The Life Aguatic

We got a letter from one of our readers this week pointing out a seismic series near Agua volcano and Ciudad de Antigua in Guatemala. “I’ve been living in Guatemala for a while, staying in Antigua. On April 27, the area around, and on, Agua volcano started to shake. We felt at least 8 quakes…

Volcan de Fuego 2018

It is far harder to write about a large eruption when it is at home. Many of my readers know that Guatemala City is my second home, and that I have my family and relatives there. On top of that this hit’s home harder since my wife is one of the medical doctors fighting to…

The Mayas and their lack of volcanoes

Alberts latest article was a tour de force of the classic view of Mayan collapses, as it has been perpetuated in classic literature. The general idea is that the large downfalls in the Mayan empires would have been caused by large distant eruptions. This is of course an unfair summing up of Alberts quite more…

Is Volcan Agua extinct?

I’ve had the pleasure of visiting Guatemala three times, the first time was in 2005, the second time was in 2006, and the third time was in 2015, and it was the one thing I’m passionate about which drew me to Guatemala, volcanoes. Now Guatemala has a bunch of fascinating volcanoes but what we know…

The Guatemalan Earthquakes of 1917 and 1918

I am a man blessed with two home countries, one is my native geologically stable Sweden and the other is my new home country of Guatemala. The latter is being highly geologically active to the point that it is to be considered as a geological high risk zone. We all know that this is a…