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Haraldur Sigurdsson (born May 31, 1939) is an Icelandic volcanologist and geochemist. Sigurdsson studied geology and geochemistry in the United Kingdom, where he obtained a Bachelors degree from Queen's University, Belfast, followed by a PhD degree from the University of Durham in 1970.^[1] He worked on monitoring and research of the volcanoes of the Caribbean until 1974, when he was appointed professor at the Graduate School of Oceanography, University of Rhode Island. He is best known for his work on the reconstruction of major volcanic eruptions of the past, including the eruption of Vesuvius in Italy in AD 79 and the consequent destruction of the Roman cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum. In 1991 he discovered tektite glass spherules at the Cretaceous/Tertiary (K/T) boundary in Haiti, providing proof for a meteorite impact at the time of the extinction of the dinosaurs.^[2] In 2004 he discovered the lost town of Tambora in Indonesia, which was buried by the colossal 1815 explosive eruption of Tambora volcano.^[3][4]. In 1999, Haraldur Sigurdsson published a scholarly account of the history of volcanology^[5]. He was also editor in chief of the Encyclopedia of Volcanoes^[6], also published in 1999. He was awarded the Coke Medal of the Geological Society of London in 2004^[7]

Publications

• Ignimbrites in Central America and Associated Caribbean Sea Tephra:: Correlation and Petrogenesis by Benjamin R. Jordan, Haraldur Sigurdsson, and Steven Carey^[8]
• Caribbean volcanoes a field guide by Haraldur Sigurdsson and Steven Carey 1990.^[9]
• Lake Nyos revisited 1987
• Sulfur mass loading of the atmosphere from volcanic eruptions 1990
• Melting the earth Oxford University Press 1999
• Volcanoes and the Environment 2008^[10]

References

1. ^ home page of Haraldur Sigurdsson at University of Rhode Island
2. ^ "Glass from the Cretaceous/Tertiary boundary in Haiti" Nature vol 349 page 482, 7 February 1991 doi:10.1038/349482a0
3. ^ 'Pompeii of the East' discovered BBC
4. ^ Sigurdsson, H., and Carey, S., 1989, Plinian and Co-Igmibrite Tephra Fall from the 1815 Eruption of Tambora Volcano: Bulletin of Volcanology, v. 51.
5. ^ Melting the Earth: The History of Ideas on Volcanic Eruptions, H. Sigurdsson, Oxford University Press, ISBN 0195106652
6. ^ Encyclopedia of Volcanoes, eds. H. Sigurdsson, B. Houghton, S. McNutt, H. Rymer & J. Stix, , Academic Press, 1456 pp., ISBN 012643140X, 1999
7. ^ http://www.geolsoc.org.uk/gsl/society/history/page2983.html, retrieved 06/07/2009
8. ^ Amazon
9. ^ open library
10. ^ http://openlibrary.org/a/OL225768A/Haraldur-Sigurdsson