By 1815, Mount Tambora’s magma chamber was under immense pressure. On April 5, the mountain began its final rumble, sending a massive plume of ash into the sky. The eruption climaxed on April 10 ...

This time, I was visiting Saxony, the state in eastern Germany, called the German Democratic Republic (GDR) from 1949 to 1990. I was motivated to return by the country’s celebrations of centuries of ...