"Heart-stopping. . . . A gripping disaster story [and] a scathing account of human folly, arrogance and ambition." – The New York Times Book Review

On January 14, 1993, a team of scientists descended into the crater of Galeras, an Andean volcano in Colombia, for a day of field research. As the group slowly moved toward the heart of the volcano, Galeras erupted. Nine men died instantly.

Colombian geologist Marta Calvache raced into the rumbling crater, praying to find survivors. This was Calvache's second volcanic disaster. In 1985 Calvache was part of a group of Colombia's brightest young scientists that had been studying Nevado del Ruiz, a volcano three hundred miles north of Galeras. When Nevado del Ruiz erupted suddenly in November 1985, it killed more than twenty-three thousand people—one of the worst natural disasters of the twentieth century.

In the aftermath of Nevado del Ruiz, volcanologists from all over the world came to Galeras to better understand the behavior of monumental forces at work deep within the earth. And yet, despite such expertise, fifteen people descended into a death trap at Galeras.

Victoria Bruce weaves together the stories of the heroes, victims, survivors, and bystanders, evoking with great sensitivity what it means to live in the shadow of a volcano, and shows how clashing cultures and scientific arrogance resulted in tragedy.

"Spellbinding." — Publishers Weekly

"A scientific thriller [that] shows how natural disasters are also the work of men." — Boston Globe

"A vivid account." — Time Magazine

"Impossible to put down." —Sebastian Junger, #1 *New York Times–*bestselling author of The Perfect Storm