Piton de la Fournaise, Réunion Island.
Like Hawaii, Reunion Island is the site of a hot spot. The
progressive northeastward motion of the western Indian Ocean plate has led
to at least three periods of caldera collapse.
The volcano rivals Kilauea in terms of frequency of eruptions.
Fortunately most of the eruptions have a VEI index of less
than 2.
According to Maurice Krafft, the Abbé de la Caille
(1713-1762) claimed that on the island of Bourbon (now Réunion),
the volcano burned brighter in the cyclone season.
Jean Baptiste Geneviève Bory de Saint Vincent published
an account of the volcano in 1804 in which he named the summit craters after
scholars: Faujas de Saint Fond, Dolomieu, and himself (Bory).
Volcanic rocks returned from Réunion were instrumental
in the interpretation of the Puy de Dôme of central France as being
of volcanic origin.
The first stamps below were issued in 1907 and constitute
a map of the island.
The stamp illustrated below was issued in 1927, a surcharge
on an earlier issue.
Different surcharge, different stamp, same view.
The airmail stamps below were issued on March 24th, 1947
The first depicts the shadow of the plane, with cones in the
background.
The stamp below depicts the island from the cockpit window.
I'm not sure what the yellow is supposed to be, but it could
be an artists impression of a mantle plume feeder, or "hot spot".
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