Of the 1500 potentially active volcanoes on Earth, only a small fraction are actively monitored, and fewer still have erupted since scientists started watching.
The greatest hazard at potentially active volcanoes is human complacency.
Of the 3,000 or so active and potentially active volcanoes, for example, we are monitoring just a few hundred.
With only around 150 of the world's 3,000 active and potentially active volcanoes monitored, further disasters on a scale of Saint Pierre are inevitable.
The problem is that out of our world's 1,300 or more active and potentially active volcanoes, we monitor only a few hundred.
Each of the more than 1,500 potentially active volcanoes or volcanic areas around the world has a distinct form, though most can be generalized into nine categories.
With more than 500 million people now living in the danger zones around active and potentially active volcanoes, forecasting which will explode into life next is becoming increasingly critical.
If this is a typical number for a rift system, there may be several thousand potentially active volcanoes along the oceanic ridges that are the surface expressions of the world rift system.
The GEOWARN project (choosing the "Kos Yali Nisyros Tilos volcanic field, Greece" and the "Campi Flegrei, Italy" as test sites) is oriented toward potentially active volcanoes situated in regions of high geodynamic unrest.
We were dismayed, however, that although the article focused on recent hydrological changes to the Boiling Lake, it barely acknowledged that Dominica is comprised of at least nine potentially active volcanic centers, giving it one of the highest concentrations of potentially active volcanoes in the world.
