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| EYJAFJALLAJÖKULL ERUPTS. |
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Barring the locals of Iceland, the name is a giant tongue twister for most others. Yet millions across the globe spoke of little else but Eyjafjallajökull during the past month. The Icelandic volcano, which was rumbling with unusual intensity since December, 2009, and triggered as many as 3000 ‘mild’ quakes in early March, finally erupted on 20 March, 2010. At first, it belched out lava, reddening the horizon and forcing a couple of hundred farming families living in the adjacent Fljótshlíð, Eyjafjöll, and Landeyjar to flee. Europe savoured some spectacular sunsets, but rest of the world remained unaffected. But then in mid-April Eyjafjallajökull began to shoot out mammoth fountains of ash, recycled ocean floor (Iceland springs from an ocean ridge amidst the Atlantic..) and grit into atmosphere, dotting the European skies with dense patches of ash cloud. The Planet was now in a turmoil over the Eyjafjallajökull eruption. It still is. The Icelandic Meteorological Office claims that the volcanic eruptions in the glaciers remain ‘dynamic’. Now, what does this imply? To what extent can volcanoes like this one affect our lives? What else can happen if Eyjafjallajökull refuses to go back to sleep? After all, its last ‘awakening’ almost 200 years ago was hardly shortlived. It had continued to spew from 1821 to 1823. Yes, we do need to know a bit more about the mood swings of volcanoes. Gobar Times answers some basic questions like these: |
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| Exploring theVulcan’s forge | ||||||
Vulcan, by the way, was the god of fire and smithery in ancient Roman religion. When volcanoes exploded, in ancient Rome people believed that the fire and ash came out of Vulcan’s divine furnace or forge. But that was a myth and here are some facts… |
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