The town was entombed in stone. Plus, ancient artwork found at site attacked by ISIS.
|  | Saturday, October 29, 2022 | | | | |
 | | PHOTOGRAPHS BY CARSTEN PETER | |
It was like a scene from Dante’s Inferno. An intense volcanic eruption (pictured above) spewed lava almost 2,000 feet into the air and covered much of the Canary Island of La Palma in molten rock and ash for months.
Photographer and Nat Geo Explorer Carsten Peter spent 46 days photographing the thunderous awakening. The clouds of ash proved to be the most challenging hurdle. It stuck to his hair and seeped into his clothing. He wore a mask to protect his lungs and took extreme care to safeguard his eyes. The sharp, spiky grains of volcanic ash particles also got into his camera’s lenses.
On some days, the ash clouds “enveloped everything in darkness,” Carsten says. “It looked like your final days were coming.” How does a professional who began covering volcanoes at 17 deal with their wrenching effects on people nearby? “I did not only photograph, but also helped people,” he told us.
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| | Rivers of lava: For months, molten rock wound its way to the ocean, swallowing whatever was in its way: homes, schools, farms, and roads. | | | |
| | Forged in fire: The island was born from volcanoes and the coastline continues to grow with each eruption. The lava devastated marine ecosystems nearby, but now—a year after the island’s biggest eruption in at least 500 years—new life has already begun to flourish atop the nutrient-rich underwater rocks. | | | |
| | Bananas: Farmer Santiago Alexis Hernández Rodríguez washes damaging ash from bunches of bananas. Before the 2021 eruption, half of La Palma’s gross domestic product came from bananas grown for export. Some of the island’s life has had to change. | | | |
| | Safe for now: The eruption spared lives and some houses, like these built on mounds of older lava rocks. But with more than 60 million people living in the shadows of active volcanoes worldwide, disasters like this will become more common. Read more. | | | |
 | | PHOTOGRAPH BY ROLAND HILGARTNER | | | |
| QUIZ: CAN YOU GUESS THIS PLANT? | |
 | | PHOTOGRAPH BY ALICE ZOO | |
What plant is this? In ancient times, this plant was credited with curing diseases. It also made food tasty—at least until it was overfarmed and believed to have gone extinct. Now a Turkish researcher says he has rediscovered it. Rediscovered what? Click here to find out. | | | |
 | | PHOTOGRAPH BY MELANIE METZ | |
Our turn! Sunshine & the Skelly Funks. Emo Frogs. The Oddities. For many queer kids in the South, there are few safe space to be carefree. At this music camp for girls, transgender, and non-binary youth, they have the freedom to experience unfettered joy together. While rocking out. 🤘 (Pictured above, Anniston Pierce, keyboardist for Sunshine & the Skelly Funks.)
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 | | PHOTOGRAPH BY JAMES L. STANFIELD, NAT GEO IMAGE COLLECTION | |
All the world’s a stage: Two centuries before Columbus, 21-year-old Ibn Battuta set out for Mecca and returned three decades later after traveling to the far corners of the Islamic world. In Nat Geo’s 1991 story featuring this legendary journey, our photographer documented actors putting the final touches on their makeup before performing an opera near Guangzhou, China. See more vintage photographs here.
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| This newsletter has been curated and edited by David Beard, Jen Tse, Heather Kim, and Sydney Combs. Thanks to the Nat Geo French edition for the interview with Carsten Peter—and to Darren Smith, Beata Kovacs Nas, Amy Kolczak, Leigh Mitnick, and Samantha Clark. Amanda Williams-Bryant, Alec Egamov, Rita Spinks, and Jeremy Brandt-Vorel also contributed this week. Have an idea? We’d love to hear from you at david.beard@natgeo.com. Thanks for reading! | | | |
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