If anything will ever make you want to go anywhere

I've just watched this programme Julia Bradbury's Icelandic Walk where she walks up to Eyjafjallajokull and sees lots of beautiful volcanic landscape, hot springs, sulphur vents, nice huts and lovely Icelandic people with jumpers. I really enjoyed the simple explanations of geology which are made easier to understand by seeing the stunning effects they have on the landscape. Another thing that was significant was the recentness of the landscape which means it is quite barren so this not only fascinating from a geological point of view but also a biological one as you will actually be able to see the vegetation and life forming. I just think I'm going to have live in Iceland, be a hut warden and paint volcanoes every day, going to Sweden should bring me a step closer. The lunar like landscape slightly reminded me of the Outer Hebrides which have a similar barren bleakness, geographically they are fairly close too I suppose. I also watched this video which has a nice culinary slant on the guardian website. It's really great for me to see so much about Eyjafjallokull as its eruption was really what restarted the Volcano Club and while I do love all volcanoes, there is something really magical about Iceland; maybe it is the new landscape, the contrast of fire and ice or just the fact that it's like no where else in the world. If you're not an Icelandophile (it's a real term) then here are some more pretty pictures of volcanoes, having said this if you're not an Icelandophile you really need to look at your life. I just did a Google image search for Iceland and literally every picture was amazing so I just picked the first one.

Now I have to find a costume for Fake Christmas- which is tomorrow incase you were unaware, I can dress up as anyone from history, ever. Which is a harder theme than you may think. 

Happy Volcano Listening.

For a while now I've been mentally compiling a volcano play list (and slightly on this blog) and I aim to do a pop culture zine special soon. The main reason I haven't is cos my friend Alice said she'd write me a volcano song and I am currently too wrapped up in guilt for not contacting her in ages to ask her about said song. So Alice if you're reading this then writing you a letter is lit on my to do list- well it will be as soon as I can find a pen. But anyway I recently got notified to some new volcano music by a friend Rob. Firstly here is a pretty picture of a volcano record he bought (records with pictures of volcanoes on is a whole new field that my mind had never considered before but I'm pretty sure I don't have any).

 

Then we have a band called Volcanos with (It's Against) The Laws of Love, which is a lovely little song.

 

This has reminded of another band called Volcano who are a punk/country supergroup! Formed by one of the Meat Puppets, I haven't listened to this song yet because I'm listening to the radio now, its Josie Long's show and I need to pay attention so I can convince her that we should be best friends one day. But anyway it must be a good song as the band, album and song are all called volcano.

 

Finally the Bjork volcano song cos I don't think I've posted it here yet, even if I have, you can never have too much Bjork. 

Feel free to post more volcanic music below. 

Volcano Quiz!

If like me the cold and dark days are getting you down and all you want to do is play online quizzes, then this website is for you. Although I should say that is what I want to do about 80% of the time anyway. But anyway here is a little a NatGeo volcano quiz there are also lots of other fun things on the website especially if you are a child, if not its still pretty great. http://kids.nationalgeographic.com/kids/games/puzzlesquizzes/quizyournoodle-volcanoes/
I got 100% so no pressure.

Volcano of the Week #23 - Santa Maria

This is the decade volcano that I don't know much about and therefore decided to feature as the next volcano of the week whenever I could be bothered to write it, that time is now. The volcano is in Guatemala in the Sierra Madre range, which is featured in the excellent film 'The Treasure of the Sierra Madre' starring Humphrey Bogart. For obvious reasons I get the 'Treasure of the Sierra Madre' confused with 'High Sierra' but 'High Sierra' is the one with Ida Lupino and the dog and the 'Treasure of the Sierra Madre' is the one with gold, hope that clears things up. That's probably enough about Humphrey Bogart films so back to the volcano, Santa Maria was responsible for a massive eruption (VEI= 6) in 1902, making it one of the 4 largest eruptions of the 20th century. Before this eruption the volcano had been dormant for around 500 years and the eruption was preceeded by an earthquake in April that year. The eruption began on the 24th October and produced around 5.5 cubic km of tephra and was seen in San Francisco. 5,000 were killed as a result of the eruption however a following outbreak of malaria killed many more, wikipedia is unable to tell me if these two things are linked so we will never know.

In 1922 a new lava dome was formed in crater of the eruption 20 years earlier, this has been christened Santiaguito. Santiaguito erupts almost constantly, the summit of Santa Maria is above Santiaguito making exciting eruption viewing opportunities. Santa Maria is a decade volcano which means it is thought to be possible of damaging civilisations, the main threat from the volcano is lahars (mudflows), they are slow moving so more likely to damage buildings than people. The volcano has previously damaged the town of El Palmar in the Quetzaltenango department, so severely that the town has had to be relocated twice a bridge was also destroyed in 2005 by Hurricane Stan. The origin site of the town is now to be entered at YOUR OWN RISK but I suppose that's true of anywhere. It is also close to Guatemala's second largest city Quetzaltenango.