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In "Journey to the Center of the Earth", which island do they resurface on?
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In "Journey to the Center of the Earth," the explorers resurface on the island of Stromboli. After a dramatic adventure involving a volcanic eruption, Otto, Axel, and their guide Hans are ejected from the volcano on this small island, located north of Sicily. They initially mistake their location for Etna, but later confirm with a local that they are indeed on Stromboli, seeing Etna in the distance.
This is a fairly common question concerning this book, and often readers and educators misinterpret the geography of the text. A common misconception is that the explorers in the story emerge from Etna. That is incorrect. The question posted here correctly asks what island the explorers emerge from. Mount Etna is technically an island volcano. It is located on the island of Sicily which is just barely southwest of mainland Italy; however, the explorers from this Verne story emerge through the vent of a volcano on a much smaller island. The explorers come out of Stromboli. Stromboli is a small island located north of Sicily. Axel and Otto are told by an local island boy that they are on the island of Stromboli. The men then look south and see Etna in the distance.
And those rounded blue hills to the east were the mountains of Calabria! And that volcano...
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on the southern horizon was Etna, terrible Etna itself!
"Stromboli, Stromboli!" I repeated.
The explorers in Journey to the Center of the Earth, Otto and Axel Lidenbrock and their guide Hans Bjelke, end up on the side of Mount Etna, near the Italian island of Stromboli. But their safe arrival there is via a perilous and dramatic adventure.
While journeying to the center of the earth, the travelers find that the route they hoped to take has been blocked by a rock cave-in. When they can't find a way to break through the sheet of granite stopping them, they decide to blast their way out. However, instead of finding a path to the center of the earth, the explorers encounter the sea rushing in. The powerful water pushes them along in their raft at breakneck speed. Finally, they are sucked upwards into a very hot volcano and ejected back onto the surface of the earth, near Stromboli.