Ring of Fire Page #2

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forming complex volcanic conduits

and immense magma chambers

on its way to eruption.

Through repeated eruptions

this tectonic process

has formed the volcanoes

of the ring of fire.

Mount Sakurajima is one of

hundreds of volcanoes

which make up the

island arc of Japan.

The fire drummers of

Mount Sakurajima

enact the fury of the volcano.

Each year, Sakurajima explodes

in scores of ash eruptions

which blanket the island

and the port city of Kagoshima.

An annual evacuation drill

commemorates the terrible eruption

of Sakurajima volcano in 1914.

The islanders live in harmony

with active volcano

which affects nearly every

aspect of their lives.

Across the bay in the city of

Kagoshima, even the shopping malls

have been designed

with domed skylights

to keep out the regular

storms of ash.

Life goes on for a people living

in the shadow of destruction.

Kagoshima survives, in part,

because of the vigilance

of the scientists

who live and work at

the center of the bay

on the very flank of the volcano.

Here every fluctuation

of the volcano

is carefully monitored by a

team of volcanologists

headed by dr. Kusuke Kamo.

Vigilance is a way of life

in a country with

more than 50 active volcanoes

and more than 10,000 earthquakes

every year.

In the great Tokyo earthquake of 1923

more than 140,000 people perished

mostly from the fires

started by the quake.

Today the people of Tokyo

are part of a national

earthquake preparedness program

designed to save thousands of lives.

Buildings are structurally

engineered to survive

the tremendous forces generated

by earthquakes.

No people on earth are as prepared

for natural disaster as the japanese.

Humans are not the only primates

adapted to life on the ring of fire.

Heat from volcanic sources

warms the hot springs of Nagano

allowing the japanese snow monkey

to survive as the world's

most northerly species of monkey.

In Beppu, people have

also learned to live

with volcanic powers,

harnessing their

geothermal energy for health

and relaxation.

The therapeutic hot springs

of Kirishima...

and the lava sand baths of Beppu

have become popular health spas.

A respite from the relentless

pace of modern life

which, in Japan, is always

just a step away.

3,000 miles southwest,

where the ring of fire

crosses the equator

buddhas keep watch

over the volcanoes of Indonesia

at the temple of Borobudur.

Writer/anthropologist Lawrence Blair

has lives in Indonesia for many years

studying the ancient bond between

its volcanoes and its people.

The temple of Borobudur...

it was built in

this highly unstable valley

to commemorate

the achievement, not of

architectural engineering

but of serene harmony

in the human heart.

For 10 centuries, it has survived

earthquakes and eruption

which have long since eclipsed

the enlightened empire which built it.

For Indonesia is the most fertile

and eruptive nation on the planet.

Perhaps the long memory of

a shifting, unstable earth

has taught the indonesians

to rely less

on the physical world

than on the unseen forces behind it.

Deep within the crater of

the notorious volcano

of Kawah Idgen, there are those who

seek their living directly from

the cauldrons of hell.

For here is a rare surface

source of pure sulfur

to be mined by hand and

borne on their backs

for 15 miles down the volcano's slopes.

Within their lungs

the poisonous fumes

turn into sulfuric acid

condemning them to a life of

less than 30 years.

Still they accept Kawah Idgen's terms

grateful for the volcano's gift

confident of their destiny

beyond this world of shadows.

On the indonesian island of Bali

towers the sacred volcano

of Gunung Agung.

"The Navel of the Universe."

Worshippers still climb the flanks

of the sacred mountain

where, in 1963, thousands died

in an eruption of superheated

ash flows.

High on the slopes of

the sleeping volcano

at the surviving mother temple

of all bali

the kecak dance unfolds.

A ring of fire pulsates as

a single organism

but is soon divided by strife.

Two god kings emerge

leaders of the warring opposites.

The king of the monkey people...

and the king of the demons.

Their battles violently divide

then reunite the community

restoring its balance

just as the holy mountain above

regularly destroys and renews.

The rich, fertile land, which is

the wealth of Indonesia

is a gift of the volcanoes.

A deep and ancient understanding

of the connection

between life and death gives

indonesians an easy intimacy

with both the creative and the

destructive powers

of the earth and with

their own mortality.

In Bali even the bodies of the

dead together with their

finest funeral arts

are returned to fire.

To god Shiva's purifting furnace

of renewal and rebirth.

The fire god in different forms,

is alive atop nearly all of

Indonesia's some 140 volcanoes

reflecting an ancient understanding

that paradise and catastrophe

go hand in hand.

To witness creation in all its power

we return to the very center

of the ring of fire.

The volcanic island of Hawaii

has been created

in just a few million years.

Measured from its base

on the Pacific floor

Mauna Loa is the tallest

mountain on Earth,

and together with its

sister volcano Kilauea

it is among the most active.

In 1984, Mauna Loa and Kilauea

came to life in rare

simulaneous eruptions.

For 21 days and nights

Pele, the Hawaiian goddess

of volcanoes, danced.

Unlike the explosive strato-

volcanoes on the pacific rim,

the more fluid lavas of

most hawaiian volcanoes

form fiery lakes and rivers,

which flow down

the broad slopes of

the great hawaiian

shield volcanoes toward the sea.

The Mauna Loa eruption ended,

but Kilauea continued to erupt,

and between the volcano and the sea

lay the village of Kalapana.

Beneath the cooled surface,

the lava continued to flow,

forming its own underground arteries

as it rushed toward the sea.

Shere the lava flows into the ocean,

the island frows.

This is the newest land on Earth.

In less than a year, life will emerge.

In less than a decade.

hundreds of species

of plants and animals have returned

to Mount St. Helens.

In less than a century, forests

filled with life

will once again dominate the land.

Creation did not happen just once.

Creation continues.

It is a beginning without end.

The Earth is alive.

We recognize it in the volcanoes

of the ring of fire.

And we bear witness to it

in the indomitable spirit of its peoples.

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