Were there volcanoes in the garden of Eden?

This text is from a transcript of a talk by David Gooding, entitled ‘God is on the Throne and in Control’ (1998).

As far as I know there weren't, and I should have thought it quite unlikely, considering the part of the world where Eden was. I don't think there are many mountains in the immediate vicinity, but if there were mountains in the early earth, were there volcanoes? I don't see why not.

You could say, 'But Genesis says that when God saw what he'd made, he saw that everything was good.'

Yes, everything was good, but I'm not sure everything was safe. Are you? We need the fires underneath the crust of our earth as part of the machinery for our atmosphere, heating, and what have you. The sun up in the sky isn't safe, I might tell you. God organized our world so that it's just precisely at the right point: not too near, not too far. Many other things are critically organized. We need the sun up in the sky, or we should freeze to death. We couldn't live without it, but the sun isn't safe. Australians will tell you that you'd better wear a hat when you go outside, or else you may get cancer from the light.

God planted a garden in Eden, which shows you that the rest of the world wasn't garden. His commission to man was to go forth and rule, and have dominion. It was a marvellous, exciting scheme, and if man had done it in his unfallen state as a child with a father, it would have been delightful. God surely would have shielded him from danger. Man sinned, and that enormously altered man's relationship with creation.

Whether there were volcanoes around the world in those parts that Adam wasn't going to see, I wouldn't be sure. All I would say is that there was electricity, and atoms, and there could have been laser beams; all sorts of things that were potentially dangerous, but God has given mankind the ability to harness them for our use.