One of the things I’ve found out since starting serious research in volcanology is that a lot – and I mean a lot – of the best texts are either out of print, expensive, or both. Fortunately there are enough people in the department that we have a fairly good selection of them – better than the library, anyway – although we’re going to be in big trouble when certain folks graduate. (Either that or we’re going to have to kidnap their collections.)


Anyway, being a bookish type, and having noticed the other book reviews that have come out on the geoblogosphere lately, I thought I would begin working my way through a list of the books that I’ve found most useful over the last year or so. Granted, I haven’t used all of these extensively, but this will give me a good chance to refresh my memory on what I could be using. A lot of these texts combine general and specific subject matters, so it’s a little hard to divide them up by specialty, but I’ll try and go from really general to more specific.

• Volcanism, 2003, Hans-Ulrich Schmincke
• Fundamentals of Physical Volcanology, 2008, Parfitt and Wilson
• Volcanology, 2000, Bardintzeff and McBirney
• The Encyclopedia of Volcanoes, 1999, Houghton et al. 
• Volcanoes, 2003, Francis and Oppenheimer.
• Pyroclastic Rocks, 1985, Fisher and Schminke
• Volcanic Successions, 1987, Cas and Wright
• Volcanology and Geothermal Energy,1992, Wohletz and Heiken (the full text of the book is available at this link)
• Altered Volcanic Rocks, Gifkins et al.
• Igneous Petrogenesis, 2007, M. Wilson
• Atlas of Igneous Rocks and their Textures, 1982, MacKenzie et al.
• Volcanoes of the World , 1994, Tom Simkin and Lee Siebert (Global Volcanism Program)
• Monitoring Active Volcanoes, 1995, McGuire et al.
• Remote Sensing of Active Volcanism, 2000, Mouginis-Mark et al. (eds)
• Volcanoes, 1972, Gordon MacDonald
• Ash Flow Tuffs, 1979, Charles Chapin (ed)
• Volcano Deformation, 2006, Daniel Dsurizin (ed)
• Introduction to Volcanic Seismology, 2003, V. Zobin
• Volcanic Ash, 1985, Heiken and Wohletz
• Volcanic Textures, 1993, Doyle and McPhie
• Monitoring and Mitigation of Volcanic Hazards, 1996, Scarpa and Tilling
• Volcano Instability on the Earth and Other Planets, 1996, McGuire
• Fire and Mud, 1996, Newhall and Punongbayan
• The Physics of Explosive Volcanic Eruptions, 1998, Gilbert and Sparks
• From Magma to Tephra, 2001, Freundt and Rosi
• Environmental Effects on Volcanic Eruptions, 2000, Zimbelman and Gregg
• Volcanoes and the Environment, 2008, Marti and Ernst
• Volcanic Degassing, 2003, Oppenheimer et al.
• Kinematics and Dynamics of Lava Flows, 2005, Manga and Ventura
• Mechanisms of Activity and Unrest at Large Calderas, 2006, Troise et al. (eds)
• Caldera Volcanism, 2008, Gottsman and Marti
• Fluid Motions in Volcanic Conduits, 2008, Lane and Gilbert
• Earthquake and Volcano Deformation, 2010, Paul Segall