Volcanoes
There is no spectacle more captivating and at the same time frightening, than an active volcano. A fire-breathing mountain, fascinates and excites, dulling the sense of self-preservation of stunned observers. Hundreds of millions of people around the world live in close proximity to the sleeping “stone dragons”, getting used to them, ignoring the menacing evidence of catastrophes of the past.
Volcanoes have existed since the beginning of time. Ironically, the destructive power of their fiery torches, became the basis for life on earth. If volcanoes disappeared, our living planet would also disappear. Hinting at this, the surface of neighbouring Venus boils, hiding under a dense cover of atmospheric storms, it’s panoramas similar to terrestrial landscapes of the distant past. The extinct volcanos of lifeless Mars, which have long ceased to create the now-exhausted atmosphere of the red planet with their breath, testify to this….
Gallery of unusual volcanic landscapes
Sergey Samoilenko
Scientific director, volcanologist
“Let’s go on a journey together to the unknown planet Earth!” Together we will see how clouds are born. How basalt turns into clay; boiling in an acid cauldron. What is the primary – the most primitive landscape – with which the land once began to form? How minerals grow from gas. How Life develops a new surface. Closed ecosystems appear and live around volcanoes. Like our entire planet, movements in its core and mantle, the biosphere on it, volcanoes, hot springs, living communities and individual organisms make up a single system. A system whose name is Gaia. We will study it, lively and dynamic, consider it on a scale of seconds to billions of years, from microns to thousands of kilometres!”