An oil company, previously postponed from drilling on a nature preserve using new laser technology, resumes their drilling in an area of the Pacific Northwest. But they are drilling too deep and instead of a huge pocket of oil, it's a lake of magma, which causes a new volcano to erupt near a small town. And this volcano is linked to the "ring of fire", which could activate all the other volcanoes across the planet, destroying most of mankind. On hand we have a geologist Dr. Matthew Cooper (Michael Vartan of ALIAS), potential love interest/reporter Emily Booth (Lauren Lee Smith of MUTANT X) and Oliver Booth (Terry O'Quinn of LOST), Emily's father and owner of the oil company. Cooper wants to try to avert the disaster by having a man-made explosion seal the rupture, but has to deal with his health condition he's ignored. Emily's red-headed son is aboard a school bus that was taking a field trip near where the volcano has appeared.
The mini-series is entertaining enough, though things fall a little too easily into place, of course making it predictable. No great shakes.