History Main / ChekhovsVolcano

* ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'': Volcanic eruption was one of the factors causing the [[CataclysmBackstory Doom of Valyria]]. Valyria had a lot of volcanoes, which were the places where Valyrians hatched dragons in the first place. During the doom, however, the volcanoes erupted ''at once'', destroying the land and filling the air with so much toxic air even the dragons died. The rumored demons who live in the land now are still associated with volcanic fire. A Targaryen princess who went there came back [[AndIMustScream slowly boiling alive]], with hot worm-like creatures bursting open from her skin and dying on impact with cold water.

* Vesuvius, of course. Etna in Sicily erupts quite frequently, and Stromboli off the Sicilian coast is in a nearly constant state of eruption.
** Vesuvius erupted in late 1943 with enough force to provoke an effective local ceasefire in [=WW2=], as both the Germans and the Allies struggled with the practicalities of staying alive in what threatened to become a disaster area. Creator/SpikeMilligan related that his artillery unit was tasked with evacuating Italian civilians from threatened areas, as humanitarian relief took precedence over fighting the Germans. (who apparently used the respite to regroup a safe distance away and prepare new defences).

* Mount Rainier is feared to be this. Largest Volcano in the lower 48, one of the broadest in the world in terms of glaciers and crags and area. Tacoma and Seattle, with about 3.5 million people, lie nearly entirely on old mudflows from the volcano that are less than 200 years old.
* The volcanoes of the Hawaiian islands erupt (well, ooze) frequently, meaning the islands are slowly growing bigger (and volcanoes that are now underwater may someday reach the surface, as more lava builds up higher).
** To complete the frequent comparisons with Hawaii, the French island of La Réunion has the Piton de la Fournaise volcano. It's easily accessible, erupts on average once a year, and its average level of danger is exemplified by how the first reaction of locals and tourists when an eruption is announced is to organize eruption-sighting tours.
* The geysers, hot springs, and "paint pots" of Yellowstone National Park are all caused by geologic activity from a massive caldera that spans the whole region. Pray it never, ever explodes.[[note]]The general consensus among volcanologists is that it's not likely to for at least a few hundred years, and more like a few thousand.[[/note]]
** The Yellowstone hot spot is located in Wyoming. The Yellowstone Volcano Observatory is based out of the University of Utah in Salt Lake City, some 250-plus miles to the south.
** The Yellowstone Hot Spot is actually just the latest in a long line of hot spots extending back to the Southwest over several states. The North American plate moves and the hot spot gradually shifts.
** Although many supervolcanoes or megacalderas are extinct now, there are still some active ones, not just Yellowstone. Taupo in New Zealand is another still active one.

* The Toba catastrophe theory, which not only reduced humanity to a few thousand individuals (fortunately, that wasn't enough back then), but may also have been the true cause of the last ice age, or at least hastened its arrival, which it was coincidentally followed by. In fact ''all'' supervolcanic eruptions can lead to an ice age.

* Krakatoa is still feared to be this, or more precisely Anak Krakatau, 'Child of Krakatoa'. After the original volcano blew itself apart in 1883, a new volcano started growing out of the caldera the old one left.
** These fears proved to be valid when Anak Krakatau erupted on December 22, 2018, causing the volcano to collapse to a small caldera barely above sea level, and producing a deadly tsunami.
* Tambora, which spewed so much dust into the atmosphere that it lowered temperatures for several years and made 1816 'The Year Without a Summer'.

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* ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'' adventure "In the Dungeons of the Slave Lords." The city of Suderham lies in the caldera of an extinct volcano. Guess what happens by the end of the module? The entire campaign of "The Shackled City Adventure Path" is [[spoiler:based on the bad guys trying to cause a dormant volcano that has a city built into its crater to erupt in order to fuel their demonic artifact.]] Possibly averted in that the characters have the ability to stop it (though are not required to for the completion of the campaign). Even if the [=PCs=] succeed in preventing an all-out eruption, the tremors still do quite a number on the town.
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* Subverted in the ''Literature/Vorkosigan Saga'' book ''Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen''. Despite Kareenburg being built on the side of a volcano that is known to be a geological time bomb, and despite Cordelia's insistence that the planetary capital move to somewhere safer, it does not go off during the book. (The capital gets moved anyway — and Kayburg suffers some strong tremblors during the epilogue, hinting that the mountain is getting ready to blow sometime in the near future.)

* The geysers, hot springs, and "paint pots" of Yellowstone National Park are all caused by geologic activity from a massive caldera that spans the whole region. Pray it never, ever explodes.

* ''Supervolcano'' contains an exaggerated example. The eponymous volcano is none other than Yellowstone, a 4400 km^2 volcano whose historic eruptions have had massive effects that were felt worldwide. When it erupts, it obliterates everything within dozens of miles from the caldera, covers most of North America in ''feet'' of ash, and covers the globe in layers of volcanic gases.

Mount Fuji, a national symbol of Japan, is a notable exception, since nobody ever makes a big deal about Mt. Fuji being a volcano, so it's rarely a plot point. The same goes for stories set in Hawaii, with the volcanoes as major identifiers to the setting and rarely anything more than that. Let's just hope they never address the existence of [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Toba a certain lake in Indonesia]] or [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yellowstone_National_Park a certain national park in Wyoming]]...

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%%* ''DantesPeak''.

* On the other hand, played straight in the 1923 silent film ''Film/TheWhiteSister'', which was also set in Naples. Mount Vesuvius does indeed erupt during the film's climax.

* In ''Film/TheLordOfTheRingsTheReturnOfTheKing,'' Mount Doom erupts spectacularly after [[spoiler:Gollum falls into it with the Ring]]. The original idea was to have the eruption cause the destruction of Barad-dûr, but that was dropped. In the subsequent Coronation scene in Minas Tirith the volcanic cloud over Mordor is gone, implying that Mount Doom is now extinct.

* Played with in ''[[Literature/MythAdventures Myth-Taken Identity]]'': there's an active volcano ''under'' The Volcano, a clothing store, but thanks to protective magic it never erupts. Rather, it's used to destroy the story's ArtifactOfDoom ... which is the natural ChekhovsGun role for a volcano ''[[GenreSavvy in a fantasy novel]]'', especially a tongue-in-cheek one.

* ''Series/ForeverKnight'' also has the Pompeii eruption. 'A More Permanent Hell' depicted Lacroix's backstory,showing General Lucius partying with his pals after returning from Gaul. Unfortunately, he lived in Pompeii, and the result was his daughter siring him to prevent him dying in the eruption.

* [[WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds Helen Wells]] attempts to {{Invoke|d}} this in the Season 2 finale of ''{{Series/Warehouse 13}}'' by taking the [[ArtifactOfDoom Minoan Trident]] to the Yellowstone caldera. Fortunately, she is [[DefiedTrope talked down]] by

** Averted and played straight in VideoGame/MarioAndLuigiDreamTeam. Averted with 'real world' Mount Pajamaja, which despite being temporary base to the BigBad and a key part of the plot, doesn't erupt at any point during the story. Played straight with the dream version, which does (because you actually try to get it to blow up to open the portal again). Also, the dream one is... a [[ThatsNoMoon sentient being]] which tries to kill the Mario brothers, so it turns out the whole eruption idea wasn't the best one.

* The ''VideoGame/CivilizationVI'' expansion ''Gathering Storm'' uses this trope as a game mechanic. Active and dormant volcanoes can be found scattered around the map and much in real life, erupt on an unpredictable basis. There is a risk-reward calulus to settling cities and building improvements near them, as eruptions can create fertile land and proximity to the volcano can boost faith or science, but of course the eruptions can also destroy anything nearby. The game lampshades this with several humorous messages if you decide to settle close to one.

* Mount Rainier is feared to be this. Largest Volcano in the lower 48, one of the broadest in the world in terms of glaciers and craigs and area. Tacoma and Seattle, with about 3.5 million people, lie nearly entirely on old mudflows from the volcano that are less than 200 years old.

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Not to be confused with AppeaseTheVolcanoGod.

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%%* ''VideoGame/GoldenSun2001'': Mt. Aleph.

* In ''Literature/IFavorTheVillainess'', the eruption of Sassal Volcano was so catastrophic, it defined an entire period of the Bauer Kingdom's history. [[spoiler:It's bound to erupt again during the commoner revolution, a fact protagonist Rei knows all too well, and spends much of her time and the penultimate story arc planning for.]]

* An example that crosses over with DiesDifferentlyInTheAdaptation: Early in the ''Literature/JurassicPark'' novel it's mentioned that Isla Nublar is a dormant volcano, which is why the island uses thermal generation (this is not mentioned in [[Film/JurassicPark the first movie]], but it's a minor detail mentioned in ''The Lost World'' to justify [[RagnarokProofing why the electronics at the abandoned Site B compound are still working]]). A central plot point of ''Film/JurassicWorldFallenKingdom'' is that the volcano is finally becoming active again and is about to go "kaboom", taking Isla Nublar with it... and it sure does, [[ThePlotReaper wiping out the park forever]] in the second act.

** Following the events of ''[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIVOblivion Oblivion]]'' and a nearby ColonyDrop (all part of an epic TraumaCongaLine for Morrowind), Red Mountain erupts during the TimeSkip prior to ''[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsVSkyrim Skyrim]]''. As a result, Vvardenfell's settlements were destroyed and much of mainland Morrowind was left under a choking cloud of dust. (These events are known as the "Red Year".) Many of the [[OurElvesAreBetter Dunmer (Dark Elf)]] people were forced to flee, both due to those events and the subsequent [[LizardFolk Argonian]] [[TheDogBitesBack invasion]], with many settling in [[GrimUpNorth Skyrim and Solstheim]].

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[[quoteright:340:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/dantes_peak_volcano.png]]

[[quoteright:340:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/volcano.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:340: The volcano's exploding! Who would have guessed?]]

* The ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries'' episode "Day of the Samurai" uses this trope.

* One episode of ''WesternAnimation/YoungJustice'' had a villain named Red Volcano attempting to destroy Earth by setting off one of these. And guess where.

* ''Film/WhenTimeRanOut...'', Irwin Allen's last DisasterMovie, is about this.

%%* ''VideoGame/GoldenSunTheBrokenSeal'': Mt. Aleph.