Life on Fire

Whether the Philippines, Papua New Guinea, Colombia, Chile, Italy or Iceland, each of these countries is home to active volcanoes that are a threat to the populations settled at their feet. To avoid disasters, volcanologists are asked to be prophets and to analyze the volcanoes’ slightest tremors. Around the world, these volcano doctors use their tools and knowledge to try and protect those who live beneath the Earth’s fire.

In the vast emptiness of the Pacific Ocean, tectonic movements construct or destroy islands. In the Tongan archipelago, two little-known animals have learnt to cope with these ephemeral lands: the sooty tern, a seabird that never dares wet its wings for fear of drowning and the Alvin shrimp, a blind crustacean that nonetheless manages to find its way around the abyss. When an underwater volcano becomes an island, the fates of these two living paradoxes are linked.

Central American volcanoes have created a number of rich and varied ecosystems, from the depths of the jungle to the prairies. But when one of these volcanoes awakens, the animals and plants are faced with a situation that they have never confronted before. In a torrent of ash and fire, the animals either die or move to a less volatile volcano to give birth to the next generation.