Things learnt at Compton Verney

Finally went to the Volcano: from Turner to Warhol exhibition at Compton Verney on Saturday. It was supposed to be my brothers birthday outing, but he didn't actually make it, due to some drunken escapade involving a lost bag and a gay club (which is definitely enough information for me). I will probably do more in-depth posts on lots of the stuff there but here is a brief summary of things I learnt and saw about volcanoes.

1. Volcanoes are a lot more popular than even I thought; the exhibition catalogue had completely sold out, which is a shame as I was kinda hoping to do all my up and coming blog posts based entirely on that
2. The angle of a volcano should never be more than 30 degrees, I need to correct this in my volcano drawings

Good Volcano- John Ruskin                                                                  

Bad Volcano- Augusta Ward

3. Andy Warhol knew about the stages of a volcanic eruption
4. In this painting the people and plants wouldn't actually be able to be that close to a volcano as they'd be incinerated. Probably the best thing in the exhibition was the geologists view on the artwork saying if they were scientifically accurate, as well as being informative they were very very funny.

Vesuvius Erupting at Night

Pierre-Jacques Volaire

5. Pictures without volcanoes aren't as good as those with them in (I was already pretty sure about this)
6. The best pictures are of erupting volcanoes
7. I really really want to go to Iceland (the country not the supermarket)
8. Vesuvius is easily the most documented volcano, maybe because of its proximity to civilisation (or Western civilisation)
 9. Me and my mummy are really good at guessing restaurant menus (not so much to do with volcanoes)

I will hopefully do more posts on the exhibition as it was pretty great it would really help if I could get an exhibition guide; otherwise I'm gonna have to like remember stuff or just make it up.
Issue Three (fashion one) is coming along nicely,but contributions would be good as I'm pretty lazy.

Quilting volcanoes

If there's one thing I love almost as much as volcanoes then it would have to be quilts. In proof of this statement; I have been making a patchwork quilt since I was 7 years old (although this may actually prove my laziness and inability to finish anything). So it was a pretty exciting moment when during research for Piton de le Fournaise, I found a website displaying a collection of quilts devoted to the earth and sky. Also some are actually quite good other subject matters other than volcanoes include Stonehenge, tea cultivation and The Yankee Stadium.
 http://www.camomilleandco.freesurf.fr/photos_ouvrages.html

Piton de la Fournaise- Henriette Bonte

Geyser parc Yellowstone- Anne Coidan Lenoir

Piton de la Fournaise

I saw a very exciting facebook status update from my friend Julia yesterday

the active volcano on my little island is erupting!

So I had to investigate the matter further, the volcano in question is Piton de la Fournaise (peak of the furnace) on the island Reunion in the Indian Ocean. It a shield volcano and one of the most active in the world. The current eruption technically started last November and has a VEI 1, so it's on a pretty minor scale. The volcano does seem to be more a tourist attraction than a danger to humans, which is good and everyone seems to be safe which again is good.

Also its very very pretty.

The Volcano People

This film looks amazing it's set in the Kamchatka Peninsula in Siberia which I have written about before but what I didn't know is that it's home to the moat active volcanoes in the world and therefore incredibly beautiful. The indigenous who live there are called the Eveny people, they are of Mongolian descent and are practised in the ancient art of throat singing which is obviously great. Like the rest of the former Soviet Union the area was totally shaken up by its break up, however being so vast and far away we tend to forget about Siberia especially as it is as much a part of Asia as Europe. The film is about them and their relationship to nature particularly volcanoes (obviously). From this trailer it seems that they believe in living in tune with nature and not going against its grain. Which is something I've been thinking about a lot recently, I think we'd all probably be a lot happier if we did it more; I heard a good interview with Antony Hegarty and Bjork in which she was saying that she feels happy and energised in Iceland because it still has links to nature unlike cities like New York. I'm getting off topic now, but this is definitely a post for another time. In the meantime here's the trailer

"The Volcano People" Trailer from Webmaster on Vimeo.
 This is my favourite quote

disaster happens but opportunity often lies at its wake.

It's a very beautiful way of looking at the world and I'm really excited about seeing the film.

VOLCANISM!

This picture is taken from the amazing volcanism blog, which is a lot more serious than volcano club. It has information on all the ongoing volcanic activity. As seen in this beautiful map (think I am joining the rest of my family with their map obsession) so pretty useful if you're going anywhere that has unstable plate tectonics.

Another pretty exciting feature is Saturday Volcano Art which has really beautiful volcano pictures, there's also a quote of the day. Basically its a lot better than volcano club so in way don't want to put the link up, but as a volcano enthusiast, it's my duty to share great volcano stuff.
http://volcanism.wordpress.com/
Maybe I should write to them, tell them I love them and they'll give me a job (the blog writers not the volcanoes).

Volcano of the Week #8 - Lakagígar

Lakagigar or Laki is Iceland's premier volcano, it's close to the the village of Kirkjubaejarklaustur and lots of other Icelandic places that I've never heard of. The mountain is called Laki, however as it is actually the fissure vents that have the volcanic activity so the volcano's name is Lakagígar (craters of Laki). Lakagígar's largest known eruption was on 8th June 1783, the entire eruption lasted until 7th February 1784. Though in this time the eruption downgraded from a massive Strombolian with a VEI of 6 to a gentle Hawaiian. The consequences of this eruption were huge and pretty much caused the French Revolution. The resulting problems termed The Mist Hardships killed off a quarter of Iceland's human population and half of the cattle and horses. 

It was not just Iceland that was affected by this natural disaster mainly due to the size of the eruption; Europe's entire industrial output of sulphur dioxide in 2006 was only a third of that from Lakagigar. The following year weather was extreme in Europe with hot, hazy summers and harsh winters (the New-England winter in 1784 was also notably cold). In Britain around 30,000 died from sulphur poisoning and around 8,000 from the cold which contained 28 days of unbroken frost. The frost had bad effects on harvests throughout Europe; leading to famine and, in France, political unrest which climaxed as the Revolution in 1789. France was not the country to suffer from Lakagigar-induced famine as Egypt lost around a sixth of its population to famine in 1784. 

Like the last Volcano of the Week I'll end with another great religious quote this time from Jón Steingrímsson's fire sermon given as the people of Kirkjubaejarklaustur were in church surrounded by lava flow

"This past week, and the two prior to it, more poison fell from the sky than words can describe: ash, volcanic hairs, rain full of sulfur and saltpeter, all of it mixed with sand. The snouts, nostrils, and feet of livestock grazing or walking on the grass turned bright yellow and raw. All water went tepid and light blue in color and gravel slides turned gray. All the earth's plants burned, withered and turned gray, one after another, as the fire increased and neared the settlements."