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.

Being volcano-mad was madder than being picture mad

I've just started reading The Volcano Lover by Susan Sontag which is perfect for me as it combines my two great loves- volcanoes and feminism (I'm also gonna talk about plants so this will be shit hot). I've only read a bit of it but it seems to be about a mad old British Ambassador who loves volcanoes, paintings and collecting things and lives by Vesuvius and I imagine that his marriage will suffer due to his obsession. I think that I may find it hard to understand as I find volcano obsession completely normal- I think that being volcano-picture-mad must be the height of madness.

When Pliny described the 79AD eruption of Vesuvius he described the smoke plume as being like an umbrella pine, from this description we get today's term of Plinian eruption.

It was not clear at that distance from which mountain the cloud was rising (it was afterwards known to be Vesuvius); its general appearance can best be expressed as being like an umbrella pine, for it rose to a great height on a sort of trunk and then split off into branches, I imagine because it was thrust upwards by the first blast and then left unsupported as the pressure subsided, or else it was borne down by its own weight so that it spread out and gradually dispersed. Sometimes it looked white, sometimes blotched and dirty, according to the amount of soil and ashes it carried with it. 

It is also mentioned in The Volcano Club when the Ambassador sees an eruption of Vesuvius which has exactly the same umbrella pine appearance. Which you can imagine is a perfect description of a large eruption.

When I've read more of The Volcano Lover I'll write something more comprehensive about it. 

Oh Em Gee

Nyamuragira is erupting which I did hear about the other day, its in the Democratic Republic of Congo and along with Nyiragongo it makes up for 40% of the eruptions in Africa. The eruption which is its biggest in a century has doubled tourism in Democratic Republic of Congo which is a fairly unwelcoming country. It's seems to be a fairly beautiful eruption with lava fountains of up to 300m. Nyamuragira is part of National Park with Mountain Gorillas, elephants and lowland forests so what's not to love maybe the 12 year civil war and the fact that the DRC is one of the worst places to be a woman. Maybe I'll write this in more depth when I can be bothered.

But this photo gallery is pretty, is what inspired the title of this post "Oh Em Gee".

Here's a picture if you're too lazy to click on the link. 

Decade Volcanoes- Part Two, with added quiz!

Here's the second half of the decade volcanoes post, there may or may not a quiz at the end depending on how I feel (obviously I won't be able to edit this when I've decided). Anyway - less rambling, more volcanoes, that's going to be the title of my autobiography.

9. Sakurajima, Kagoshima, Japan. This volcano erupted violently in 1914 which dramatically changed the islands and the lava flows connected several smaller islands together. It has been erupting pretty consistently since the 50s and is part of a national park which is known for growing a large radish, volcanic soils tend to be for growing stuff in, you can tell I'm a Plant Scientist.

10. Santa Maria, Guatemala. I barely know anything about this volcano yet it was responsible for one of the largest eruptions in the 20th Century, maybe I don't know because it doesn't have a big Wikipedia article. This massive eruption with a VEI of 6 killed around 5,000 and was detected in San Francisco, the volcano is currently erupting. I think that this will have to be my next volcano of the week.

11. Santorini, Greece. Responsible for the decline of the Minoan civilisation, origin of Atlantis, great wine and agriculture, it's a personal favourite.

12. Taal, Luzon, Philippines. There was a massive eruption in 1911 which caused the volcanic island to sink and merged the various lakes of different colours into one large crater lake, which is a shame but it's still pretty.

13. Teide, Tenerife, Canary Islands. I've written about this volcano before so read that if you really want to. The Canary Islands were formed by volcanic activity, like many islands (due to microclimates and speciation) the flora and fauna is unusual and diverse, here there are also volcanic soils so it's really great.

14. Ulawun, New Britain, Papua New Guinea. OMG, this volcano has the shortest Wikipedia entry ever I will have to compensate by writing more about this volcano than any other but I refuse to use any other sources. In the last few years the volcano has been almost constantly active and issues passive steaming which may be part of the reason that volcanoic activity in PNG is one of the largest sources of sulphur dioxide in the world, Ulawun contributes to 2%, obviously using only Wikipedia I can't check this fact out further, but it sounds dubious. The volcano is part of the Bismarck Archipelago, I don't know whether it was discovered by THE Bismarck or is named after the state capital of North Dakota. William Dampier recorded the first eruption in 1700 and lots of people live near the volcano. SEE WIKIPEDIA, IT'S NOT HARD, LOOK AT ALL THAT INFORMATION.

15. Mount Unzen, Kyushu, Japan. Unzen is responsible for Japan's worst ever volcano related disaster when the 1792 collapse of a lava dome created a megatsunami which killed around 15,000 people. In its latest eruptive period 1991-1996 there was large eruption that killed 43.

16. Vesuvius, Italy. Because there's so much say on Vesuvius I won't really bother now especially as I felt the last zine was a bit Vesuvius centric. Oh but in other Vesuvius related news, I did buy Susan Sontag's 'The Volcano Lover' which I'm really excited about reading.

Due to the fact that I'm quite bored and to the lasts post overwhelming response (when I say overwhelming response I mean absolutely no response, I don't do this for the good of my health) I have decided that I will again feature the fun quiz.

So match these pictures of volcanoes to the descriptions above, answers in the comments.

 A

 B

 C

 D

 E

 F

 G

H