21 April 2010

blow, baby, blow

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From up close, volcano shows off might and beauty
By CARLO PIOVANO, Associated Press Writer – 1 hr 6 mins ago

ABOVE THE EYJAFJALLAJOKULL VOLCANOThe volcano threw magma chunks the size of cars into the air and rocked our helicopter with a vicious explosion that sent a visible shock-wave through the air, a reminder of its power.

The spectacular show came from a unique vantage point, hovering above the volcano that has dominated world headlines for more than a week. Having written for days from a distance about the volcano with the unpronounceable name, the time had finally come to meet the nemesis, and I had a place on a helicopter-for-hire.

And to my delight and fear, Eyjafjallajokull put on a tremendous show.

In a black crater in the middle of a glacier, red magma thrashed about, propelling steaming blobs of lava onto the surrounding ice. Every so often charges of gas — which surge from deep inside the mountain, through the magma, and cause tremors 15 miles (25 kilometers) away — exploded in a firework of molten rock. The air shivered with a constant, menacing growl, like a perpetual clap of thunder that shook our bodies.

Bolts of lightning shot through the fumes and an eerie glow pervaded the pit of fire; in ancient times it could have been taken for a deity's wrath.

The moment was surreal: Here was the ash-belching monster that had ruined travel arrangements for hundreds of thousands of airline passengers around the world, and we were flying right over it, keeping well upwind of the billowing plume of smoke and ash drifting off toward the south.

Just as I began to appreciate its beauty and scale, the volcano gave a warning shot that was as unpredictable as it was frightening: an explosion so powerful it sent a visible shock-wave through the air and which — a very long half-second later — slammed into the side of our helicopter.

The chopper was abruptly shoved away and the sound of the rotor blades — or was it my pulse? — seemed to miss a beat.

Our pilot, a hardened veteran, thought it wise to back off a bit.

Above all, the explosion, a mere hiccup for this eruption but a humbling experience for a human, seemed to come as a reminder — that this volcano is more than just an odd foreign name that has caused trouble for millions of travelers and threatened companies and economies. It is an awesome spectacle in its own right, a show of nature's might and beauty.

As we turned to head back to base, across the 200 yards- (meters)-thick glacier that this volcano had cracked open like an egg, we saw before us Mount Hekla, another volcano that erupted only 10 years earlier. In ancient times Icelanders believed it to be the gateway to hell. What might they have thought of this one?

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7 comments:

  1. Last night I watched a program about the formation of Iceland and its geology.

    Very interesting, it sits directly on top of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge and is being torn apart by the expansion of the sea floor.

    Previous eruptions there have changed the planet's climate numerous times. It contains 1/3 of the worlds active volcanoes!

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  2. So maybe it's my death wish that makes me want to move there? I've been talking it up for many years now.

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  3. I don't remember the name (if I did I surely couldn't spell or pronounce it) but one volcano there is overdue for a major eruption. The last eruption there affected the weather world wide.
    Also the current eruption is linked to a neighboring much larger volcano which has historically erupted shortly after the current volcano erupts.

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  4. We're probably due for another planetary expansion [a theory I like much better than the tectonic plate thing by itself] then... another cataclysm that knocks us back into the stone age... those of us who survive... and not a moment too soon, eh?

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  5. Toadally, toadally. Dude! Toadally.

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