Volcano Stories

Off the coast of Morocco, on the Spanish archipelago of the Canaries, men have developed a wealth of ingenuity to make the most of volcanoes that provide them with fresh water, salt and vines.

Fogo Island, in Cape Verde, is dominated by the very active Pico do Fogo volcano. For more than two centuries, a community of irreducibles has settled in the crater and cohabits with the fire monster despite the dangers.

Mount Fuji is the universal symbol of Japan. Its perfect and iconic shape has inspired the greatest artists. For the Japanese, it is the ascent of a lifetime, a true initiatory passage.

Nevados de Chillán is the most active volcanic complex in Chile. Despite the risk, the Chileans have installed a ski resort only a few kilometers from a particularly active crater.

The Atacama Desert is a volcanic land rich in countless treasures. Fresh water, copper, lithium... over the millennia, it is the volcanoes that have given men the resources to live and prosper in this inhospitable territory.

In Mexico, the Popocatépetl volcano challenges humans to understand it. Today, the risk of eruption is high and the threat looms over the nearby capital, Mexico City.

In the Caribbean, in Martinique, Mount Pelée awoke in 1902, causing the deadliest volcanic disaster of the 20th century. Faced with the threat, volcanologists are watching for the slightest sign of awakening so that history never repeats itself.

The Japanese island of Aogashima, in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, is one of the most inaccessible volcanoes on the planet. Despite this, the few men and women who live there are viscerally attached to this volcanic gem and its many treasures.

In Montserrat, a small British island in the Caribbean, the terrible eruption that began in 1995 hit the island's capital with full force. Since then, Plymouth has become a ghost town... More than 20 years later, the island is starting its reconstruction and a long process of reconciliation with its volcano.

In 2018, the island of Mayotte is shaken by a long series of earthquakes. While searching for the origin of this seismic crisis, scientists discovered a huge active underwater volcano a few kilometers off the coast. Since then, a large-scale oceanographic mission has been trying to unravel the mysteries of the youngest volcano on the planet... because the daily life of the people of Mayotte has been turned upside down by this new, unpredictable neighbor.

In Peru, the second city of the country extends to the feet of the Misti volcano. Volcanic mud flows, burning clouds... scientists are watching because this giant threatens the million inhabitants of Arequipa. But far from these worrying prospects, in everyday life, the volcano brings much more than it takes... a white volcanic stone is the treasure which allowed to build one of the most beautiful cities of South America...

For the first time in 800 years, huge lava flows are flowing down the slopes of the Reykjanes Peninsula in Iceland... A rare opportunity for scientists to study a phenomenon that usually takes place at the bottom of the ocean. This eruption brings many dangers to the inhabitants... but Icelanders are not afraid and welcome it as a great show offered by Nature.

In the Azores, on the island of Sao Miguel, volcanoes are overflowing with energy... In some villages, volcanism results in dangerous gas emanations but the heat of the volcanoes, when it is well controlled, is above all an opportunity... volcanic cooking but also geothermal energy which allows the island to become today a reference for green energy.

The island of Santorini is forever marked by a legendary eruption, one of the greatest volcanic disasters the Earth has ever known. The remains of an ancient city buried under the ashes for more than 3000 years still testify today to the violence of the cataclysm. Over the millennia, this terrible event has fed the greatest myths such as the Plagues of Egypt. Today, scientists remain on alert, because at the bottom of the sea, the threat rumbles...