Humans have lived and thrived around volcanoes for millennia. Often they understood the dangers as most eruptions are small and somewhat localized. But occasionally massive eruptions wiped out farmland, homesteads and event entire cities – like Pompeii. But the people came back – the ruins of Pompeii are surrounded by the urban growth of Naples.
So why do people live around volcanoes? What draws them to these often dangerous locations?
Here are three possible reasons
1. Volcanic soils are fertile soils
The breakdown of volcanic ashes, rocks and their contained minerals creates very fertile soils. They are mineral rich, often very well drained, and support productive crop growing of all types – grains, orchards, olives and more. An occasional ‘light’ eruption of ash added new nutrients back to the soils.
Humans have always lived close to their food sources – and so civilizations grew up around these soils, often towns being built on lava flows that were not as productive agriculturally as the nearby ash beds.
2. Geothermal and mineral resources
The heat from molten rock below the surface of volcanoes and the release of gases from those rocks has often provided an additional resource for civilizations. Hot waters have provided cheap heat, and still do in many volcano regions such as Iceland. In recent times, geothermal heat is being used to generate electricity cheaply and efficiently – reducing some countries reliance on fossil fuels.
Deposits of geothermal minerals – minerals that are leached out of rocks by the circulating hot waters in the volcanic rocks, concentrated, and then redeposited have provided humans with metals and other minerals. Sulfur deposits from magmatic gases have been mined for fertilizer and gun powder.
And all these resources have allowed humans to develop technologies to make their lives better.
3. Spiritual Significance
As well as the production of food and resources, humans have also revered volcanoes and given then spiritual significance. The sounds of eruptions have been attributed to gods talking. The flames to gods forging tools and so on. Many cultures have volcano deities woven into and through their stories – such as Pele in Hawaii.
Living close to their gods was important. Being able to provide materials (sacrifices if you will) to appease those gods made them feel that they were being protected.
These three reasons is what keep humans living around volcanoes in the past. In modern times, many of these locations have added the bonus of tourism as a way to generate income of their towns and cities. People flock to see the ruins of Pompeii and to climb my Vesuvius that caused the cities destruction sin 69AD. The trust boom in Iceland over the last 5 years has been attributed to the recent volcanic activity and so on.
We are still drawn to volcanoes. Students around the globe are taught about their features and impacts. They are truly a fascinating part of our dynamic planet!