Think Mount Vesuvius was a one-off event? Think again. Though the odds of their erupting may be slim, plenty of powerful volcanoes lie just outside cities around the world.

Volcanoes make some of the most dramatic skylines on earth. Any city lying in their shadow practically feels mythic.

Take Pompeii, which was a favorite place for Roman Empire elites to vacation before Mount Vesuvius blew its top in A.D. 79, raining down a 13-mile-high rocky plume of debris while a pyroclastic flow—a superheated combination of molten rocks, ash, and poisonous gas—rocketed toward the city at hundreds of miles per hour. In a flash, 2,000 lives ended.

Pompeii’s legacy is so iconic, it’s hard to imagine a volcano dealing a similar blow in modern times, but it has happened—and could possibly happen again.

Since 1900, at least three major urban zones have been hit by eruptions: St. Pierre, the capital of Martinique (1902); the Colombian city of Armero (1985); and Plymouth, the capital city of Montserrat (1995). When Mount Tambora in Indonesia erupted in 1815, its plume blocked so much sun that New York City saw snow on June 6 the following year.

But just because there’s a volcano on the horizon doesn’t mean you necessarily need to worry.

“Most volcanic eruptions are not large, and cities are not seriously impacted,” says Henry Gaudru, president of the European Volcanological Society (SVE) and advisor to the UN’s Decade Volcanoes project, which monitors the 16 most potentially destructive volcanoes on earth. Even though 500 million people worldwide may be directly exposed to volcanic risk, the United States Geological Survey’s Global Volcanism Program counters that prediction methods (like tracking magma temps in “dormant” volcanoes) have never been better.

Still, with the help of these experts, we’ve compiled a list of 15 cities that are most at risk of being affected by volcanic eruption. They may not be in immediate danger, but consider a visit sooner rather than later…just in case.

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Naples, Italy“The Napoli area is probably the most threatened modern urbanization,” according to Henry Gaudru, president of the European Volcanological Society. So you’d think a town that sits near the supervolcanic Campi Flegrei fields—and is just as close to Vesuvius as Pompeii—would be worried (especially since the port city’s small cobblestoned streets could take up to 72 hours to evacuate, while a pyroclastic flow could reach the city in less than six minutes). But wind patterns, which tend to blow northeast, away from Naples, are the city’s best protection.

Hilo, HI

Being the closest city to Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, Hilo is well aware of its potentially precarious placement. Twice, in 1855 and 1880, lava from Mauna Loa covered land that is now within the city limits, and in 1984, a flow came within 4.5 miles of town. The largest volcano on earth, Mauna Loa produces lava at a higher rate than any other Hawaiian volcano and is riddled with rifts and vents far from the crater (meaning closer to the city). Luckily, lava flows are notoriously slow, giving residents plenty of time to evacuate should it ever come to that.

Arequipa, Peru

Affectionately called the White City for all the volcanic sillar it’s built from, Arequipa is Peru’s second-largest city and epicenter of the alpaca sweater trade. It’s also located on an active fault line less than two miles from the foot of the 20,000-foot behemoth El Misti volcano. Should the volcano awaken, threats include a torrent of ash, a Pompeii-style pyroclastic flow, or even an avalanche should an earthquake cause the volcano’s wall to collapse. But for now, El Misti is one of the least active volcanoes on this list (it registered minor activity in 1985, but the last full-scale eruption took place in the 15th century).

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