Categories > Celebrities > 30 Seconds to Mars > The Volcanologist
Disruptions from Iceland
0 reviewsAnother volcano in Iceland causes problems. The team carefully watch the event from the lab in L.A. while Jared studies some theories of his own...
0Unrated
Katla in Iceland had blown its top. We had expected, feared, and dreaded this day for months. We knew this day would come, even without magmatic tremors or regular volcanic warnings.
You may remember a volcano in Iceland erupted 2 years ago. Its the one that caused flight delays and no-fly zones in Europe because of the path of the volcanic ash cloud. Well, that volcano is close to another volcano named Katla. It is believed that an eruption of one of these volcanoes usually results in an eruption from the other within months, shown by recent eruption history. People believe that - because they are so close together - if magma can enter one magma chamber, it can or will reach the other.
There is another problem with Katla finally erupting. We were dreading it, not only because the volcanic ash could cause problems again, but because of the size of Katla. The magma chamber is 10 times bigger than that of its neighbour. So you can imagine what Katla can do.
We sit in the office and wait for news. We look on the internet, and watch satellite images and live videos. We hunt down the volcanic ash, practically stalking it as it leaves a thick plume in the atmosphere. We weren't that jetlagged from travelling from Chile, but we can't sleep as we wait almost impatiently, and finally get the results we had not been hoping for. Due to the larger amount of volcanic ash and force of the mountain, it was travelling further across Europe, with the cloud finally wearing thinner and then falling as far as the top of Africa.
We predict that flights will be out of the question for weeks. Or even months! We hope not. A week is frustrating enough. Even a day is an annoyance! But there is no way of knowing how long it will last for sure, and another team had been sent there while we were in Villarrica. I don't envy them though - they are stuck there until the air clears.
We also have another problem. What will we do if there is an emergency in Europe? If we can't fly there, we'll have to find other transport.
Jared is interested in Katla and what the fuss is about. The news is all over it now, with volcanologists everywhere discussing the possible link between the 2 volcanoes. Jared is no expert when it comes to even the basics of volcanoes, and you know how he has trouble pronouncing things, but we are all forced to laugh whenever a news reporter tries to say the name of Katla's neighbour - Eyjafjallajokull. Even I have given up trying to read it. To save confusion (and time!), our team now refers to it as "Eyjaf".
"Really? Are they trying to use every letter in the alphabet?" came Jared's sarcastic reply.
I have printed Jared the full picture of the world and tectonic plates. He panicked when he saw that LA and most of California was sitting right on a plate fault, but he knew it was prone to earthquakes. However, he did not know that there were volcanoes in the North California, and that they were in the Ring of Fire.
We've never been to a volcanic event in California.
"Are they the same fault line?" Jared asks.
He brings me back to Earth. I had been deep in thought, thinking about what was now being dubbed as "The Katla Crisis". I could say people were complaining about us stopping flights and stopping them travelling, but it was not our doing. The volcano had been clearing its own pipes for just over 3 weeks, and people were blaming us. I could even stretch as far as a joke and say they were making a mountain out of a mole-hill. Get it? Mountain? I know its a bad joke...
"What was that Jay?"
"There have been so many eruptions and earthquakes lately. Have they all been caused by the same fault?"
He's still studying that map. He's got his own laptop in front of him, looking at the locations of different volcanoes. He is currently, very precisely, marking down the locations of the volcanoes I have visited recently. But he only knows 2 of them, so has only marked down Vesuvius and Villarrica.
"No. Remember, a fault is just a gap where 2 plates meet - a gap in the surface of the Earth."
"Then why do so many erupt after years of being dormant?"
"That's just the way it is."
He asks if he can look at the information of previous events. There's nothing personal or confidential in the files, so I give him a list of everything that has happened in the past 6 months. I don't know what he has in mind, but I hope its good.
A few days later, he leaps out of his chair and excitedly yells "I'VE GOT IT!"
You may remember a volcano in Iceland erupted 2 years ago. Its the one that caused flight delays and no-fly zones in Europe because of the path of the volcanic ash cloud. Well, that volcano is close to another volcano named Katla. It is believed that an eruption of one of these volcanoes usually results in an eruption from the other within months, shown by recent eruption history. People believe that - because they are so close together - if magma can enter one magma chamber, it can or will reach the other.
There is another problem with Katla finally erupting. We were dreading it, not only because the volcanic ash could cause problems again, but because of the size of Katla. The magma chamber is 10 times bigger than that of its neighbour. So you can imagine what Katla can do.
We sit in the office and wait for news. We look on the internet, and watch satellite images and live videos. We hunt down the volcanic ash, practically stalking it as it leaves a thick plume in the atmosphere. We weren't that jetlagged from travelling from Chile, but we can't sleep as we wait almost impatiently, and finally get the results we had not been hoping for. Due to the larger amount of volcanic ash and force of the mountain, it was travelling further across Europe, with the cloud finally wearing thinner and then falling as far as the top of Africa.
We predict that flights will be out of the question for weeks. Or even months! We hope not. A week is frustrating enough. Even a day is an annoyance! But there is no way of knowing how long it will last for sure, and another team had been sent there while we were in Villarrica. I don't envy them though - they are stuck there until the air clears.
We also have another problem. What will we do if there is an emergency in Europe? If we can't fly there, we'll have to find other transport.
Jared is interested in Katla and what the fuss is about. The news is all over it now, with volcanologists everywhere discussing the possible link between the 2 volcanoes. Jared is no expert when it comes to even the basics of volcanoes, and you know how he has trouble pronouncing things, but we are all forced to laugh whenever a news reporter tries to say the name of Katla's neighbour - Eyjafjallajokull. Even I have given up trying to read it. To save confusion (and time!), our team now refers to it as "Eyjaf".
"Really? Are they trying to use every letter in the alphabet?" came Jared's sarcastic reply.
I have printed Jared the full picture of the world and tectonic plates. He panicked when he saw that LA and most of California was sitting right on a plate fault, but he knew it was prone to earthquakes. However, he did not know that there were volcanoes in the North California, and that they were in the Ring of Fire.
We've never been to a volcanic event in California.
"Are they the same fault line?" Jared asks.
He brings me back to Earth. I had been deep in thought, thinking about what was now being dubbed as "The Katla Crisis". I could say people were complaining about us stopping flights and stopping them travelling, but it was not our doing. The volcano had been clearing its own pipes for just over 3 weeks, and people were blaming us. I could even stretch as far as a joke and say they were making a mountain out of a mole-hill. Get it? Mountain? I know its a bad joke...
"What was that Jay?"
"There have been so many eruptions and earthquakes lately. Have they all been caused by the same fault?"
He's still studying that map. He's got his own laptop in front of him, looking at the locations of different volcanoes. He is currently, very precisely, marking down the locations of the volcanoes I have visited recently. But he only knows 2 of them, so has only marked down Vesuvius and Villarrica.
"No. Remember, a fault is just a gap where 2 plates meet - a gap in the surface of the Earth."
"Then why do so many erupt after years of being dormant?"
"That's just the way it is."
He asks if he can look at the information of previous events. There's nothing personal or confidential in the files, so I give him a list of everything that has happened in the past 6 months. I don't know what he has in mind, but I hope its good.
A few days later, he leaps out of his chair and excitedly yells "I'VE GOT IT!"
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