Near the tip of Alaska’s long tail of islands, a dotted line that curves across the North Pacific toward Asia, there is a giant spider lying in wait. The creature, made of fire and molten rock, sits at the center of a web spun of ice and frozen lava, its heart blood-red from its own heat. This is not a scene from a fantasy novel. It’s an image captured by a satellite passing above Alaska’s brooding Great Sitkin volcano, which rises more than 5,700 feet above the surf. The volcano…
