The History of the EarthHistory has shown that the surface of the Earth can change, and just as quickly, that our lives can change with it. In an instant, our planet can become violent and out of control, creating and destroying life and earth. There is not a single day that the Earth passes silently without affecting lives in positive or negative ways. The rich ash of a volcano can produce mass crops for a farmer, but in most cases it leads to a massive wipeout for an entire crop. Humanity has a natural instinct to adapt to our environment, and that is exactly what we do whenever Earth leaves us no choice. From the small island of Montserrat to the many islands of Hawaii, and a little closer to home (about six miles north of my back door), there are several fault lines where a major earthquake could occur at any time. The approximately 11,000 inhabitants of Montserrat, a small Caribbean island, received an unwanted visit from a mountain of hair that destroyed more than a third of their island. Although more than half the island, including the now non-existent capital, was evacuated and warned of the volcano's eruption, nothing could prepare them for the destruction of their homes and lives. When the volcano was uncorked, it released massive pyroclastic flows down the side of the volcano and directly into their lives. Filled with deadly gases, ash and rock, these flows swept away lands that were full of life only months before. The vivid images of this island and its struggle with the mountain replaced my foggy vision of the power of a volcano. Action sixty miles below the earth's surface can bring together and unite people sixty miles or more away. People around the world have experienced the same fur that the earth can create, whether from a volcano, earthquake, tsunami or any other vicious face that the earth can to show. Earth has many moods that we must learn to respect, as they all maintain this planet in its ever-changing state, including the creation of new, one day habitable, earths. Included in this new habitable land, one of our own states, Hawaii, new land is being created every day. Because of this hot spot on our planet, more than a million people can live in a volcano. Today there is an active shield volcano that constantly erupts lava and pours it into the ocean..