Island on Fire

November 3, 2014
In March 2010, Icelandic volcano Eyjafjallajökull erupted, spewing lava “from a fissure on the mountain’s side.” By volcanic standards, say coauthors Witze and Kanipe (Chasing Hubble’s Shadows), “it looked fairly unthreatening,” though ash from the eruption soon drifted south and east across Europe, closing airspace, grounding flights across the continent, and “cost businesses as much as five billion euros.” In their revealing new volume, the two science writers use this modern event to examine another Icelandic volcano, Laki, which erupted in June 1783. Witze and Kanipe look at the magnitude of that eruption and its tremendous consequences, examining journals kept by locals and piecing together substantial time lines to detail events as a thick cloud of ash “shut out the sun and drove everyone indoors” before a “thick haze rolled across the countryside, accompanied by a devilish stink.” As the contemporary accounts relate, “Pastoral Iceland, once full of lush grassy meadows, became a grey and poisonous place.” Chapters on geology and the short- and long-term effects of volcanic eruptions add depth to Witze and Kanipe’s discussion, rounding out a work that serves as a valuable reminder of just how much we remain at Mother Nature’s mercy.