Alva Review-Courier -

Tornadoes, hurricanes, earthquakes and volcanoes are threats to life. We haven’t experienced all of them at the same time in the same place, but recent volcanic activity makes us aware that in this less-than-perfect world, things happen.

Volcanoes are found on all the continents except Australia. National Geographic photography has captured their splendor throughout the world and most recently Mauna Loa in Hawaii. Current news updates report that homes are being threatened, roads destroyed, and lives upended by this natural phenomenon.

Lying dormant for 38 years, not much time compared to the history of the Earth, Mauna Loa, Earth’s most active volcano, rises 13,679 feet above sea level. It is a shield volcano but there are many types. Mt. St. Helens, in southwestern Washington State, erupts with a destructive explosion, sending bombs of lava thousands of feet away. Others, like the Hawaiian Island eruptions, result in a slow flow of magma that crawls down the mountainside, finally reaching the sea. When someone mentions volcano, the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius in Italy, which destroyed the city of Pompeii, comes to mind. The population was asphyxiated or crushed and buried under a blanket of pumice in the year 79.

Like building on a flood zone, cities near the cores of volcanism are constantly threatened. Can a volcano appear in historically stable areas of the crust? In 1943, Paricutin Volcano appeared in a cornfield in Mexico. How likely is it to happen here? As likely as winning the lottery, and you know the odds!