Year 10 Day 16
If there was one thing I was not expecting in the middle of all this floating ice, it was a column, no, an enormous cloud of black smoke. At first I wondered what could be burning in this world of ice and water, but as I drew closer, I realized that the ice was piling up along a coastline. It was a clear day for a change, so I went as high as I could and realized that I was looking at a huge island, and that the “smoke” was in fact a violent volcanic eruption.
Eyjafjallajokull, Iceland (Source)
The island wasn’t ice covered, but there were huge glaciers and ice sheets over most of the high ground. The volcano appeared to be erupting through an ice sheet, and I was glad I was not on the surface. Ice and fire is not a comfortable combination. Heat turns the ice to water, and that meant flooding on a massive scale. For the moment, my main concern was staying well out of the plume. I know enough about volcanoes to guess that most of the “smoke” was probably shards of volcanic glass – not the best thing to breathe in! And that plume reached higher into the atmosphere than I could levitate and still have air to breathe.
I’m used to volcanoes; after all, I tap one for hot water and the place I live now is in a rift zone. But this explosion of ice and lava is in a class of its own.
Jarn’s Journal gives the back story of the Jarnian Confederation, in which most of my science fiction is set. The entire Journal to date is on my author site.
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Well, at least he can levitate.
🙂
Heather
Not as high as a volcanic plume, at least not and keep breathable air.
That sounds incredible!
Jarn’s abilities may be fictional, but Iceland and the volcanic eruption are not.
Oh, true indeed! I’m visiting Iceland in June this year and I’ve been doing a little bit of research. I’m so excited to visit a place that will be so distinctly different from where I currently live. My partner is studying geology and he’ll be coming with me – I think he’ll definitely be interested in what he sees, as will I.
Iceland is the one foreign country (other than Canada) I’ve managed to visit. Went to a conference on reforestation there.
Ah, yes, I remember reading something about reforestation being particularly difficult in Iceland because once land has been cleared, the nature of the soil makes it very difficult to regrow.
That’s one problem, and they’ve been aerial seeding with lupines to fix nitrogen in the soil. Another problem is that the sheep eat EVERYTHING. Especially seedling trees. Successful reforestation requires fencing the sheep out. (Of course in Jarn’s time there were no sheep on Iceland. The Norse brought them.)
Very descriptive. And I learned something–again! 🙂
That’s my physics professor side coming through.
I love this!
When you come right down to it, Jarn’s Journal is to some extent a geography lesson of the natural Earth.
Again, you describe beautifully a natural phenomenon that I so take for granted, that I couldn’t begin to describe it to someone who had never seen it.
It’s good practice for a writer.