Volcanic landscapes, both active and dormant, and their related features provide priceless natural resources, which are used worldwide as tourist attractions that are popular with people from a wide range of backgrounds.
The preparation for this book has taken rather longer than anticipated but combining the collective information was a complex task. The delay, however, turned into a blessing, as in the meantime several more volcanic areas acquired protected site status, either as inclusion on the UNESCO World Heritage list or as members of the growing geopark associations such as the European Geopark Network, the Japanese Geopark Network and the UNESCO Global Geoparks Network. <...>

Volcanic activity can have a profound effect on the Earth's atmosphere and environment across many spatial and temporal scales. From being the source of most gases in the atmosphere over geologic time scales, to producing climate change, to threatening aviation, volcanic eruptions as well as non-eruptive volcanic gas and particle emissions provide a strong link between the lithosphere and the impact of the atmosphere on human activities.

Volcano geomorphology sparks interest across the geoscience disciplines. Volcanoes are one of the most fascinating landforms as their formation operates over an unusual timescale in comparison to other geological processes. Volcanic eruptions can occur as a single explosion, while long lasting lava effusions may take years. These time frames are several magnitudes shorter in comparison to any other geological processes, leaving behind material built into the rock record of Earth.

Natural geologic hazards arise from the interaction between humansс and the Earth’s natural processes. Recent natural disasters such as the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami that killed more than a quarter million people and earthquakes in Iran, Turkey, and Japan have shown how the motion of the Earth’s tectonic plates can suddenly make apparently safe environments dangerous or even deadly. Th e slow sinking of the land surface along many seashores has made many of the world’s coastal regions prone to damage by ocean storms, as shown disastrously by Hurricane Katrina in 2005.