Vulcan's Forge anda Fingal's Cave : Volcanoes, Basalt, and the Discovery of Geological Time

An Exhibition of Rare Publications from the Collections of the Linda Hall Library of Science, Engineering & Technology.Vulcan's Forge was a name given to the eruptive island of Vulcano, just north of Sicily, while Fingal's Cave is a spectacular formation of basalt columns on the island of Staffa in the Scottish Hebrides. The idea of a geological time scale of immense duration developed in the early nineteenth century as a direct result of the realization that basalt is a volcanic rock. This catalog of a rare book exhibition tells the story of the role of volcanoes and basalt in the discovery of geological time through a selection of rare books and journals spanning the period 1565-1835. The stunning illustrations from the early books on volcanoes and basalt are some of the most beautiful, and influential, in all of geology.Ashworth, William B., Jr. is the author of 'Vulcan's Forge anda Fingal's Cave : Volcanoes, Basalt, and the Discovery of Geological Time', published 2004 under ISBN 9780976359005 and ISBN 0976359006.