The battle of Stalingrad was among the bloodiest and most horrific of the second world war. During the cold winter of December 1942, the Commissar of Stalingrad organised open-air party meetings for local artists and musicians to encourage the exhausted and hungry soldiers. One of those musicians was the violinist Mikhail Goldstein. On New Year’s…
As I was flying over Ol Doinyo Lengai I contemplated that it is the largest fertilizer factory on the planet. It is the prime cause of the massive herds of herbivores trekking across the inner parts of Africa. The ash from the volcano super-charges the grass with nutrients and makes it the best animal-feed on…
Volcano companion When I go with you into the world It comes alive in colour and mirth With you I find Vesuvius to travel with you is salubrious In distant past I went alone And found a world in monochrome With you volcanoes come alight The lava flows are burning bright To go with you…
A little article while we happily wait for the USGS to confirm that Kilauea is about to sprout a green caldera lake, or not. I normally do not write a lot about Kilauea, the reason for this is that it rarely does anything interesting. But, in 2018 it did quite a lot of interesting things,…
A few days ago, I was sipping on a rum and coke as I was flying over Kilimanjaro and the great continental divide ripping East Africa away from the embrace of the rest of Africa. As I did that, I got to ponder the other major tectonic powerhouse, Iceland. People tend to forget or underestimate…
The bird struts across the henge as if its owns the place. It is quite a sight itself: large, confident, and long extinct. It was re-introduced here a decade ago but is rarely seen. Great bustards are shy, befitting the fact that they look very edible. This one, for a strange reason, had lost its…
Guest post by Tallis. In my previous piece, I went over the process of large caldera forming eruptions and the abundant noise that they would produce but a comment by cbuso5 caught my attention and interest. I have one slight disagreement. I’m not necessarily sure that the signs before a super eruption would be particularly…
After a couple of rather hectic volcanic weeks in the world of volcanoes I thought I would write a little something about two of these events. Namely Stromboli and Grimsvötn, the reason I am cherry picking those two is that they have a common theme, water. Stromboli Unless you have been to Stromboli you…
Long time no sea. 😀 Actually, I haven’t gone anywhere and I apologize for the sailor joke. What I really mean is that I haven’t done much other than lurk in and around the comments section. My last actual post was a rehash of an ancient topic that I had covered some time ago…
It is nice to live on the crust. It gives a degree of stability which the rest of the Earth lacks. It is not perfect: the quiet can be punctuated by earthquakes or volcanoes, and lacking those there is still the off-chance of a landslip or flood. The atmosphere may also interfere with our lives.…
The wonder of water The tell-tale sign of the suspension of the laws of physics is someone seen walking on water. The suspension is always temporary – as soon as a second person tries to follow, the laws of physics are re-instated and the person looking for the ‘me too’ experience instead encounters full immersion.…
I grew up in a news publishing family. This means that for me freedom of speech and, the right to freely discuss topics is a given. But, at the same time as it is a given and necessary right, it comes with responsibilities. In the end the rights and responsibilities go hand in hand with…
After a wonderful series on Krakatau by Albert, a mysterious island by Carl and a seismic “Intermezzo” by Lurking, I have decided to take things back to Iceland for a while. Most of us know Greip by now, and we are going to take another look at it, from a more seismic perspective with some…
Post by Geolurking, based on a repost I have been tasked to revisit something I covered years ago. And update it with a bit of fresh info. The original publish date was 20 Feb 2012. The first thing I need to cover, mainly in order to bring every one up to speed… is the compass rose.…
If there ever was a patron saint of Volcanocafé it would be the author Jules Verne. When he was not inventing cadres of literary genres, he was quite obsessed with volcanoes. When he was not writing he spent his time reading about volcanoes (and other things scientific). And quite often he combined his interests of…
