gulfed the port of St. Pierre, killing 

 40,000 people. The islands of Indo- 

 nesia are studded with active volcanoes, 

 which periodically erupt disastrously. 

 In 1883 the volcanic island of Krakatoa 

 exploded, throwing ash many miles into 

 the air. The ensuing collapse of the is- 

 land into the void below produced a "tid- 

 al wave," or tsunami, which drowned 

 over 36,000 people on Java and Suma- 

 tra. The dust from the explosion trav- 

 eled around the world and reduced the 

 sun's radiation at the earth's surface by 

 about one-eighth. Again, as recently as 

 1963, between February and May, some 

 2,000 persons lost their lives during erup- 

 tions of Mount Agung on the island of 

 Bali. 



Occasionally the birth of a new vol- 



in the first week and 1,000 feet high in 

 ten weeks. All activity ceased in March 

 1952. 



A 1963 Volcano 



Just two months ago, in November 

 of 1963, as a result of a submarine erup- 

 tion, a new volcanic island appeared off 

 the southern coast of Iceland and rose 

 to a height of 300 feet in six days. 



More than 650 volcanoes are known 

 to have been active during recorded his- 

 tory, but the actual number is probably 

 much greater because of the inadequacy 

 of our records. The distribution of the 

 world's volcanoes can be seen on the 

 accompanying map. Many border the 

 Pacific Ocean with offshoots into the 



fornia erupted in 1915 and many of the 

 magnificent volcanoes of the Cascade 

 range were active in the last century. 

 There are many other areas, such as the 

 Craters of the Moon National Park in 

 Idaho, where lava flows are so fresh- 

 looking that one can easily imagine 

 them moving. 



Volcanic activity is thus an active 

 constructional agent, which builds up 

 the land's surface and provides us 

 with some of our most spectacular 

 scenery. Some volcanoes are composed 

 of great piles of lava, which flowed 

 to form gently sloping masses called 

 shield volcanoes. Mauna Loa on Ha- 

 waii is such an example: it rises more 

 than 30,000 feet above the general floor 

 of the ocean and to nearly 14,000 feet 



PRINCIPAL ACTIVE AND DORMANT VOLCANOES OF THE WORLD 



cano is witnessed; within historic times 

 this has always occurred in well-known 

 volcanic districts. The best-known ex- 

 ample of recent years is Paricutin in 

 Mexico. Starting in February 1943, 

 this volcano grew out of a cornfield to 

 form a cinder cone about 500 feet high 



Page 6 JANUARY 



Caribbean and Indonesia. Other well- 

 known volcanic regions are the Medi- 

 terranean, East Africa, and the islands 

 of the Atlantic and the central Pacific 

 oceans. The volcanic areas of the west- 

 ern United States are now dormant, al- 

 though Mount Lassen in northern Cali- 



above sea level. Other volcanoes, like 

 Paricutin, are formed largely of cinders 

 — an accumulation of lava fragments 

 blown out of the crater. 



Some of the most beautiful mountains 

 in the world are the strato-volcanoes. 

 Composed of countless layers of lava and 



