What is the setting of The Control of Nature by John McPhee?

Written and published in 1989, events in The Control of Nature take place in Southern Louisiana, Iceland, Hawaii and Los Angeles. The settings described draw upon actual, virtual and historical events. They range from a luxuriously outfitted towboat Mississippi on its annual floating conference trip down the river Mississippi to a hardened but hot surface lava flow from Kilauea in Hawaii, the town of Heimaey and a Caltech rooftop. Many more settings are described by McPhee in his recollection of events that allow one to experience the environment as if it were actual rather than historical or virtual.