Aimed at teachers and college students, this thorough treatment of volcanoes delivers a large amount of information in an extremely well-organized manner, crisply designed. The work of a professor of geology, each section is followed by a self-test; there are Quicktime movies and 3-D images, and eruption software can be downloaded. The account of the 1902 eruption of Mt. Pelee includes descriptions by the few survivors, one of whom tells of a 'boiling red river' of death. Its lava dome took the surprising form of an obelisk. One doesn't have to be a geology student or volcanologist to appreciate the beauty of volcanic images, whether looking at views from satellites or from dangerously close in. The professor includes a painting of how sunsets appeared from the Thames after the eruption of Krakatau in 1883. His links section is a massive resource for anyone with an interest in volcanoes. (22 November 2001)