Secret Mount Vesuvius: Cauldron of Lava [2024]

If Mount Vesuvius erupts, they are basically hoping it erupts slowly because the city infrastructure and streets can’t handle the volume of a sudden mass evacuation.

Volcanic eruptions are quite fascinating. It shows the raw power of Mother Nature. It can’t be contained or stopped. The only thing we humans can do is move aside and observe. Yet there are stupid people out there who push the limits with deadly results, like that incident in New Zealand when several people got killed. During a walking tour inside the crater of an active volcano, I couldn’t get worse than that.

The volcano that erupted here in Iceland was pretty crazy. Even as an Icelander, I’ve never seen it up close before, but last year I went to see it with my family. It was quite the walk to get there, but definitely worth it. Now we’ve had another eruption in a different place in Iceland just a couple of weeks ago. I haven’t gone to see that as it is just way too far of a walk, but I can tell you that it is pretty strange that we’ve now had two eruptions in less than 2 years! And people say climate change isn’t real!!

There are not five volcanoes that form the Hawaiian Islands. There is only one large mantle plume underneath the ocean crust. As the plate that the islands are formed on moves westward, they pass over and beyond the present location of the plume and become dormant islands. Kawaii, being the oldest, is the farthest west. Hawaii is just about to pass over the plume, and another island is forming behind it.

Honestly, as people living on the volcano, we were basically raised and taught not to think about this. When I was 6-7, we regularly had lessons about the volcano. Then, this all disappeared, and today’s kids have no awareness that the volcano may erupt. This is positive because we can live without being in constant anxiety, but it’s negative because we live as if the volcano didn’t exist at all. Nobody ever talks about it.

That is a problem. Sure, thinking about it all the time would cause too much anxiety. But it needs to be talked about, at least so that the evacuation plan is clear for everyone. You can’t expect evacuation to work (if not completely, at least partially) if nobody is talking about it and knows precisely what to do when it has to happen.

Mount Vesuvius: Echoes of Fire and Ash

Naples doesn’t really have a feasible evacuation plan—or, at least, it didn’t when I did a project on the city four years ago. If Mount Vesuvius erupts, they are basically hoping it erupts slowly because the city infrastructure and streets can’t handle the volume of a sudden mass evacuation.

Actually, I went to the peak of Mount Vesuvius, and I am not concerned at all, as presently the volcano is mostly composed of salt, and the last eruption that it had in 1944 was primarily basalt. Also, Mount Vesuvius is not the only volcano in continental Europe, because just to the west of Naples, there is an even more dangerous volcano that actually gave birth to Mount Vesuvius.

That volcano is called Campi Flegrei. That volcano does not have salt but has an andesite-to-rail composition, which is extremely explosive. In the last 40,000 years, that volcano has had two super eruptions. Mount Vesuvius basically shares a magma chamber with the supervolcanic complex Campi Flegrei.

If that volcano blows, all of Naples will be destroyed, and the earth will have another period of global cooling. Keep in mind that the most powerful irruption that Mount Vesuvius ever had and its entire existence was a VEI-6, which is about the same size as Pinatubo. The previous two volcanic eruptions at Camp Flegrei, both 40,000 years ago and 14,000 years ago, had a VEI of seven, which is considered a super volcanic eruption. Both VEI seven and eight are supervolcanic-strength eruptions.

Have we harmed the earth to the point that there is no turning back? Such a point does not exist. Our greatest attribute, our ability to think, is something we must trust to transform nature. All we have to do is know which way our thoughts should be directed. What ought to be on our minds? What situation or condition do we need to ask for and strive toward?

Positive human connections are what we should consider in order to save our planet. That is, how can we protect nature through our relationships? How can we safeguard the planet as a collective? Everywhere we turn, we should see people who care about finding positive connections if we genuinely want to improve the earth.

It has nothing to do with recycling or other activities that we commonly associate with being sustainable. If we come closer to and consider each other, we will reach an entirely organic, perfectly connected, and round state, and then the negative forces will disappear from the world.

Everything nature does, from tornadoes, hurricanes, dust storms, super storms, tsunamis, earthquakes, and volcanoes to all the celestial things, is just so beautiful to watch. Deadly, and tragic, but powerful and mind-blowing because everything it does is done on such a huge scale. The power behind it just leaves you in awe.

Nature is beautiful in its primal fury. But only at a respectful distance.