Breath of the Earth's interior
... On one of the islands in the Tyrrhenian Sea, off the coast of Italy, there is a mountain with a deep dip on top. It is the abode of the Roman god of fire named Vulcan. He is a very hard worker, his favorite pastime - blacksmithing. Coming to his forge, Vulcan enjoys the work and does not even notice that the smoke and flames burst from the top of the mountain, bringing terror to the inhabitants of the earth and causing them to panic.

So the legend goes. It is full of real smoke, fire, panic, horror is one of the most impressive description of the activity of the volcano left to posterity naturalist Alexander von Humboldt - in late XVII century, he witnessed the eruption in Riobamba (Ecuador). Then right next to the mountain opened up the soil and large houses sank into the ground without any damage, so that the inhabitants of them, alive and unharmed, could open the door to the inner room and waited two days before they were released.

The outgoing century was rich in gifts from god Vulcan. Everything happened, as in the famous poem by V. Tushnova "land absorbs the sea, from the sea rose mountains ..." However, the causes of what we used to call the volcano, still do not have a common understanding. But in recent times, at the dawn of the XX century, the volcanoes have long seemed safe exotic creatures of nature.

For example, on the island of Martinique in the Caribbean was a port town of San Pierre, and next to him constantly kurilsya volcano Mont Pelee. The beautiful mountain rushed visiting travelers, on the edge of the crater arranged fun outings. When the spring of 1902 the villagers heard the distant rumble of the underground and saw the column of smoke rose, they initially did not attach any special meaning. Excitement showed animals: snakes crawled out of the crevices, leaving their homes birds.

The sailors were passing ships began to notice that in no wind suddenly appeared out of nowhere deep waves, warmer water .. We had to think about the impending threat to life on the island, but in the city elections were scheduled, and the government made a decision: no voter does not have to leave town! The crash occurred three days after the decision, when the lava hit the city, destroying everything in its path. A few minutes killed 28 thousand people. Escaped by accident, only one person sitting at a certain fault in prison with thick walls ...

In 1923, the beach in Hayama near Tokyo. One noted ichthyologist at the shore deep whiskered cod. It was a bad sign: creatures sensed trouble - two days later an earthquake killed 150,000 people ...

1943, February, Mexican village Parikutin. Indian Pulido worked in the garden. Suddenly, from under his feet flew piece of land. The soil there was a cleft, from which went smoke. Gap increased with each passing minute. Injun ran toward the village, and at the point where there was just a man, the earth opened. A month later, started a big eruption Parikutina. Volcano ash covered the ground layer thickness of 150 meters! He poured lava village of San Juan, leaving only the bell tower from him ...

1953, November. Along the southern coast of Iceland sailors fishing vessel "Isleyfur" saw the smoke birth of a new island! At first his appearance spotted radar: before our eyes in the middle of a huge cloud of land there is something! This was accompanied by thunder and smoke. Just a day in the sea there was an island a few hundred meters and a height of 10 meters.

As a result of the July 1976 earthquake in Jakarta, one of the islands of the Indonesian archipelago, known for the beauty of nature and ancient temples, the ruins remained. On the northern coast of the island was wiped Serir city with a population of 50,000 people ... The epicenter of the earthquake in 1976 the Philippines was in the sea. Ten-water bank, born of the sea floor shifts, washed away from the coast than one hut islanders ...

Finally the famous earthquake of 12 points in Guatemala, where both threw fiery lava and ash of a volcano just three! The result - tens of thousands of dead, the sixth of the population homeless. The famous traveler Thor Heyerdahl was in those days in Guatemala - he later wrote: "I thought it was the end of the world! .."

In the same number of disasters can not forget about the "miracle of volcanic with two heads" - so called double volcanologists eruption, which occurred on the Kamchatka Peninsula on the night of January 1, 1997. This is a very rare case, just what is a natural wonder, what happened at the turn of the century: an hour in the same locality eruption of two volcanoes. Director of Far Eastern Institute of Volcanology, Academician Fedorov has suggested that this can happen at the birth of new volcanic islands. Popular rumor prone around to see omens hurried push mystical version: it is the very nature of what we wanted to warn mankind! Indeed, at the turn of the centuries always occur fantastic events ...