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Stories
Doug Clarke, Marikk Henriksson, & Lynne Sueoka, Moderators
volcano gif courtesy of USGS/Cascades Volcano Observatory
What stories can you find about your volcano? Personal experience, folk tales, customs or rituals connected with this natural phenomenon...
Here are some stories to start you off
A new volcano story from Lara in Iceland...
The only inhabited island Heimaey
on the Westman islands erupted 1973, I was at a school close
by the shore and we could see the flames. On the night when
the eruption started on the 23rd of January every citizen on
the islands had to be transported to the mainland. Over 5000
people where transported. Fortunately there had been no weather
for fishing the day before so most ships whee in harbor, I
can still remember looking out in the darkness, the fire
far away but chain of lights from Heimaey to Žorl·kshfn
where they landed. This chain where the boats and ships bringing
the people to safety.
Day after day the fire and the smoke and I never forget the
look in the faces in my schoomates who where from the island.
Their toys, their gardens, their houses. What would become of
themselves when the boarding school where out? Where would they
live? Could they go back?
Experiments with pumping water on the lava was first done
there to turn the lava stream away from the village. They
saved a lot by it.
I went to Heimaey in 1974, the eruption was over but there
was a lot of smoke in the lava and the volcano. Everything
was grey not a single grass. But still a lot of people trying
to save what could be safed. House standing half out of the
lava and half in. Strange feeling.
Two years ago I came back, what a difference. Everything
green, the town full of people, they are close to 5000 again.
So beautiful island. I walked at the top of the lava flow
which is in town so to speak. There I stood 20 methers higher
than the former ground and thought about the power of nature
and the small men fighting the lava.
From Iceland...
It is such a great part of our curriculum to understand volcanos, different types of lava what can happen, the earthquakes, the cracks in the ground. The craters, both the fake and the real, hot springs, hot water all of this is huge part of our culture. Volcano eruption in the sea, new island of Surtsey in 1963, the terrible one in 1973 when 5000 people had to go away in few hours from the Westman islands, the many volcano eruptions just east of here in the 80's, the one in Vatnajokull last winter and there is an endless count. Just now huge earthquake activity is just east of Reykjavik, that could mean huge earthquake in that are (5-6 richter) or volcano eruption, or nothing;-) This is part of our life, I feel my earth breath, rumble, move, cry out and remind us that the human beeing is not the center of the earth and the earth provides us with a place to live.
Our earth reminds us quite frequently who is the master;-)
I might have a kid soul since I am not interested in disasters but magnificient volcano, lava, shapes, forms, mystery, power and all those things can take my breath away. We had to learn what each shape of a volcano means, how different the craters are and how huge crater can be created in one big bomb while others are just fake because lava flooded over wet land or water which boiled and made a fake crater. Some of the hot areas are red, while others are pitch black and some colorful with brown, yellow and green.
There are tailes and stories to be told, mythology, elves, fairies, mystery, ghosts and whatever linked to the lava.
Lara Stefansdottir, Kidlink Iceland
There are so many "rock" stories also. In fact, one of my sixth grade student came back from the big island, so excited. He brought me a lava rock!!! I couldn't say anything...accepted it and placed it on our table in the class. Well, soon after, a wooden painting - about 3ft by 3ft fell from the wall on top of a student's head (the painting was on the wall for years! Soon after, a book shelf toppled over..luckily no one was hurt. At the end of the year, I took the rock home. That year my mom got ill, my son broke his ankle and my husband became so sick. the thought of the rock nagged at me....and I kept saying, it is purely coincidental. I finally boxed it, wrote a note to the rangers and took it to the post-office to be mailed back to the big island. When I took it down, the mail person said another woman had just dropped off her rock. She was also sending a rock back to the big island. (Later, my sister-inlaw said that they display those rocks that are returned WITH THE NOTES!! ....since then, no more rocks for us....BTW, all of these happened within a few months.
Ellen Miyasato, Hawaii
And again, from Iceland, about rocks...
He, he, these stories we have them too but they are more related to rocks that you don't move but not stones. We change our roads based on this, really. You should have seen the media just a year or two ago when the road out of Reykjavik was made larger. A cliff had to been bombed away but fairies lived there. A specialist was got in and she talked to them, they moved, after they had settled and the engineers got the "go" sign they blew the rock away. It took explanation and stuff but the fairies understood that it was a matter of safety for the people. All of this was on the media and the workers REALLY waited for the fairies to move;-)
Lara