Countdown to Catastrophe

1,900 volcanoes worldwide are considered active. Many are widely unknown, such as Mount Nyiragongo in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. At an altitude of 3500 meters a hot lava sea boils and bubbles at 1000° Celsius.

In many countries of the world, people are so used to earthquakes that a little jolt of the ground barely raises an eyebrow. But since the Fukushima nuclear reactor disaster In Japan at the very latest the issue of seismic security has taken on new urgency.

How does a hurricane come to be? What impact do these giant whirlwinds make on the global climate? It has only recently been established that over 80 percent of the hurricanes that slam the East Coast of the United States are first formed above the African savannah.