- Champagne -- Vesuvius -- Alaska -- The Pacific world -- Into the cauldron -- A dream fulfilled -- A love lost -- The school teacher -- The lava lake -- Mauna Loa -- The goddess -- The last volcano -- A forgotten legacy

"The incredible journey of a man on a mission to understand the awesome power of volcanic eruptions. The early scientific study of volcanoes and the life of the man who pioneered the field, Thomas Jaggar. Educated at Harvard, Jaggar went to the Caribbean after Mount Pelee exploded in 1902, killing more than 26,000 people. Witnessing the destruction and learning about the horrible deaths these people had suffered, Jaggar vowed to dedicate himself to a study of volcanoes. What followed was fifty years of global travel to eruptions in Italy, Alaska, Central America, Japan and the Pacific. In 1912, he built a small science station at the edge of a lake of molten lava at Kilauea volcano in the Hawaiian Islands, with the goal of solving the mystery of why volcanoes erupt and how they could be predicted. Jaggar found something else at Kilauea: true love. She was Isabel Maydwell, a widowed school teacher who came to Kilauea to restart her life. For more than twenty ears, she and Jaggar ran the science station, living in a small house at the edge of a high cliff that overlooked the lava lake."--Provided by publisher.