alt Hacker NewsVolcanic ash is highly productive and at the very least you would think latifundia would be there. If opportunistically you can find an old water cistern and turn it into an oven, why not?
Modern day Indonesian and Philippines and Pac rim Island farmers don't stay away from volcanoes any longer than they have to. Mud flows different. Ash? That's plantable. And tuff forms, you can build with it.
I find this surprising, because my impression was that complex biology requires pioneer species to spend some time making "fresh" geology from the earth inhabitable first if there isn't already an established ecosystem.
Why is volcanic ash so productive? Is it the result of coincidence? Adaptation? Some resource cycle?