Volcano leaflets

I was given two amazing leaflets at the weekend; the first of which is from Scotland. My aunt went to the Shetland Islands recently- she sent me that picture of the odd volcano monument thing on a beach. Part of the Shetlands were formed by a volcano (Eshraness) - back in the old times when the UK was part of pangaea and close to the equator. This has given the islands amazing and dramatic landscapes, although I've never actually been there so I'm just guessing from the leaflet which guide you through some volcano trails taking you to a magma chamber and beaches where you can find volcanic rock. Even though it's highly illegal Kate stole me some of the volcanic rock which is very light and aerated, you can see it in the photo below. So in addition to wanting to go to all Hebridean islands I now also want to go to the Shetlands.

If you're thinking that all this seems a bit implausible then the second volcano leaflet is far more accurate. My brother is a TEFL teacher- which means he teaches English as a foreign language as opposed to teaching frying pans how to be non-stick. For a lesson his students had to create an island (if this seems like an odd task, he has also made them play Bargain Hunt) and the centre of one of the islands had a volcano. I think it was perhaps bad town planning that the mall was positioned next to a volcano; but it is amazing how much the map looks like a map of Hawaii's volcanoes.

Finally in Volcano news people have decided that volcanoes are so fantastic that they will create artificial ones to solve all the worlds problems. And I'm also finally going to go to this exhibition in Liverpool. I'm sure it'll be fantastic and I will write a full review.

Stamps and Not Stamps.

This time last year I wrote a post about all the volcano related things at Green Man Festival, after my return this year I only saw one volcano related thing at the entire festival- WTF? This was during the singalongwickerman screening, which is where you watch The Wicker Man but you get hymn books, sweets and learn the dance to the maypole song. So anyway Lord Summerisle says his grandfather settled on the Scottish island because of its rich volcanic soils, he then set up a lifestyle of paganism and debauchery (which has always looked like a lot of fun). I'll stop writing about The Wicker Man as it's not really relevant but I have also received more evidence of Scottish volcanoes; which are from my mother and her sister- too freaky to be a coincidence?! 

My Mummy's Stamp Design. I now have England and Scotland so it would be great if someone wants to make a Wales or Ireland stamp or wants to contribute any other stamps. Please email me some, I'm too lazy to make my own zines.

My Aunt found this on a beach on Shetland Islands.

In non Scottish Volcano news - I know it's hard to believe there could be some. 

Here is Isaac's volcano stamp- it's based on a book cover apparently.

I have also been asked if this scenario is possible. While it is not something that one would find in the wild, I say that it would be possible to create using a towel, lots of petals and a very powerful hair dryer. Alternatively you could use photoshop, although as we know - Photoshopping adverts is bad!

I think that's all my volcanic news for now, but there's exciting stuff in the magma chamber (or pipeline for non-volcano geeks). I have read this through but I'm very tired so would like to apologise in advance to my editor and readers. 

First Volcano Stamp

The creator says 

'Volcanic activity in England 
No. 1 Bradgate Park, Leicestershire'. The Precambrian rocks there are 
over 500 million years old.

 Isaac is still pissing about with his but it looks like that'll be ready soon too.

Design a Volcano Stamp!

For the new zine which will be travel based I am going to include some volcano stamps. I have previously written about real volcano stamps here. But I thought it would be cool for people to design volcano stamps. I would put this out as a competition and offer to make the best one but the royal mail ones are shit as you have to have a real stamp next to it and they are all gross so that seems a bit pointless but if you do want to make stamps  here is how. Also doing a competition would promote elitism which at Volcano Club we are against.
Here are my first two stamp designs.

Hopefully you will be suitably inspired to make a volcano stamp if so email to me at augusta.ward@hotmail.co.uk. Just remember that stamps are only about 2.5cm tall so don't write really tiny text on it or anything. If you have anything else to contribute to the travel based issue then email that to me. 

Girls + Zines

As I live in Manchester, I'm not really a big fan of promoting London based things but my friend is putting on an exhibition at Tatty Devine called Girls + Zines. Which rather obviously is full of zines made by girls, being a girl who makes zines, Volcano Club is in the exhibition well anyway I think it is but I haven't been yet, I hope I can make it as it looks pretty great. In an interview with Dazed Digital Barbara said Volcano Club is ace too – it's a really nerdy zine about everything volcano related. This may not sound like amazing praise but I think until this point VCs best feedback was "it looks like the type of thing a serial killer would do in Morse" I might start collecting all these quotes, maybe that'll be the zine I make when I really run out of ideas. 

From Barbara via Hastings, who knew there was such volcanicity in East Sussex. 

This weeks eruptions.

I did one of these posts ages ago and it was quite fun so I thought I'd do another one. I also saw a lovely picture of Etna but can't be bothered to write a whole post about it.

Here is a map displaying ALL the volcanoes erupting in the world this week.

1. Cleveland, Chuginadak, Alaska. Sarah Palin lives in Alaska, I'm not advocating the use of volcanic eruptions to take out politicians but it would solve a lot of problems. This is one of Alaska's biggest and most active volcanoes.

2. Etna, Sicily, Italy. Yay Etna's erupting again, it's a Strombolian eruption and fairly chilled. Here's a lovely picture of the volcano.

3. Marapi, Sumatra, Indonesia. Marapi is an Indonesian stratovolcano not to be confused with Merapi (which I have done on the map but they are in pretty much the same place).

4. Poas, Costa Rica. Poas is one of the most active volcanoes in Costa Rica and has a lovely lake

5. Rabaul, New Britain, Papua New Guinea. White vapour, dull incandescene, an ash explosion and slow rising grey ash plumes has been seen from the volcano. I don't have a lot to say about this one.

6. Stromboli, Aeolian Islands, Italy. The eruption was probably Strombolian, I don't think that Stromboli has ever been volcano of the week, I quite like it but I do need to see the film so my plan for the week is watching Stromboli and featuring it as volcano of the week.

7. Karymsky, Russia. The eruption was Vulcanian or Vulcanian-Strombolian, Here's a lovely volcano and a really lovely house, it's been volcano of the week if you're interested then read that or find something thats actually factually correct.

8. Kilauea, Hawaii, USA. I mean it's always erutping but obviously I have to feature it on the list. There has been a lot of lava lake activity recently and there was the rift zone collapse which is pretty beautiful. I did see a nice video of it erupting on the guardian which you can search for if you care, this is very lazy posting but there are lots of pretty pictures.

9. Kizimen, Russia. This is another Kamchatka Penisula volcano, which is the region where there are the most active volcanoes in the world which is pretty cool. The summit consists of overlapping lava domes and blocky lava flows. The peak was formed by four eruptive cycles.

10. Puyehue-Cordon Caulle, Chile. This volcano is pretty active and I can't quite be bothered to write about it.

11.Sakura-Jima, Kyushu, Japan. The volcano's formation began 13,000 years ago, the island joined the Osumi Penisula in 1914. I've just finished painting a series of volcano watercolours (which will feature on here v soon, I'm quite excited about them) but anyway I keep seeing other really lovely volcano picture which I wish I'd done paintings like.

12. Shiveluch, Russia. On my blog feed thingy I get the reports of all the volcanoes that are currently erupting (which is what I've based this post on) and there are always loads in the Kamatchsky Penisula, I've written about it before but I do find it amazing that there are so many volcanoes in Russia. This is one of the largest and most active.

This website is just fantastic and has real volcano facts.

Volcano of the Week #19 - Soufiere Hills

I have mentioned this volcano before which is located on Montserrat, a British Overseas Territory, and was reminded of it when someone commented on a post below about the Lashings cricket team. It is not however the only volcano in British Territory, there is one on the South Sandwich Islands which sounds very fun and some others in some other places. After a long period of dormancy, the volcano erupted in 1995 and has been going pretty much ever since; the most destructive eruptions took place from 1995-1999. The eruptions destroyed the capital Plymouth and almost half the island. Around two thirds of the population fled the island, many of whom settled in the UK. The UK was criticised for not giving enough aid after the disaster; Claire Short was particularly shit (which is a statement that I only want to link to this particular event), lack of aid is so often the case in the wake of these tragic events. I think it's no coincidence that natural disasters tend to happen in poorer places as due to less stable weather and conditions places cannot grow crops and have limited agriculture which ultimately leads to less stable industry. Then the poorer nations stay poor as we live in a horrible capitalist society so when these terrible disasters strike, the wonderful western world is slow to act. If you look at large nations like America they don't even provide enough aid to their poorer states which I think happened during Hurricane Katrina. Anyway back to the volcano before I go on an even longer, more boring and more agricultural rant.

The volcano is still fairly active and an evacuation order was issued during the 2006 eruption. No eruptions from Soufiere Hills have been particularly large (1995 only had a VEI of 3), it was the fact that the volcano had been dormant for so long and the unexpectedness of the eruption which caused so much chaos. The volcano is also dramatic as due to its large scale on the island and its style of eruption, which follows the dome growth and collapse pattern, eruptions have dramatically changed the landscape on Montserrat. So in every way this small island has been totally altered by the eruptions that took place; it is probably more noticeable in a small community that everything is linked, however larger nations should also not forget this.

There is also a song about Soufiere Hills, well not that much about it, it's really just about volcanoes in general. But according to wiki SH is the namesake.

This will go on the up and coming Volcano Club compilation CD which will be ready when Alice Purton has written her fucking volcano song!

Finally in volcano and Bjork news my mummy heard her on front row talking about lovely volcanoes so I will have to listen to that (this is primarily a reminder to myself).