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I do take your point, but it's one I'm constitutionally unable to appreciate.
07/10/2021, 14:58:45

    Peter2 writes:

    If you take a circle of about 6–7 miles diameter centred about a mile WNW of Chester city centre, we've lived in that area for 46 years. In that time I can remember 3 earthquakes that I have actually felt, and none of them has caused us any damage. The nearest active volcanoes are in Iceland, and there have been no floods within miles of our house. The nearest thing we get is the occasional flooded road, encountered on the way to somewhere else.

    I have two particular memories from a holiday in Sorrento years ago. The first is standing at one end of the forum in the ruins of Pompeii, looking down the length of it and seeing, 10–15 miles away, the volcano that destroyed it. The second was on our walk up Vesuvius, seeing the farmers tending their crops in the fileds on its lower slopes. And I thought to myself, is the risk really worth it? To them, the amswer was obviously "Yes".

    When we got to the top and looked down into the crater, it was perfectly flat and covered with small shale. It looked just like a dark grey hard court for tennis. The only sign of vulcanism was a faint smell of sulphur dioxide and the quiet hissing of the fumarole that was causing it, about 25 ft away to my right.

    However, I remember that dramatisation some years ago of what would happen if the supervolcano under Yellowstone came to life, and that chilled me down to my marrow.





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