35 Anniversaries - Mount St Helens and Ian Curtis

Two amazingly important events happened 35 years ago today one volcanic and one not, apparently these events aren't linked but I'm sure I can manage to find a tenuous way in which they are. The events are Mount St Helen's erupted and Ian Curtis died (18th May 1980). Obviously I wasn't alive for either of these events but the fact that Ian Curtis and Joy Division weren't really around in the 80s has pretty much blown my mind.  

The 1980 Mount St Helen's eruption is the biggest in recent history on mainland USA. It's part of the Cascade volcano range which is the American-Canadian range up the west coast, I'm quite obsessed with this area because it also has great forests, cool sounding cities and loads of great fiction is set around there (Twin Peaks, Housekeeping etc). It was a pretty large eruption, perhaps the most dramatic part was that one of sides collapsed producing a massive landslide. 57 people died in the eruption and it was also pretty economically and socially devastating. I think it's really easy to forget about the power and potential impact of ecological disasters especially if you live in the cosy developed world, it's way too easy to feel cut off from nature.

Normally Mount St Helens is portrayed in black and white like Joy Division (although I'm pretty sure colour was invented by the 80s).

Onto Ian Curtis (the link will come later when I think of it), I love Joy Division but it's quite rare that I want to listen to them (apart from now which is research), it's just too hard. It's just so bleak and raw (my boyfriend has epilepsy and depression so maybe it's all a bit too close to home) but I'm not gonna go on about how depressing Joy Division because that is just an established fact. I'm amazed it was 35 years ago because they do sound so modern and relevant and maybe that is because of the depressing nature. Without sounding like too much of a dick that raw emotion does kinda transcend time so it's always going to be relatable.

So there we have my link, some things in humanity and nature are inevitable and those are generally shit. Like the incredible force of volcanoes or your own despair just hope you're one of the lucky ones. That's my Mount St Helens/Ian Curtis suicide anniversary message which is in opposition to 'stop and smell the roses' sentiment. Here at Volcano Club we are more likely to stop and smell the roses realise that they are dying from some parasitic infection and understand that is a metaphor that everything good and beautiful eventually decays and turns to shit. Hopefully you can cope with it otherwise love will tear us afuckingpart.  

Volcano of the Week #27 - Villarrica

Right so I haven't done a post in fucking ages but I'm not gonna be all like - relaunch, yeah I'm back! Because I keep doing that and then not posting again so I'm hoping that I can casually start posting again and no one will ever notice anything and it will just be an indication of my great new life. So basically ages ago my mate was all like 'I'm going to Chile to see volcanoes and shit, can you write about them?' and I was all like 'yeah course I will mate, that's pretty much my thing' so I wrote about Easter Island - where she's obviously not going as its in the middle of fucking nowhere. Then more recently she was all like 'I'm in fucking Chile, the volcano I was going to climb has just erupted, can you find out whats going on?' and 'I was like, yeah of course - that's totally my thing', which I didn't do like the twat I am. The other reason (I think that this is an indication of my staggering immaturity) is that whenever someone says that they are doing something slightly fun or exciting, there's a part of me that a bit too jealous to even slightly engage with anything to do with the fun or exciting thing. Which is obviously fucking ridiculous and petty, also mylife is so fucking great that I spent yesterday evening watching masterchef and making a coral reef to go in my fireplace. But back to the volcano.

Its hard not to be jealous when people send you photos like this!

Villarrica was the volcano that erupted and I know that I'm well behind as there is also the Vanuatu volcano but I can only deal with one eruption at a time as I've been working in admin for 5 months and through under stimulation my brain is seriously struggling. Villarrica is one of those volcanoes that erupts quite frequently but rarely massively - although this has been a fairly large eruption and thousands of people have had to evacuate the area. It's also up there with Mount Fuji in the classic volcano looks - snow capped, lake and forest. The lake is also called Villarrica as is a town and national park. The alert has now been degraded and the exclusion zone has been reduced but probably not enough for my mate to be able to climb it, although she did say that she would do some writing for me - cos she's a babe, I'm lazy and she should really pay some penance for having lots of fun.

Hawaiian volcanoes, Hawaiian eruptions and Hawaii big island.

In Hawaii there is currently a volcano related disaster. This is the slow moving trail of lava from the volcano Kilauea which is located on Hawaii's biggest island, called Hawaii big island. The volcano has been erupting for a really long time (since before I was even born) in a not very violent eruption this type of eruption is called Hawaiian (volcano terminology can be very easy). The reason it is such a disaster is that the lava is travelling towards a town, however as the lava is so slow moving and the eruption has been going on so long people say that this was inevitable. The videos are pretty cool and scary but also make Hawaii look lovely, the video of lava reaching the ocean is just incredible.

Kilauea is thought to be the body of Pele so my theory is that he's still really fucking angry about the state of Brazilian football (hahaha). On a more serious note, the nature of Hawaiian eruptions means that damage is relatively low which obviously isn't much of a comfort if your home and land is being destroyed.

I will try and write a longer post but I working full time which is leaving me fucking knackered. 

Deep Sea Sulphur

I have always been fascinated by deep sea sulphur vents that are powered by volcanoes and are therefore incredible. However incredibly life has been found in these regions which can reach 400 degrees Celsius, have absolutely no sunlight and high sulphur content. This has completely challenged the way that scientists think about life and dispelled that fact that sunlight is always needed for life on earth and that organisms can use entirely different metabolic pathways which gives us an insight into all the amazing and weird ways that life could form. It also reminds us of how little we do know about life especially in the depths of the ocean and also the insignificance of man, readers of this blog will know I find this very comforting (another blog theme is that it could give an insight into life on other planets). These creatures have been found near Antarctica here is an article and some pictures.

 Yeti Crab

Pale Octopus not to be confused with Paul the Octopus (who I fucking love)

I have been posting a lot recently and I have just finished reading The Volcano Lover so I also need to write about that which I'll do when I'm feeling less ill. 

Obama's gone down in my opinion polls.

I love Barack Obama as much as the next person(more than many), this video of him buying Guinness is probably the best thing I've seen all day; Obama is cool (it's been a bad day, I almost saw a Manchester City parade). I just think it's a bit wuss of him to leave Ireland just because a volcano is erupting in Iceland, despite there only being one letter change it's not the same country, Obama is so stupid. I'm so sorry Barack, I love you, I really really do. But due to last years madness of the Eyjafjallajoekull eruption (which is interestingly your favourite volcano) every time a little volcano erupts people go mental and think they will never be able to fly anywhere again.

It was Grimsvotn that erupted and it is thought to be the most powerful eruption in Iceland in fifty years, it the fact that this eruption was so powerful that it is likely to be less disruptive than Eyja. The eruption is thought to be short and powerful meaning there will be no prolonged danger to air travel. Grimsvotn is also home to sub-glacial lakes and most of it's eruptions are thought to have been sub-glacial. The volcano has the same fissure system as Laki (Iceland's biggest volcano) and was erupting during Laki's massive 1783 eruption. Another link volcano and extraterrestrial link here- bacteria found in the sub-glacial lake are thought to be keys to life on Mars. These bacteria were the first to be found surviving in low oxygen conditions which are kept slightly heated by the volcanic warmth, as there are volcanoes and lakes on Mars (which is pretty cold) this is possibly of how life could survive there.

to be fair there was quite a lot of ash

The Volcano at Night

I found out about this, wrote a blog post about it, forgot about it, was reminded about it and watched it. Everything about it is fantastic, has some great actual volcanic facts and not just some moron talking about Cyndi Lauper and making crap paper volcanoes. Io is really cool, I really want a telescope and Sir Patrick Moore is really really cool. I won't try and write about space volcanoes as I'll just get it wrong and look like an idiot so it's probably best just to watch the programme.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00x7bxj/The_Sky_at_Night_03_01_2011/

How do volcanoes in space greet one another?

Io (an answer to the joke and a greeting to readers of this post)

I seem to remember reading that Io (one of Jupiter's Moons) was the only other celestial body in our solar systam to have active volcanoes. My good friend Alice reminded me of this yesterday when she woke me with a text telling the next The Sky at Night episode will be about volcanoes in space. Soon after realising that I hadn't actually been stirred by the fall of another wicket, I remembered this fact about Io, Alice needs confirmation from Sir Patrick, I now think I do too and maybe Io just has the most volcanism. Whatever the case, it has some which is cool so here are some facts about it.

Io has high orbital eccentricity, which means it is an elliptical shape, this means it has large gravitational pull, resulting in large tidal heating and this causes it's volcanism. Earth's volcanoes are due to magma movement from the geothermal activity or something like that (I really hope no physicists read the blog, actually I don't think anyone really reads it, so I should definitely make more stuff up).  There are three types of eruptions that occur on Io; intra-patera eruptions, flow-dominated eruptions and explosion dominated eruptions. Intra-patera eruptions occur in pateras which are caldera-like depressions on the moons surface, these can eruptions can be divided into those that with lava flows and those with lava lakes (a pool connected to a magma reservoir). Flow dominated eruptions seem to be similar to earth's Hawaiian eruption in that they continue for long periods of time and are often from lava tubes and fissures. Like Plinian eruptions, Explosion dominated eruptions are spectacular and violent, they occur when a magma body reaches a fissure and often produce lava fountains.

Hopefully there will more on this in next weeks The Sky at Night so I will be able to fill in all those gaps in my extraterrestrial volcano knowledge and pass on some wisdom. Issue Three will be out for in time for Christmas and I'm pretty sure that everyone you know would want a copy of the magazine so get ordering.
Finally here is another blog with a volcano of the week feature- definitely a copy of mine! http://www.gishbartimes.org/2010_08_01_archive.html

Volcano of the Week #2- Olympus Mons

Olympus Mons is located on Mars and is the largest volcano (and mountain) in the solar system. It is in the Tharis region, one of Mars' two main volcanic areas, the other being Elysium. At 27km, the height of this shield volcano is astounding, Everest is 8.848km. However it is the width (550km) that is truly mind blowing, to put this into context it is the size of Arizona or if you were standing on Mars you wouldn't be able to see the summit of Olympus Mons (and not just because you'd probably be dead). The caldera (central volcanic crater) is a humongous 66 by 83km and 3km deep.




Mars unlike Earth is lacking in plate tectonics which is why it is believed that Olympus Mons has grown to such a large size. With each subsequent volcanic eruption more lava is added to this fixed hotspot. It is relatively difficult to measure the volcanism of Olympus Mons due to its extraterrestrial nature. However lava flows have been seen as recently as 2004 and due its relatively young age, it is expected that there will be more volcanic activity.

This website offers more information on Olympus Mons and has some excellent pictures.

OlympusMons.com - Your Guide to Olympus Mons - the largest volcano in our solar system.

Thanks to Vanna 'volcanoes in space' Barber for a heads up on this volcano and a happy summer solstice.

Tintin and Volcanoes

Tintin has always been a massive influence in my life (for example my best friends are a small white dog, a violent drunken sailor and an eccentric professor) and I have recently realised that this spreads to my love of volcanoes. Flight 714, the penultimate tintin book involves not only volcanoes but also aliens. I know; volcanoes, tintin and aliens is an absolute winning combination. It's probably one of the strangest adventures but I still love it.




As well the excellent Tintin series Herge also wrote the adventures of Jo, Zette and Jocko. Which I suppose is a bit like a dumbed down version of Tintin. My older brother had all the Tintin books so Jo, Zette and Jocko were my thing. The second half of The Secret Ray (eruption of karamako) was all about a volcanic eruption and some cannibals so pretty great really (also Jocko is a pet monkey)