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UNDER the green, glassy waves of the Mediterranean, a small island is in its birth throes. Rumour has it a diver has been sent down to plant an Italian flag on Ferdinandea to establish its ownership.

Iain Stewart begins his compelling Journey to the Centre of the Earth with the 1831 diplomatic row sparked by the appearance of this islet off the coast of Italy. The event gives him a compelling reason to use the geology of the Mediterranean as the perfect example of the Earth鈥檚 volatility.

Ferdinandea 鈥� its Sicilian name, the British called it Graham鈥檚 Island 鈥� is volcanic. Its existence rebuts the tendency we have to think that geology has stopped. The Mediterranean and its surrounding region are still on the move, often violently. When Africa finally ploughs into Europe it will close the Mediterranean and a great Himalayan range of mountains will pile up where the two continents meet. Stewart says our descendants may be skiing on what is now the sea floor.

His graphic descriptions condense millions of years of geology, describing the massive waterfalls that breached the land barrier that once existed between the Mediterranean and the Atlantic, and the network of great rivers that created the sea in roughly its present form. He describes how its climate arises from its geology. He explores not only how and what we know about the forces that shape the landscape, from plate tectonics to volcanism and from droughts to floods, but also how geological events and features were exploited by or affected people.

And geology does affect people, in surprising ways. The ancient Greek priestesses of the Delphic Oracle may have been high as kites on ethene rising from a fault. Tourists to Turkey鈥檚 Pammukale hot springs should beware the ruined sanctuary, where killing gases still seep up.

Why should we be interested in a 鈥渓andlocked backwater of the world鈥檚 oceans鈥�? Known as 鈥淭he Sea鈥� 鈥� except to the Romans, of course, who called it 鈥淥ur Sea鈥� 鈥� the Mediterranean gave rise to western civilisations and endows us with gifts, from the olive to Aristotle, holidays to ancient sea routes. Stewart chooses it as the place from which to explore the volatility of the Earth, because it is always changing. Ferdinandea is rising, Vesuvius threatens to erupt over Naples, and a fault promises an earthquake that could destroy Istanbul.