I turned my eyes upon the volcano again. The ‘cellar’ was tolerably well lighted up. For a mile and a half in front of us and half a mile on either side, the floor of the abyss was magnificently illuminated; beyond these limits the mists hung down their gauzy curtains and cast a deceptive gloom over all that made the twinkling fires in the remote corners of the crater seem countless leagues re moved – made them seem like the camp-fires of a great army far away. Here was room for the imagination to work! You could imagine those lights the width of a continent away – and that hidden under the intervening darkness were hills, and winding rivers, and weary wastes of plain and desert – and even then the tremendous vista stretched on, and on, and on! – to the fires and far beyond! You could not compass it – it was the idea, of eternity made tangible – and the longest end of it made visible to the naked eye!
The greater part of the vast floor of the desert under us was as black as ink, and apparently smooth and level; but over a mile square of it was ringed and streaked and striped with a thousand branching streams of liquid and gorgeously brilliant fire! It looked like a colossal railroad map of the State of Massachusetts done in chain lightning on a midnight sky. Imagine it – imagine a coal-black sky shivered into a tangled network of angry fire! Mark Twain, article The Sacramento Daily Union 16th November 1866, ‘The Great Volcano of Kilauea’
The huge mountain range is called the Mid-Atlantic Ridge ... It’s part of a vast tear in the planet’s surface – a single line of underwater mountains and volcanoes that runs for over forty thousand miles around the planet. Richard Hammond’s Journey to the Bottom of the Ocean BBC 2011
Iceland is the only place in the world where the mid-ocean ridge rises above the waves exposing over a hundred active volcanoes. ibid.
The summit of Molokai volcano on Hawaii has grown over two and half miles above sea level, but it’s another three and a half miles down to the sea floor, and it doesn’t stop there ... The true base is another five miles down. ibid.
This line of coastal volcanoes is known as the Pacific rift ring fire. ibid.
This is the story of a disaster like no other. When Mount Vesuvius erupted it rained seven a half million tons of debris on to Pompeii. It sealed the fate of more than a thousand people. But it also sealed the city in. Preserved it. Protected it. Like nowhere else on Earth the rediscovered Pompeii gives us access to the ancient world. And now with new findings and new insights we can tell the story of the ordinary people caught up in this disaster. Rome Revealed s1e3: Doomsday Pompeii, National Geographic 2010
It’s the summer of 79 A.D. Several earth tremors have already rocked the town of Pompeii and the surrounding area ... At noon on August 24th a pillar of molten rock seventeen kilometres high rises into the sky. The Roman Empire: Grandeur and Decadence
At 9 p.m. Pompeii has almost been buried under four metres of ash. ibid.
Until the discovery of Pompeii no antique frescoes had been so well preserved. ibid.
Pompeiians would write anywhere. ibid.
The eruption of Santorini has been re-dated now, and took place probably about 1628 B.C. And 1628 means that the Exodus and the eruption are separated by about two hundred years. Professor Eric H Cline
We don’t really know scientifically exactly what happened to Santorini ... We think that the volcano basically blew up and the entire Santorini was destroyed. With this collapse of the volcano, a huge tidal wave was triggered. And the tidal wave, the tsunami, travelled all the way to Crete and severely impacted the Minoans. Costas Synolakis, engineer & tsunami specialist University of Southern California
The Minoans dominated the Mediterranean for over a thousand years. Until an island seventy miles north of Crete blew itself apart. The island as Thera. Known today as Santorini. Reconstructions of Thera show it consisted of circular belts of sea and land – just like Plato described Atlantis. Atlantis, BBC 2011
From the volcanic deposits we know the early stages of the eruption covered the island with a sprinkling of light ash. Enough to poison the water supply. ibid.
The greatest disaster the ancient world had seen. ibid.
The sound of the eruption was heard as far away as Egypt. A superheated column of gas, ash and rock blasted six miles into the atmosphere, forming a mushroom cloud similar to the atomic bomb. ibid.
300 decibels ... Magma bombs ... Pyroclastic flows ... Tsunamis ... It would have taken only twenty minutes for the first tsunami to have reached Crete ... Three times larger than Krakatoa ... Global temperatures dipped ... Minoan society was shaken to the core ... Humans sacrificed. ibid.
A destructive force that now threatens to break up the entire continent ... One of Africa’s most explosive volcanoes ... Something is melting the rock beneath it. Rise of the Continents: Africa, BBC 2013
In Iceland a volcano erupts belching millions of tons of ash into the sky. Airlines soon suffer the consequences. 100,000 flights are cancelled ... An even greater threat than the eruption in 2010 – what lies beneath Iceland's mountains could be more threatening than anyone dares to imagine. Timebomb Iceland, Discovery Science 2014
There are over thirty active volcanoes on and around the island. ibid.
This is Vanuatu, an island chain that’s home to some of the most explosive volcanoes on the planet. Kate Humble: Into the Volcano I, BBC 2014
Complex spiritual belief systems have emerged around it. ibid.
It’s volcano contains one of just five lava lakes in the world. Kate Humble: Into the Volcano II
‘The biggest source of sulphur dioxide on the planet.’ ibid. volcanologist
Ten miles down the road is a place destroyed by the same eruption but for me is if anything more exciting ... Herculaneum. Professor Andrew Wallace-Hadrill, The Other Pompeii: Life and Death in Herculaneum, BBC 2013
The god Pele is responsible for the volcano. But of course in Polynesia the volcano has some positive aspects. And so you get one god who becomes in charge of two things. Professor Alan F Segal, Bernard College
Haleakala – the only place in the world where the distinctive silver sword plant grows. Ken Burns, The National Parks: The Empire of Grandeur 1915-1916, PBS 2009
This is Olympus Mons. Named after Mount Olympus. The mythical home of the Greek gods. This vast outpouring of lava stretches over five hundred and fifty kilometres across. But it’s the height of this volcano that is breathtaking ... It is the highest mountain we know. Brian Cox, Wonders of the Solar System: Dead or Alive, BBC 2010
In 79 A.D. this volcano exploded ... Pompeii: the eruption which wiped this ancient town off the Roman map is one of the world’s most famous disasters. Professor Mary Beard, Pompeii: Life and Death in a Roman Town, BBC 2012
Pompeii is the most important archaeological site in the Roman world. ibid.
Herculaneum was buried under more than fifty feet of volcanic debris during the eruption of 79. ibid.
It has eighteen active volcanoes. Japan: Earth’s Enchanted Islands: The Southwest Island, BBC 2015
The pyroclastic flows are a mixture of gas and ashes that move very fast on the slopes of the volcano. They have a very large kinetic energy with the power to destroy anything in their way. Professor Claudio Scarpati
92,901. But we do have a few volcanoes here that are powerful enough to drive life to the brink of extinction. They’re called super-volcanoes. Extreme Universe s1e5: Time Bombs, National Geographic 2010
A volcano may be considered as a cannon of immense size. Oliver Goldsmith, 1841
Each volcano is an independent machine – nay, each vent and monticule is for the time being engaged in its own peculiar business, cooking as it were its special dish, which in due time is to be separately served. We have instances of vents within hailing distance of each other pouring out totally different kinds of lava, neither sympathizing with the other in any discernible manner nor influencing other in any appreciable degree. Clarence Edward Dutton, Report on the Geology of the High Plateaus of Utah, 1880
It’s tempting to go to the throat of the volcano to get the data, because if you do you're a hero ... It’s a battle between your mind and your emotions. If your emotions win out, you can get yourself in a lot of trouble. Ken Wohletz
Deep beneath a popular California resort town lurks a long-dormant super-volcano. Secrets of the Underground s1e7, Discovery 2017
The tragic annihilation of Pompeii is legendary. Now 2,000 years later beneath the same Italian coastline a ticking timebomb is brewing that could dwarf the Pompeii eruption. Secrets of the Underground s2e4: Doomsday Volcano Mystery