Vulcan, the Roman God of Fire who gave volcanoes their name, would have loved Mexico. Within its borders can be found volcanoes of every major type, exhibiting various stages of activity from the (maybe) extinct Tlaloc through the dormant Pico de Orizaba to the highly active Nevado de Colima and varying in age from the ancient Nevado de Toluca to the infant Paricutin. Most are concentrated in what is known as the Trans-Mexican Volcanic belt stretching from Vera Cruz to Jalisco, but there are isolated examples like Los Pinacates in Northern Sonora, Tacana in Southern Chiapas and Tres Virgenes and La Reforma in Baja California. There are even a couple of stragglers, Barcena and Socorro, some distance off the Pacific coast.

      Throughout history, volcanoes have caused massive destruction. The Greek island of Santorini was destroyed around 1500 B.C., killing thousands, writing an end to Cretan domination of the seas and creating the legend of Atlantis. In A.D. 79, Vesuvius buried three Roman towns, Pompeii, Herculaneum and Stabiae, in lava and ash so deep the ruins were not uncovered until archaeologists began work there in the 18th century. The eruptions of Tam bora (1815) and Krakatoa, (1883), both in Indonesia, killed nearly 130,000, either directly, by causing tsunamis or by sending up dense clouds of toxic gases and ash that affected weather patterns worldwide and caused widespread crop failures for several years.