The World of Volcanos (5/21)

The World of Volcanos (5/21)

Volcanoes constantly inspire us with awe and amazement, but they also frighten us. In stunning pictures Dieter Moor reports on the fascinating world of volcanoes with its myths and legends - such as that of the fire goddess Pele on Hawaii. The traditional Christian vision of Hell, however, also bears a striking resemblance to the inferno in the interior of our earth. The filmic journey takes us to Hawaii to the Kilauea whose lava stream has been flowing incessantly since 1983, to Pompeii at the foot of Mount Vesuvius, to the Aeolian islands with the volcano that gave all others their name - Vulcano - and the Stromboli, as well as to the Russian peninsula Kamtchatka.  Here 168 volcanoes, countless geysers and sulphur lakes mark only the most visible framework of a phenomenon that geoscientists regard as the heart of the "Pacific Ring of Fire"; earthquakes and volcanic eruptions send tremors through the 1,200-km-long peninsula in a weekly rhythm. Further stopovers on the filmic journey are Iceland - where the Eurasian and the North American tectonic plates intersect, and the upward surge of magma causes constant eruptions - and the Galapagos archipelago whose volcanoes loom up, bleak and bizarre, out of the waters of the Pacific Ocean. Dieter Moor also reports on the volcanic massif of Tongariro on New Zealand. In 1995 the pressure beneath the crater lake of Ruapehu discharged itself in the greatest eruption of the last century. For the Tuwharetoa tribe the Tongariro is a sacred mountain. To prevent it falling into private hands, they gave it to the government of New Zealand in 1887 - with the stipulation that it should be protected for all people. One more reason why the Tongariro, like all the other destinations in Dieter Moor's report, is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.