The Control of Nature
by John McPhee
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Book Summary Information
Author: John McPheeEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 1990-09-01
ISBN: 0374522596
Number of pages: 288
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Book Reviews of The Control of Nature
Book Review: People's Efforts, People's Errors
Summary: 5 Stars
McPhee examines three recent attempts by man to alter natural changes on the surface of the planet. The first is the Corps of Engineers attempt to control of the flow and course of the Mississippi as it heads, with ever increasing power, toward New Orleans, or Texas if it had its way. And if you think that there was not some early warning of eventual problems in New Orleans, note that this book was written in 1989. The second is the partially successful effort by the Icelanders to use water from fire hoses to halt the flow of lava from a very destructive volcano. Finally, the third is the battle between Los Angeles and one of natures weapons of mass destruction, the debris flows coming down from the San Gabriel mountains that, with the Pacific, frame the city. McPhee has also written intriguing books about the geologic histories of Nevada (Basin and Range), Wyoming (Rising from the Plains), California (Assembling California) and about tectonic plates, ice and oil (In Suspect Terrain). In the process he has portrayed the important English pioneers in the discipline such as Hutton and Lyell, in addition to Agassiz and his fascination with glaciers.
The flow of the Mississippi with its enormous drainage extending from Western New York to Montana has been increasing with every newly paved Wal-Mart or football stadium parking lot in the Midwest. In the process it has carved out the sediment that forms the fan that extended the coast line of Louisiana over fifty miles into the Gulf in the last century. Historically its mouth has wandered for nearly two hundred miles along the Gulf coast between Mississippi and Texas, creating most of Louisiana. Its flow of sixty-five kilotons (two million cubic feet of water) per second in high years is now channeled by the levies, which are not without defects as demonstrated by recent hurricanes. But that doesn't mean upstream threats can be ignored. The Atchafalaya, with a much steeper drop and connected to the Mississippi by the Old River in Northern Louisiana, is constantly bidding for the Ohio and Missouri mud that gives the Mississippi its color. The saga of the construction efforts by the Corps to keep it as a safety valve to prevent the flooding of New Orleans, and not have it turn the lower Mississippi river basin (the "American Ruhr" as the locals call it) into a pasture or salt water lake, is McPhee's first war story. It has been a "close run thing" with a near disaster in 1973 when the Old River Control, an enormous weir, nearly failed. The proliferation of commissions, competing commercial interests and colorful characters overshadow the geology, but the movement of sediment is still the enemy and the story keeps it under "close surveillance".
The attempt by the Icelanders to control the flow of lava erupting from a volcano on one of their offshore islands is magisterial. This effort is a saga of human endurance, persistence and geological knowledge. He describes Iceland as one of the two most productive geologic hot spots on the planet (the other being Hawaii). However, while the Hawaiian Islands are moving with the Pacific plate, Iceland is being torn apart by the Mid-Atlantic ridge which runs directly beneath it. The 2000 degree (F.) magma under it came up, in 1973, to punch through the sixty mile thick plate of Vestmannaeyjar island "like a sewing machine needle punches through cloth." The offshore island has one of Iceland's main fishing harbors. Indeed, it is one of the most active in the North Atlantic and hence worth saving.
The lava spread in all directions from the volcano, covering most of the island and threatening its harbor. The government decided that it would try to save the harbor by cooling the lava and holding it back with fire and other large water hoses. An Icelandic physicist calculated that one cubic meter of water would change seven-tenths of a cubic meter of lava from red hot flow to hard rock. The water hoses were brought from Reykjavik, the capital, and the American air base nearby at Keflavik. They were trained on the ever encroaching lava day and night at the direction of the fire chief from the base who became known, not unaffectionately or undeservedly, as "Patton".
They succeeded, but not until three million cubic yards of tephra fell on the island's town (compared to only 500,000 cubic yards, which fell on Pompeii), and three hundred feet of basalt rose next to it. Nature gave in and the eruption stopped after five and a half months. It had increased the size of the island by twenty percent, and perhaps will press its case against the harbor at a later time. While the topography, characters and customs of The Big Easy and Tinseltown may be familiar to us, Iceland is not. Tidbits about the oldest democratic parliament, the Icelandic prohibition against selling beer in favor of "Norwegian Cough Drops" (shots of Johnny Walkersson and Jack Danielsson), the local learning on how to avoid volcanic bombs, etc., add the color. Pages turn.
His final example of man's attempts is the effort of the City of Los Angeles to keep the San Gabriel Mountains (three thousand feet higher than the Rockies from bottom to top) from sending debris into the foothills of the city and washing away houses in the process. Los Angeles has built more than 120 catch basins to arrest the debris. McPhee describes the effect of fire upon the chaparral in the mountains (it provides an impermeable cover which sends the water runoff in a large storm cascading down the valley) is impressive as one of those ideas that seemed good at the time. However, other than the effect of the angle of repose, this section is a bit of a filler in an otherwise very interesting book.
Summary of The Control of Nature
The Control of Nature is John McPhee's bestselling account of places where people are locked in combat with nature. Taking us deep into these contested territories, McPhee details the strageties and tactics through which people attempt to control nature. Most striking is his depiction of the main contestants: nature in complex and awesome guises, and those attempting to wrest control from her - stubborn, sometimes foolhardy, more often ingenious, and always arresting characters.
Master how-it-works writer John McPhee has instructed his readers in the arcana of how oranges are commercially graded, how mountains form, how canoes are built and oceans crossed. In The Control of Nature he turns his attention once more to geology and the human struggle against nature. In one sketch, he explores the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' unrealized plan to divert the flow of the Mississippi River into a tributary, the Atchafalaya, for flood control; in another, he looks at the ingenious ways in which an Icelandic engineer saved a southern harbor on that island from being destroyed by a lava flow; in a third, he examines a complex scheme to protect Los Angeles from boulders ejected from mountains by compression and tectonic movement. As always, McPhee combines a deep knowledge of his subject with a narrative approach that is wholly accessible; you may not have thought you were interested in earthquakes and flood control, but he gently leads you to take a passionate concern in such matters.
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