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Article: Volcano tamers: an elite group of scientists stands between a half billion people and the world's most dangerous volcanoes.(Cover Story)(Brief Article)
- Article from:
- Popular Mechanics
- Article date:
- March 1, 1998
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1998 Hearst Communications, reprinted with permission of Hearst. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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* First the good news: Earth-tremor sensors and global communication networks make it possible to save millions of lives by predicting when volcanoes may erupt. Now the bad news: The people who live at the feet of active volcanoes don't seem to care.
Consider what happened last June when a mushroom cloud of smoke and ash rose above 17,890-ft. Popocatepetl, a volcano about 33 miles southeast of Mexico City. Troops dispatched to evacuate 30 villages near the peak came back empty-handed. Reportedly, the villagers refused to leave. They said that no one could be sure the volcano would swallow their homes. But if they left and it was a false alarm--as it turned out ...