Volcanoes

[tinhuvielartanis]

There was a rash of shows on volcanoes last night on Discovery. (Oh, how I love Discovery! Aunt Tudi asked me the other day which channels I'd pick if I could only keep five. I told her Sci-Fi, TNT, TBS, USA, and Discovery). After I went to bed Aunt Tudi taped this show on Krakatoa for me. Wow, what a story! I really feel for the folks who went through that. Over 36,000 died when Krakatoa exploded. And now Anak Krakatau (Son of Krakatoa) has grown steadily since 1927, like a giant Earth pimple, set to pop at any time. It's gonna happen again.

I never really gave much thought to volcanoes until a few years ago when, once again, I was watching this show on Discovery about how the Earth replenishes herself. Part of the show focused on this black sand beach that had been pretty much destroyed by human presence (big surprise there) until the local volcano erupted and destroyed the entire tourist region. In the destruction of the human presence there, however, the volcano also replenished the black sand beach, restoring it to its former glory before humanity infected the area.

The brought me to the conclusion that volcanoes are wonderful things. They sit on the threshold between the realms of the Crone and the Maiden. In destroying, the Crone enables the Maiden to make things new again. The Earth is truly a magnificent organism. She just a has a few billion parasites that need fumigating is all.

Comments

[zitronenhai.livejournal.com]

Oh girrrrl. Then you *have* to check into the Yellowstone Caldera - or supervolcano. All of the geothermal activity in Yellowstone comes from the caldera! These grand-scale, catastrophic eruptions are thought to happen only ever 100,000 years. You will LOVE this. I list it as an interest.

[tinhuviel.livejournal.com]

Chica, it's one of the things I'm expecting to happen by 2012!

[zitronenhai.livejournal.com]

Forgive me. I get really excited about this sort of thing. *straightens skirt*

[tinhuviel.livejournal.com]

Me too! I'd straighten my skirt, but it blew off from the excitement.

More! *drool*

[zitronenhai.livejournal.com]

The volume of volcanic rock produced by the first Yellowstone caldera eruption was about 600 cubic miles—about 17 times more than Tambora, and 2,400 times as much as Mount St. Helen's, an almost incomprehensible figure. One more statistic: Ash from Tambora drifted downwind more than 800 miles; Yellowstone ash is found in Ventura, California to the west and the Iowa to the east. It is likely the earth has seldom in its long history experienced caldera explosions on the scale of those that created Yellowstone.

Re: More! *drool*

[tinhuviel.livejournal.com]

Honestly, I can't wait for this to happen. We're long overdue for a supervolcano explosion. Alpaca Lips, here we come!

[bayberrybush.livejournal.com]

In my neck of the woods, we're waiting for the African Tsunami which will come when this one unstable mountain range slides into the ocean. I'll be underwater. Woo hoo!

[tinhuviel.livejournal.com]

Better brush up on your snorkeling!

[stacye13.livejournal.com]

HAHAHA! And here I thought I was the only one who was psycho for volcanos! Hubby totally makes fun of me for being obsessed with the Yellowstone one. =D

[tinhuviel.livejournal.com]

I'm hoping I live to see that one blow.

[falkenna.livejournal.com]

Hmm, I was kinda put off when I read the first half of the Old Testament. It seemed pretty clear to me that Yahweh was originally a volcano (even though they say he was a storm god -- more likely he blended with one). But then, that would probably be a better identity than he has now . . .

[tinhuviel.livejournal.com]

According to Merlin Stone, Yahweh was originally a volcano war god. He hasn't changed much in true nature.