Volcanic Tsunamis: An Analysis

Severe weather forecasting is an exciting science and hobby of mine. Beautiful sights and terrifying storms make it fun. Tornadoes and Hurricanes are particularly incredible to me. A lot of the excitement comes from the fact that no one truly knows exactly what is going to happen during the forecasting portion of an upcoming disaster.…

Fluorine

Jon Steingrimmson was deeply worried. The eruption had been going on for three weeks already. Lava coming down from the hills, flowing down the river valleys and covering the farm land. But it wasn’t the lava that was doing most of the damage (at least not yet – worse was to come). It was what…

The San Roque hailstorm. Albacete, 1859.

Lately, I’ve been busy with a project that has precluded me from posting in VolcanoCafe. I have wanted to post about the ongoing awakening of Kilauea’s East Rift Zone, but that will have to wait for now. Instead, I thought of posting something about what I’ve been working on lately. For reasons, I’ve found it…

Sapphire!

Henrik taught us about what he called gemmology – the knowledge of gemstones, which he said was considered to be part of the geosciences and specifically a branch of mineralogy. It is also a subject closely related to volcanology. Many gemstones form deep underground, and rely on volcanoes to bring them to the surface and…

Run volcano, run

Volcanoes make for good sport. Golf comes to mind as an example: volcanoes can provide a great opportunity to improve performance. The summit crater of a volcano is conveniently large, greatly increasing the chance of a hole-in-one. It would look even better if the impact of the ball triggers an eruption, celebrating the win with…

The Katla eruption of 1918

October 12, 1918 was just another Saturday. On the fields of France, the Hundred Days Offensive was turning a war which would now soon end, but leave 17 million dead; the devastation would set the scene for an even worse war to come. Far away, Puerto Rico lay in ruins after a magnitude-7 earthquake on…

The heat is on

Tyger Tyger, burning bright,In the forests of the night (William Blake, The Tyger) Lava is lovely. The warm (or hot) red colour gives it beauty, and the intricate movement of a lava flow makes it mesmerizing. But it is at night that the lava really comes to life. What appeared shiny black in the light…

The shaking ground of Campi Flegrei

I loved Naples. It is a lively Mediterranean city where there is always something going on. The people are amazing. I was told (a long time ago) by someone whose wife was from there that they were visiting the city, and his wife went somewhere and had told him in no uncertain terms to stay…