La Soufrière, the skyscraping volcano on the northern side of the Caribbean island of St. Vincent, began exploding on April 9, 2021. At press time, no deaths had been recorded, but ash has smothered the entire island, causing power cuts, polluting waterways, and burying crops. The volcano upped the ante that day, but the eruption itself actually began way back in mid-to-late December, when a toothpaste tube–like mass of lava started oozing out of the volcano’s summit. It built up over the next few months, first as a dome, then…
