Word: volcanoe
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...terror lies first in the surprise. An earthquake is hidden from one moment to the next, as the future is hidden, as God is hidden. The event does not announce itself as most other disasters do, as a hurricane does, or a flood, or even an erupting volcano, which is after all hard to miss as dangerous geography. A plague too arrives more slowly. That is no consolation, but at least the mind and nerves are prepared. The event proceeds in a logical continuum of developing bad news...
McPhee's heroes are not content to go with the flow, be it the Mississippi River's wanton meanderings, the angry surge of molten rock from an Icelandic volcano, or the periodic slide of real estate in California's San Gabriel Mountains, where waterborne debris can roar down hillsides and turn million- dollar dream houses into nightmares for owners and insurance companies. McPhee's strength is the odd detail of natural disaster: "The house became buried to the eaves. Boulders sat on the roof. Thirteen automobiles were packed around the building, including five in the pool . . . The stuck horn...
...hall continued to unleash frustration, criticism and not a little invective at their rulers -- even at Gorbachev himself. Some Muscovites said they found the show so riveting they had to keep their heart pills handy. Others admitted they watched and wept. One Transcaucasian Deputy aptly called the assembly a "volcano of words and wishes...
...feet are numb, and the air is so thin that a few tentative steps leave the body screaming for relief. Perhaps this is how Hans Meyer felt when, 100 years ago, the German geologist became the first to ascend to the rarefied heights of Mount Kilimanjaro, an immense dormant volcano 49 miles long and 24 miles wide that straddles the border between Tanzania and Kenya. Or the myriad of tourists who have since gasped their way to the roof of Africa...
...Kneubuhl, a grand old man of the island, who went from here to Yale and then to a screenwriting career in Hollywood, recalls how he used to play hide-and-seek in the ghost-filled dark as a boy. Now, he says, traditions are fading. "It's like a volcano getting ready, not exactly to explode but at the very least to ooze...