h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I have a passion for volcanoes and have climbed several - Vesuvius, Stromboli, several large ones in Iceland - all active and many of them gushing lava.

Stromboli was fantastic as the whole island is alive and you can literally feel the earth move under your feet. Vesuvius is ultra impressive - the crater is 11km in circumference and the city of Naples suffers tremors on a regular basis - and when it does all eyes turn to the volcano.

The only other place I have been to that terrified me was Kamchatka in Eastern russia - there are geysers, volcanoes etc and you feel that the earth is literally forming under your feet....

That's amazing! One of Michael Palin's travel documentaries featured a visit to Kamchatka, and it was hugely impressive - additionally so because the place is so unknown to most westerners. It also featured in a recent edition of Natural Geographic.

I also am fascinated that so many people can even contemplate living so close to Vesuvius. Another explosion is well overdue there, and my understanding is that there has been some large scale geological developments on the north of the city in recent years...

If you get a chance to write a brief summary of any of your encounters I will gladly add them to the researcher's experience page.

Thanks Ashley

Will do

Will do

I am reading Stan Williams' book "Surviving Galeras" at the moment. It is unbelievable! The book also gives an account of some of the well known volcanoes around the world, and discusses the strange world of the volcanologist. I didn't realise that there were two types of volcanologist - the "soft" ones and the "hard" ones. The book also gives a graphic account of the wounds suffered by the scientists when the volcano blew. Not for the faint hearted...

As I commented on the thread for Woodpigeon's piece on Tambora, I found the evidence from the Channel 4 documentary convincing. It seemed to explain why so many bad things were happening at that time, and why the era is known as the Dark Ages.

Back on-topic (volcanoes): are LES members convinced that a volcano such as is described by David Keys actually erupted? Ken Wohletz of the Los Alamos National Laboratory, has written a detailed discussion document: http://www-geo.lanl.gov/Wohletz/Krakatau.htm "Were the Dark Ages Triggered by Volcano-Related Climate Changes in the 6th Century?"

Pattern-chaser

"Who cares, wins"

Wow. Pretty detailed document! I would expect, that after such a gigantic event, scientists would be able to find evidence of volcanic debris in ocean and ice-core soil samples at that time-line almost everywhere they looked. This would answer the question "did it happen?" almost immediately, the next question being "where did it happen?". Anyone know if they have found evidence of widespread distribution of volcanic ash?

I have no doubt that such things can happen, and in fact even bigger events can happen. I also think that climate change is a huge determinant in human history, but that's just me...

Woodpigeon

As I remember, on the TV documentary, they looked for (and found) evidence in ice samples from *both* the poles, proving that the phenomenon was global in scope.

Pattern-chaser

"Who cares, wins"

Any idea why it still hasn't got much press?

New ideas aren't generally well received?

Pattern-chaser

To those certain they know the truth, new knowledge is invisible, learning impossible:

"In order to make progress, one must leave the door to the unknown ajar." Richard P. Feynman

A Law of life - First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then they agree with you, then they'll fight for you! (I'm paraphrasing from somebody else - not mine either, well, maybe the last bit)

Is there any discussion around indicating a contrary viewpoint, or are we still in stage 1 - "if we ignore it, it will go away"?

Volcanoes are like dinosours. Everyone's been interested. I would love to see a volcano with lava flow but would not like to be known as the "soft vulcan" as I'm sure would be inevitable.

My only encounters have been witness to steam columns of White island and the ash of ruapehu.

I found a great site if anyone wants
http://volcano.und.nodak.edu/vwdocs/volc_images/volc_images.html

Even so, that's pretty impressive! I have posted your (excellent) link to the main page and I have also included a number of other good links to this section.

Thanks!