Re: If I was standing close to a volcano at eruption time, would I be vaporized

Well, vaporizing is not really likely because the lava just doesn't get 
hot enough.  The temperature of lava is around 1000 - 1500 degrees 
centigrade (1800 - 2700 F).  The vaporization temperature for water (and 
our bodies are about 60% water) is 100 degrees C (212 F), so lava is 
certainly hot enough to vaporize water.  But the rest of our bodies is 
made of other materials, most of which have higher vaporization 
temperatures.  The highest vaporization temperatures are found in our 
bones and teeth, a mineral called apatite (calcium phosphate).  Although I 
have not been able to find information on apatite's melting or 
vaporization temperatures, it should be fairly obvious that, as a mineral 
(and a component of rock), immersion in lava might melt our bones and 
teeth, but it won't vaporize them.  So at least 10% of our bodies (the 
weight of bone of teeth) will not vaporize, even if immersed in lava.

However, even the water parts of our bodies may not vaporize during a 
volcanic eruption.  Consider:  if you drop an ice cube into a pot of hot 
water, it will take a few minutes to melt, and it will vaporize and boil 
away eventually. But it won't boil immediately - it takes continuing 
exposure to the high temperatures to boil.  In other words, you have to 
transfer enough heat to the ice to cause it to melt and boil.  So extend 
this to a person - if you splash lava on a person, the lava will heat up 
the person, but the lava will also be cooling off at the same time.  So a 
little bit of lava will give you a bad burn, a lot of lava may be fatal, 
but to vaporize someone, they'd have to be dunked in lava and left there.  
On the other hand, many volcanic eruptions eject hot rock and hot gas, 
plus a lot of ash and smoke, but they don't necessarily eject large 
amounts of molten rock (lava).  And, then, there would be a big shock wave 
from exploding gases, and this shock wave could also be deadly.

So, to try to sum up a little bit:

The blast from a volcano could stun or kill someone
The hot gases from a volcano could suffocate, poison, or roast a person at 
the rim.
Lava splashing on them could kill them
Rocks and ash coming out of the volcano could crush or bury people

But...it's not likely that a person would be out-and-out vaporized.  

One very good book about volcanoes was recently published - it is called 
Krakatoa and was written by Simon Winchester in 2003.  I've read it and 
it's quite well-written.  And, for on-line information, you may want to 
check out one of these websites:
 http://volcano.und.nodak.edu/vw.html (North Dakota University) http://vulcan.wr.usgs.gov/ (Cascades Volcano Observatory) http://www.dartmouth.edu/~volcano/ (The Electronic Volcano) http://volcanoes.usgs.gov/ (The United States Geologic Survey page) http://www.volcanoworld.org/ (Volcano World)