But that renewal takes a very, very long time. And it doesn’t undo the fact that it is super scary and dangerous to be around for one of these natural disasters.

It does, however, help me understand why people might have chosen to live near volcanoes. Humans need food to live. Food grows best in fertile land. People found fertile land near mountains they did not know were volcanoes or near volcanoes that have not erupted in many years. They chose to live where the farming is the best.

Another reason people end up living near volcanoes is that volcanoes tend to be on islands or on the shore near a large body of water. Some people are in businesses such as fishing, or running a hotel or a restaurant for tourists that are based on being near the water. Other people just love being near water, so they choose to live or vacation there, even if it’s near a volcano.

How people live with volcanoes is more confusing to me, the more I think about it. Today we know which specific mountains are volcanoes so we don’t end up living near a volcano by chance. But there are other things to consider. We still don’t know precisely when the volcano will erupt. And we do not know how dangerous the eruption will be.

Here are four stories my friend told me that helped me understand more about volcanic eruptions and what they show about some of Earth’s changes. They paint a picture of how people were affected by volcanoes through history. Each one of these eruptions, and the related earthquakes and tsunamis, happened a very long time ago, and took place in different parts of the world.