A lava park in Spain

The lava park is surrounded by the volcanic mountains of Les Preses, revealed as the edges of a vast caldera and repeated at a human scale with low walls made up of small volcanic boulders. These walls are evidence of how successive communities have gradually worked amongst this lava flow to create arable land, supported by rich soils. The people saw the land prosper and learned how to maximise its productivity. Boulders that had come to the surface during agricultural cultivation were moved with human labour to create "artigas“, the characteristic pilings of volcanic stone. They have been used to raise and lower areas, to create shelter and exposure for their crops and to make caves for storage. Amongst all this, paths weave and cross. The whole place is made up of grey and black rocks with a constant cover of green crops or grass.

Submarine pyroclastic deposits formed at the Soufrière Hills volcano, Montserrat (1995–2003) : what happens when pyroclastic flows enter the ocean?

The Soufrière Hills volcano, Montserrat, West Indies, has undergone a series of dome growth and collapse events since the eruption began in 1995. Over 90% of the pyroclastic material produced has been deposited into the ocean. Sampling of these submarine deposits reveals that the pyroclastic flows mix rapidly and violently with the water as they enter the sea. The coarse components (pebbles to boulders) are deposited proximally from dense basal slurries to form steep-sided, near-linear ridges that intercalate to form a submarine fan. The finer ash-grade components are mixed into the overlying water column to form turbidity currents that flow over distances >30 km from the source. The total volume of pyroclastic material off the east coast of Montserrat exceeds 280 × 106 m3, with 65% deposited in proximal lobes and 35% deposited as distal turbidites.