I was fascinated by the idea that there is a whole other world beneath our feet, more interesting than the dull uniformity of the Flatlands. The implication that there is a more interesting world capable of change and activity and powers of movement and motion which have destroyed cities in the past and could do so again o volcanic activity, for example. The information never seemed entirely convincing until we got to their role in history. A volcano, basically, is a natural phenomenon which can be a hill or mountain with an opening on its top or a vent or fissure on its flanks, through which magma, molten rock from a reservoir deep in the earth beneath it, can extrude and flow out or, under pressure, explode in an eruption of massive force with destructive effects.
Volcanoes do have an historical role well beyond their ancient mythology.
Vesuvius, the only active volcano in mainland Europe, erupted 70 years after the birth of Christ and destroyed the cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum with a death toll in the thousands, although it had not erupted for the previous 10 centuries. In 1901, another volcano, Mt. Pele on the French West Indies island of Martinique destroyed the city of St. Pierre, killing 40,000 people. Although such deadly eruptions have not been frequent events they have continued to happen at long irregular intervals and volcanology has developed to a degree of science which makes accurate predictions of eruptions more dependable. After some years I was able to manage some odysseys of my own and get a little closer to the object of my curiosity. We were in Java, which has 123 volcanoes on one small island and one of the earth's modern volcano-watch stations.