The British Diplomat Who Studied Volcanoes

When, in 1631, Vesuvius erupted violently after having been dormant for more than 300 years, it aroused great interest among Europe's elite. German Jesuit and naturalist Athanasius Kircher traveled to Southern Italy to study Vesuvius, descending even in the crater. The volcano was almost continuously active, especially after 1750 and Naples became part of the cities traveler should visit when in Italy.

Sir William Hamilton (1730-1803) was a British diplomat in Naples from 1764 to 1798, He got so interested in the nearby Mount Vesuvius that in 1776 he published a monograph on the mountain, illustrated with stunning artwork by local painter Peter Fabris. Hamilton's "Campi Phlegraei: Observations on the Volcanos of the Two Sicilies" is considered a pioneering work of early volcanology.

 The eruption of Mt. Vesuvius in August 1779.

The eruption of May 1771. An Aa lava flow (recognized by the broken surface texture) passes the observer's location and reaches the sea at Resina. Note the steep, slowly advancing front of the flow. Pietro Fabris is amongst the spectators (below left) as is William Hamilton, who explains the view to other onlookers.

Inside the crater of Mount Vesuvius.

Lava samples from Mount Vesuvius.

Another view of the August 1779 eruption of Mount Vesuvius.

The excavation of the Temple of Isis in Pompeii.

 Hamilton at the crater of Forum Vulcani (Solfatara near Pozzuoli), examining the sulphur and arsenic deposits near the hot springs.

Why Hydrogeology Plays Such An Important Role In The Thailand Cave Rescue Operations

Rescue operations to free 12 boys together with their soccer coach from the Tham Luang cave in Thailand are underway but could take days to complete. The geology of the region plays a role in both the origin of the cave as why exploring wild cave systems is so dangerous.

Will democracy survive climate change? - A lesson from the past

Allegory of volcanism as bringer of fortune (fertile soils) and destruction, by artist Alexandre-Évariste Fragonard (1780-1850) after a draft by French naturalist Joseph Nicolas Nicollet (1786-1843).

In June 1783 a volcano in Iceland erupted. Volcanoes are nothing unusual in Iceland, but this eruption, later referred as Laki,  was different. For eight months volcanic ash and gases poisoned the atmosphere over Europe changing the climate for years to come. In Europe the exceptionally hot summer of 1783 was followed by long and harsh winters until 1788. Crop harvests were poor and bread, essential for the large and poor population on the continent, experienced a massive price increase.

Map showing the lava flows of Lakagigar, from Magnus Stephensen "Kort Beskrivelse: Vester-Skaptefields-Syssel paa Island" (1785). The lava from the fissures ended up covering an estimated 2,500 km² (965 sq mi) of land.
 

At the time France was characterized by a great inequality between the poor peasants and the upper class. The rich aristocracy and the corrupted clergy lived in an own world, distant from daily problems. The lower and middle class had no political power despite its important role in economy and the king was to weak to control the aristocracy. Poor harvests and war expenditures resulted in an economic crisis and famine spread. In human history hunger was always a powerful agent of change. Italian officials noted in 1648 during a widespread famine that “it was always better to die by the sword than to die of hunger.” Women revolted on the streets demanding bread. July 14, 1789 5,000 citizens of Paris stormed the Bastille. Years of chaos followed. French lawyer Maximilien Robespierre instituted an authoritarian regime, culminating in 1793 with the execution of king Ludwig XVI. followed by 16.000 other people only in Paris. In 1799 Napoleon Bonaparte promised to bring order in those chaotic times and in the end declared himself emperor - celebrated by the same people that just some years earlier battled an absolute monarch. Even if the French Revolution is often seen as starting point for the modern Europe, democracy was predated by tyranny.

Georg Heinrich Sieveking’s “Execution of Louis XVI” in 1793.
 

Today we observe similar tumultuous times and a changing climate. However this time the changing climate is not the result of a short-lived volcanic aftermath. The warming caused by the anthropogenic carbon-dioxide emissions  into earth´s atmosphere will continue for the next centuries. Some research has suggested that a warmer climate will fuel future conflicts. Droughts can cause water and food shortages in less industrialized nations. In 2010 drought in Russia and too wet weather in Europa caused a 20% loss of crops harvest, prices in response were raised on the international market by 40 to 70%, also due speculations. China, also suffering from a poor harvest, stocked crop, causing ulterior shortages.

The increased costs, widespread unemployment and misery lead to riots and demonstrations in many North African countries. The chaos lead in part to installments of  governments controlled by the military and in Syria (hit also by a drought from 2006 to 2010) the civil war is still going on. The civil wars in Africa and Near East caused mass migrations of refugees to the first world countries, Europe was not ready for the onrush, causing a political chaos. In response many right-winged parties, promising simple solutions like walls or travel bans, gained support in many European countries (U.K., France, Germany, Austria, Italy). Right-wing politics promised also simple solutions in the United States. The poor and middle class fears migration as this implies to share already limited resources. The rich class supports such fears as it distracts from the real causes (less than 3% of the population controls more than 50% of the global wealth).
Travel bans and suppressing research about climate change doesn´t solve problems but simply hides the truth. Already authoritarian systems like Russia or China seem also best fitted to deal with future climate change. Such systems can suppress disadvantageous news about climate change effects but also react faster to impending disasters. China, dealing with severe environmental problems due its rapid industrialization, planted millions of trees in governmental controlled projects or simply limited traffic in cities. Such projects would need more effort, time and especially support by citizens in democratic systems.
In times of supposed chaos, overwhelmed by the problems (real or faked), we demand for simple solutions, as authoritarian systems can quickly promise (if they really will hold the promise is another problem), but simple is not necessary the right way.

Non Sequitur by Wiley Miller

Of Love and Lava: A Geomythological Tale of Kilauea

The first colonists arrived on Hawai´i probably in the years 800-1.000. Lacking a written history their nevertheless developed a rich oral tradition, inspired in part by past events. 

One of the most important stories involves the volcano goddess Pele and her youngest sister Hi‘iaka. Once, so the myth, they arrived on Hawai´i and after a long search Pele decided to settle on the summit of Kilauea, since then also named Kalua o Pele, the pit of Pele. She send her youngest sister  Hi‘iaka‘aikapoliopele (generally shortened to Hi‘iaka) to search for Lohi‘au, a man Pele loved. The sister promised to bring him back to her and Pele promised as reward to her sister to spare the beloved forest of Hi‘iaka from fire and lava. Hi‘iaka had to overcome many obstacles, but finally she managed to bring Lohi‘au back to  Kilauea. However Pele had grown tired in the meanwhile and in a moment of anger she burned the entire forest.  Hi‘iaka for revenge take Lohi‘au and Pele, seeing the two together, became so envious that she killed Lohi‘au during a furious eruption. Hi‘iaka desperately searched for many weeks the corpse of Lohi‘au between the lava and rocks send by Pele.

 

Fig.1. On the rim of Pele´s pit, painting by P. Hurd, 1824.

It maybe is possible to interpret this myth in a geomythological way, linking it with features really found in the landscape and the geological history behind the formation of such features. The caldera of Kilauea is dated to 1470-1500 and also the Aila‘au flow (named after another Hawaiian deity), a large lava flow covering the north side of Kilauea, formed around 1470. Morphology and a well developed network of lava tubes suggest it formed during a single, prolonged volcanic eruption of Kilauea. The historic date makes it seems reasonable to assume that the event was watched by the locals and possibly the event was recorded and passed from generation to generation in form of a myth. The destruction of Hi‘iaka´s forest by the furious Pele could describe the lava burning down the vegetation around the crater, suggesting also that before this eruption enough time passed from the previous eruption to grow a dense forest. Also the last part of the myth is interesting.  Hi‘iaka moves and throws rocks into air during her search, maybe the description of an explosive eruption or explosions resulting from the lava coming into contact with groundwater or the sea.


 
The interpretation of myths in geological light helps also to better evaluate the risk, as eruption style of former volcanic events and the impact on the society can be reconstructed in more detail than just from studying the volcanic deposits.

Interested in reading more? Try: 

SWANSON. D.A. (2008): Hawaiian oral tradition describes 400 years of volcanic activity at Kilauea. Journal of Volcanology and Geothermal Research 176: 427–431

Does praying help prevent natural disasters?

Saint Januarius is the patron of Naples and annually a flask of his (supposedly) blood is presented during a public procession in the city. If, so the legend goes, the dry blood becomes liquid again the city will be spared of any disaster and misfortune. It must be said that the supposed premonitory miracle and its interpretation is very complicated. Factors like timing, how much and how the blood liquefies, color and density of the resulting liquid play a role.

Fig.1. The eruption of Vesuvius in 1631, Saint Januarius is shown above the vulcano. He's a silent guardian, a watchful protector.... most of the times.

The first supposed miracle happened in 1389 and in 1924 geologists Giovanni Battista Alfano (1878-1955) and Antonio Amitrano compiled a list, looking on how well the premonitory signs correlates with disasters or the lack of such. In years where the miracle failed to happen Mount Vesuvius erupted eleven times and nineteen earthquakes hit the city. In years when the miracle happened Vesuvius erupted just five times. So it seems that divine protection works half the times. 
Also whenever Vesuvius seems to become active a procession with the relics of the saint is organized to implore divine protection.These processions helped diplomat and amateur vulcanologist Sir William Douglas Hamilton (1730-1803) to reconstruct the activity of Vesuvius in recent history.

Fig.2. "The recent eruption of Vesuvius: scenes of terror and piety in the face of the eruption", by Achille Beltrame (1871-1956), cover of the newspaper "La Domenica del Corriere" April 1906.

Naples is not the only city with a holy protector. In Catania it´s Saint Agata. According to local folklore a veil of the saint has the power to stop a lava flow. During the disastrous eruption of Mount Etna in 1669 Saint Agata was invoked. For a time the lava flows could be diverted by a group of brave men, building dams of lava rocks in front of the advancing flow and digging alternative paths, also the walls of the city of Catania resisted. But finally the lava entered in a breach of the walls, claiming 15.000 victims.

Fig.3. Fresco by painter Giacinto Platania (1612-1691) of the eruption of Mount Etna in 1669, Platania witnessed the eruption himself and the painting is quite realistic, showing the lava flows stopped by the city walls.

Still in 1971 divine protection was claimed for the city of Sant'Alfio, near Catania, and it apparently worked this time. 

As why those inconsistent results over time - as they say the lord works in mysterious ways.

April 18, 1906: San Francisco´s Wicked Ground

“O, promised land
O, wicked ground
Build a dream
Tear it down

O, promised land
What a wicked ground
Build a dream
Watch it all fall down”
“San Andreas Fault”

Sailors on board of the “Wellington“, just entering the bay of San Francisco, noted something unusual in the early morning hours of April 18, 1906. The captain reported later that the ship “shivered and shook like a springless wagon on a corduroy road” even if the sea was as “smooth as glass.“

Clarence Judson was swimming near Ocean Beach when he suddenly was pulled by a strong current into the sea. He made it back to the shacking shores.

“I tried to run to where I left my shoes, hat and bathrobe ... but I guess I must have described all kinds of figures in the sand.“

In Washington Street, police sergeant Jesse Cook observed a terrifying spectacle:

“The whole street ... It was as if the waves of the ocean were coming towards me,  ...[]... Davis Street split right open in front of me, []… A gaping trench. . . about six feet deep and half full of water. Suddenly ...[]... the walls of the building began to shake. Before I could get into the shelter of the doorway the walls had actually fallen inward.“

George Davidson, professor for Geography, woke up from the tumult coming from the streets. He grabbed his watch on the desk and noted the length of a first quake – 60 seconds – followed by a second – again 20 to 40 seconds long. His observations – 5:12am in the morning – will later be used to determinate the official time of the great earthquake of San Francisco. Many people were still asleep and killed in their beds, those who escaped gathered in the streets. Despite the earthquake, most of the city seemed still intact and surprisingly quiet.
In 1906 San Francisco was already considered a great, but also corrupt, city with more than 400.000 inhabitants. Thanks to the discovery of gold in the rivers of California the city was quickly expanding into its surroundings. It was an important gateway to the Pacific and a modern trade place. The newest technology in film equipment was available in the shops. The earthquake of San Francisco will become the first natural disaster of this magnitude to be so well documented by photographs and film footage (even in color).
However, most buildings in San Francisco were poorly constructed and made of wood. San Francisco had burned to the ground six times in the past century and experienced strong earthquakes in 1865 and 1868, when 30 people were killed.

“Earthquakey Times“, a caricature by Ed Jump of the October 8, 1865 earthquake in San Francisco. While he was working as a newspaper reporter in San Francisco, Mark Twain experienced the earthquake which he describes in his 1872 book “Roughing It.” – “It was just after noon, on a bright October day. I was coming down Third Street. The only objects in motion anywhere . . . were a man in a buggy behind me, and a [horse-drawn] streetcar wending slowly up the cross street. . . . As I turned the corner, around a frame house, there was a great rattle and jar. . . . Before I could turn and seek the door, there came a terrific shock; the ground seemed to roll under me in waves, interrupted by a violent joggling up and down, and there was a heavy grinding noise as of brick houses rubbing together. I fell up against the frame house and hurt my elbow. . . A third and still severer shock came, and as I reeled about on the pavement trying to keep my footing, I saw a sight! The entire front of a tall four-story brick building on Third Street sprung outward like a door and fell sprawling across the street, raising a great dust-like volume of smoke! And here came the buggy-overboard went the man, and in less time than I can tell it the vehicle was distributed in small fragments along three hundred yards of street. . . . The streetcar had stopped, the horses were rearing and plunging, the passengers were pouring out at both ends. . . . Every door, of every house, as far as the eye could reach, was vomiting a stream of human beings; and almost before one could execute a wink and begin another, there was a massed multitude of people stretching in endless procession down every street my position commanded. . . . For some days afterward, groups of eyeing and pointing men stood about many a building, looking at long zig-zag cracks that extended from the eaves to the ground...”

Police sergeant Jesse Cook was the first person to report a fire in a grocery in Clay Street. An hour later there were already fifty fires spotted in the entire city. The firefighters realized horrified that the water pipes in the underground were broken and the hydrants useless. The resulting firestorm will burn three days and will destroy 90 percent of the 28.000 buildings in San Francisco.

Journalist Arnold Genthe will take one of the most famous photos in history. 

“I found that my hand cameras had been so damaged by the falling plaster as to be rendered useless. I went to Montgomery Street to the shop of George Kahn, my dealer, and asked him to lend me a camera. “Take anything you want. This place is going to burn up anyway.” I selected the best small camera, a 3A Kodak Special. I stuffed my pockets with films and started out….”

“Looking Down Sacramento Street, San Francisco, April 18. 1906“, photography by Arnold Genthe.

In Jackson Street, the owner of the “Hotaling´s Whiskey” distillery decides to fight the flames. He pays 80 men to sprinkle 5.000 barrels of whiskey with water pumped out from the sewer system. Later he will mock all those who claim that the earthquake was sent by god by coining a new advertising slogan for his company.

“If, as some say, God spanked the town, for being over frisky – why did He burn the churches down and save Hotaling´s Whiskey?“

Army troops were soon ordered into the city to help the firefighters and prevent panic and looting. Despite the fact that martial law was never proclaimed, the major authorized policeman and soldiers to shoot looting persons – “Obey orders or get shot” was the grim warning on the signboards.
Guion Dewey, a businessman from Virginia, wandering the streets of downtown San Francisco minutes after the quake, experienced the best and worst of human behavior, as he later wrote in a letter to his mother:

“I saw innocent men shot down by the irresponsible militia. I walked four miles to have my jaw set. A stranger tried to make me accept a $10 gold piece. I was threatened with death for trying to help a small girl drag a trunk from a burning house, where her father and mother had been killed. A strange man gave me raw eggs and milk . . . (the first food I had had for twenty-two hours). I saw a soldier shoot a horse because its driver allowed it to drink at a fire hose which had burst. I had a Catholic priest kneel by me in the park as I lay on a bed of alfalfa hay, covered with a piece of carpet, and pray to the Holy Father for relief for my pain. . . . I saw a poor woman, barefoot, told to “Go to Hell and be glad for it” for asking for a glass of milk at a dairyman’s wagon; she had in her arms a baby with its legs broken. I gave her a dollar and walked with her to the hospital. . . .I was pressed into service by an officer, who made me help to strike tents in front of the St. Francis Hotel when the order was issued to dynamite all buildings in the vicinity to save the hotel. I like him and hope to meet him again. When he saw I was hurt, which I had not told him, not yet having been bandaged, he took me to his own tent and gave me water and brandy and a clean handkerchief.“

The earthquake and the firestorms killed an estimated 3.000 to 4.000 people, destroyed 28.000 buildings and the infrastructure of the entire city. However, thanks to a quick rebuilt, just three years later most of San Francisco looked as if the earthquake never happened.

Seismology was still a young scientific discipline at the time of the earthquake in San Francisco. Worldwide there were only 96 seismographs operating, none of these in California. In the aftermath of the disaster, only three days later, the Governor of California announced the formation of the State Earthquake Investigation Commission, led by geologist Andrew C. Lawson of the University of California.
The commission focused on the San Andreas Rift, a nearby valley until then considered of minor interest and mapped geologically only in short sections. For two years Lawson and his team followed the rift, mapping ponds, streams and hills on foot and horseback. They recognized that the rift follows almost the entire coastline of California for more than 1.000 kilometers. During the April 18, earthquake, almost 480 kilometers of this large fault suddenly ruptured, displacing large sections horizontally, not vertically, as geologists had previously believed to be the source of earthquakes. The commission discovered that earthquakes can be generated also along so-called strike-slip faults.
The epicenter of the earthquake was at first located at the point with the largest observed displacement on land. However, today the epicenter is believed to be situated in the Pacific Ocean, in accordance with the seismic waves coming from the sea as observed by the first eyewitnesses.
The results of the scientific investigation of the San Francisco earthquake led Henry Fielding Reid, a geology professor at Johns Hopkins University in Maryland, to propose a new theory regarding the origin of earthquakes, later dubbed the “theory of elastic rebound“. Reid’s hypothesis will have a revolutionary impact on the young science of seismology.

Sources:

SLAVICEK, L.C. (2008): The San Francisco Earthquake and Fire of 1906. Great Historic Disasters. Chelsea House Publishers: 128
STARR, J.D. (1907): The California Earthquake of 1906. A.M. Robertson, San Francisco

Clash of the Titans: The Science behind the Iceberg that sank the Titanic

The tragedy of the “unsinkable” Titanic – lost in the cold water of the Atlantic – became part of history and pop culture, but the story of the main culprit that caused the disaster is mostly forgotten and only vague descriptions and some photos exists of the supposed iceberg(s). One famous photography taken from board of the cable ship “Minia“, one of the first ships to reach the area in search for debris and bodies, shows a tabular iceberg, an unusual shape for icebergs in the northern Atlantic. The crew found debris and bodies floating in the vicinity and the captain assured that this was the only iceberg near the point of the collision. However most surviving Titanic testimonies described later the infamous iceberg with a prominent peak or even two.

Fig.1. The moment of the collision according to the sailor Frederick Fleet - one of the two men on duty as lookout in the night of the disaster (after EATON & HAAS 1986).

Fig.2. Journalist Colin Campbell, a passenger of the "Carpathia" - the first ship to approach the scene of the disaster the next morning and save the surviving passengers of the Titanic - described the iceberg for the "New York Tribune" (after EATON & HAAS 1986).

Fig.3. One of the many icebergs photographed in the morning of April 15, 1912. The passengers on the ship “Prinz Adalbert”, still unaware of the disaster of the previous night, reported later to have noted a “red smear” at the waterline of the white iceberg.

Fig.4. Photography of an iceberg from the cable ship "Minia", one of the first ships to reach the area in search for debris and bodies. The crew found debris and bodies floating in the vicinity of the depicted iceberg and the captain assured that this was the only iceberg near the scene of the collision (after Titanic & Nautical Resource Center).

Fig.5. Another iceberg, photographed five days later from board of the German ship “Bremen”, claimed to be the Titanic iceberg based on the vicinity to the location of the disaster and the description of the iceberg according to survivors. An "authentic" photography of the iceberg that sank theTitanic was worth a lot of money for the eager press, this also explain why so many photographs of icebergs were taken at the time.

Fig.6. Photography taken from board of the ship “Birma” of the same iceberg as seen by the passengers of the “Carpathia” (see also Fig.2.) – the first ship to approach the scene of the disaster and save the surviving passengers of the Titanic – and published at the time in the “Daily Sketch”. This iceberg has in fact some remarkable similarities to the iceberg as described by survivors of the disaster.  
Despite the question if one of the photos shows really the culprit iceberg, the remarkably number of spotted icebergs emphasizes the notion that in 1912 a quite impressive number of these white titans reached such southern latitudes.

The icebergs encountered in the North Atlantic originate mainly from the western coasts of Greenland, where ice streams deliver large quantities of ice in the fjords which lead to the Baffin Bay. Every year ten-thousand of small and large pieces of ice drop from the front of the glaciers and are pushed by the West Greenland Current slowly to northern latitudes, far away from ship routes. Following first the coast of Greenland this current is diverted by the Canadian coast to the south, forming the Labrador Current that circumnavigates Newfoundland and delivers the iceberg to the warm Gulf Stream. A more than 5.000km long journey full of obstacles and incessant erosion by the sun, the water and the waves. Only estimated 1 to 2% of large icebergs will, after a period of 1-3 years, reach latitude 45°N, crossing one of the most important route for ships of the entire Atlantic Ocean.

Fig.7. Schematic map of marine currents (blue= cold; red = hot) around Greenland, probable region of origin (West Greenland) and hypothetical route of the iceberg that hit the Titanic.

Apparently in 1912 icebergs were spotted remarkably often in this region and various hypotheses tried to explain this “anomaly”.  The years before 1912 were characterized by mild winters in Europe and possibly the northern Atlantic. It was therefore speculated that the (relative) warm temperatures increased the melting rate and activity of the calving glaciers on Greenland. 
Also a strengthened Labrador Current, pushing cold water and icebergs much more to the south, was proposed to explain the ice field that in the cold night 100 years ago forced various ships to stop along the Atlantic route. 
Both  hypotheses are based on the recorded values of Sea Surface Temperature (see this diagram by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution), which show an alternation of a warm and cold period  in 1900-1920.
A recent hypothesis – promoted by NG – proposes that an exceptional high tide prevented much of the larger icebergs to run, as normally would happen, on ground along the coasts of Baffin Bay. However considering that this tide occurred just some months before (January 1912) and the average velocity of an iceberg is low (0,7km/h~0,6mph), the Titanic iceberg had to take a straight course to arrive in time for his rendezvous with history – April 14, 1912.

Based on iceberg counts along the shores of Labrador and later in the Atlantic, also the year 1912 don’t seem to be necessarily such an anomalous event, but the disaster raised considerably the interest (and maybe perception) of the public for icebergs.

Fig.8. Iceberg counts (estimated before 1912) at 48°N, data compiled from the International Ice Patrol Iceberg Database.

In the days after the disaster bypassing ships encountered and photographed various icebergs. Some eyewitnesses claim to have noted red paint on some of them; however there is no conclusive evidence that one of these spotted white giants is really the iceberg that sank the Titanic. At least some weeks later the culprit iceberg, captured by the warm water of the Gulf Stream, melted and disappeared forever into the Atlantic Ocean.

Bibliography:

EATON, J.P. & HAAS, C.A. (1986): Titanic Triumph and Tragedy. Haynes Publishing: 352
SOUTH, C. et al. (2006): The Iceberg That Sank the Titanic. The Natural World documentary film – BBC

April 10, 1815: The Eruption that Shook the World

“I had a dream, which was not all a dream.  
The bright sun was extinguish’d, and the stars  
Did wander darkling in the eternal space,  
Rayless, and pathless, and the icy earth  
Swung blind and blackening in the moonless air;
Morn came and went – and came, and brought no day”
“Darkness” (1816) by Lord Bryon (1788-1824)

In the year 1816 Europe was slowly recovering from the Napoleonic wars, ended just one year earlier. After years of desperation and destruction people hoped for better times – but the summer that came was rainy and cold and on the fields the crops did not mature or rotted away, famine and diseases were the consequences. Also the north-eastern states of the US experienced snowstorms and frost in the middle of summer. The year 1816 has come to be known as the “year without a summer.“

Fig.1. Development of costs in the years 1816-17 of important articles of food in Europe. Especially crops and bread, essential for the large and poor populations on the continent, experienced a massive increase in costs due the failed harvests. Meat was still a precious resource available only to a limited group of persons at the time; the reduced livestock therefore could still satisfy the demand (modified after ABEL 1974).

The strange behaviour of the weather was unexplainable at the time. Nobody could imagine that the origins of the strange phenomena were to be found on the opposite side of earth, where an entire mountain had annihilated itself in the largest volcanic eruption of modern history.

The estimated 4.000m high volcano of Tambora on the island of Sumbawa in Indonesia erupted with an intensity of VEI 7 – 100x stronger than Mount St. Helens. During the peak of eruption April 10, 1815 the mountain lost 1.300m height and catapulted estimated two million tons of debris, particles and sulphur components into the higher layers of the atmosphere. These aerosols reduced the solar radiation on earth’s surface and influenced worldwide weather patterns for years to come.
 

Thousands of people died by the direct effects of the four month lasting eruption, like poisonous clouds and gas, large pyroclastic flows and tsunamis. In the surrounding area of the volcano the vegetation was killed and the soil poisoned for years. Many more suffered from the climatic effects and the aftermath of the eruption. Almost the entire northern hemisphere, in a period with already cool climate, experienced an ulterior drop of temperatures, famine and diseases spread over the world.

Fig.2. "Volcano and fishing proas near Passoeroean, on the Java coast, Indonesia" by Thomas Baines (1820-1875).

Only one year later a detailed account of the catastrophe was published first in the “History of Java” (1817) by the English governor of Indonesia and naturalist Sir Thomas Stamford Bingley Raffles (1781-1826) and later incorporated in Lyell’s “Principles of Geology” (1850):

“Island of Sumbawa, 1815. – In April, 1815, one of the most frightful eruptions recorded in history occurred in the province of Tomboro, in the island of Sumbawa, about 200 miles from the eastern extremity of Java.
In the April of the year preceding the volcano had been observed in a state of considerable activity, ashes having fallen upon the decks of vessels which sailed past the coast. The eruption of 1815 began on the 5th of April, but was most violent on the 11th and 12th, and did not entirely cease till July. The sound of the explosions was heard in Sumatra, at the distance of 970 geographical miles in a direct line; and at Ternate, in an opposite direction, at the distance of 720 miles. 

Out of a population of 12,000, in the province of Tomboro, only twenty-six individuals survived. Violent whirlwinds carried up men, horses, cattle, and whatever else came within their influence, into the air; tore up the largest trees by the roots, and covered the whole sea with floating timber. Great tracts of land were covered by lava, several streams of which, issuing from the crater of the Tomboro mountain, reached the sea. So heavy was the fall of ashes, that they broke into the Resident’s house at Bima, forty miles east of the volcano, and rendered it, as well as many other dwellings in the town, uninhabitable. 

On the side of Java the ashes were carried to the distance of 300 miles, and 217 towards Celebes, in sufficient quantity to darken the air. The floating cinders to the westward of Sumatra formed, on the 12th of April, a mass two feet thick, and several miles in extent, through which ships with difficulty forced their way. The darkness occasioned in the daytime by the ashes in Java was so profound, that nothing equal to it was ever witnessed in the darkest night. 
Although this volcanic dust when it fell was an impalpable powder, it was of considerable weight when compressed, a pint of it weighing twelve ounces and three quarters. “Some of the finest particles,” says Mr. Crawfurd, “were transported to the islands of Amboyna and Banda, which last is about 800 miles east from the site of the volcano, although the south-east monsoon was then at its height.” They must have been projected, therefore, into the upper regions of the atmosphere, where a counter current prevailed.  

Along the sea-coast of Sumbawa, and the adjacent isles, the sea rose suddenly to the height of from two to twelve feet, a great wave rushing up the estuaries, and then suddenly subsiding. Although the wind at Bima was still during the whole time, the sea rolled in upon the shore, and filled the lower parts of the houses with water a foot deep. Every prow and boat was forced from the anchorage, and driven on shore.  
The town called Tomboro, on the west side of Sumbawa, was overflowed by the sea, which encroached upon the shore so that the water remained permanently eighteen feet deep in places where there was land before. Here we may observe, that the amount of subsidence of land was apparent, in spite of the ashes, which would naturally have caused the limits of the coast to be extended.  

The area over which tremulous noises and other volcanic effects extended, was 1000 English miles in circumference, including the whole of the Molucca Islands, Java, a considerable portion of Celebes, Sumatra, and Borneo. In the island of Amboyna, in the same month and year, the ground opened, threw out water, and then closed again.

In conclusion, I may remind the reader, that but for the accidental presence of Sir Stamford Raffles, then governor of Java, we should scarcely have heard in Europe of this tremendous catastrophe. He required all the residents in the various districts under his authority to send in a statement of the circumstances which occurred within their own knowledge; but, valuable as were their communications, they are often calculated to excite rather than to satisfy the curiosity of the geologist. They mention, that similar effects, though in a less degree, had, about seven years before, accompanied an eruption of Carang Assam, a volcano in the island of Bali, west of Sumatra; but no particulars of that great catastrophe are recorded.“

Bibliography:

ABEL, W. (1974): Massenarmut und Hungerkrisen im vorindustriellen Europa. Versuch einer Synopsis. Hamburg-Berlin: 427
BOER, de J.Z. & SANDERS, D.T. (2002): Volcanoes in Human History: The Far-Reaching Effects of Major Eruptions. Princeton University Press: 295
OPPENHEIMER, C. (2011): Eruptions that Shook the World. Cambridge University Press: 392

The Geology of the Mountains of Madness

“[]…we expected to unearth a quite unprecedented amount of material – especially in the pre-Cambrian strata of which so narrow a range of antarctic specimens had previously been secured. We wished also to obtain as great as possible a variety of the upper fossiliferous rocks, since the primal life history of this bleak realm of ice and death is of the highest importance to our knowledge of the earth’s past.“

100 years ago only segments of the coast and the approximately contours of Antarctica were known – a perfect scenario to be filled by the imagination of a writer. In 1888 the novel “A Strange Manuscript Found in a Copper Cylinder“, by Canadian James De Mille, was posthumously published (Brian Switek recovers these lost tales on his Dinosaur Tracking post “Who Wrote the First Dinosaur Novel?“). The novel narrates the adventures of a sailor shipwrecked on an unknown part of the continent, where volcanic activity enables a tropical lost world to flourish. Only in 1912, maybe also in response to the successful expeditions to the South Pole, Arthur Conan Doyle reinvented “The Lost World” in a remote region of the Amazonian forest. Curiously Edgar Rice Burroughs published in 1918 the first part of “The Land That Time Forgot“, maybe hoping to exploit the celebrity of Doyle’s tale. Here the primordial world populated by tropical forests and of course dinosaurs is located again near Antarctica on the island of Caprona, first reported by the (fictitious) Italian explorer Caproni in 1721.

“At the Mountains of Madness” is a science-fiction/horror story by the American writer H. P. Lovecraft (1890-1937), written in February/March 1931 and originally published in the February, March and April 1936 issues of one of the first pulp-magazine of history: “Astounding Stories“.
Like many others stories by Lovecraft also Mountains of Madness is retold from a first-person perspective: Geologist William Dyer is one of the few survivors of an Antarctica expedition that in 1930 studied the geology of the frozen continent. After discovering strange trace fossils a team ventures into the unknown interior of Antarctica, only to discover a terrifying chain of dark peaks:

“He was strangely convinced that the marking was the print of some bulky, unknown, and radically unclassifiable organism of considerably advanced evolution, notwithstanding that the rock which bore it was of so vastly ancient a date – Cambrian if not actually pre-Cambrian – as to preclude the probable existence not only of all highly evolved life, but of any life at all above the unicellular or at most the trilobite stage. These fragments, with their odd marking, must have been five hundred million to a thousand million years old.“

Lovecraft is today considered one of the first authors to mix elements of the classic gothic horror stories, mostly characterized by supernatural beings, with elements of modern science-fiction, were the threat to the protagonists results from natural enemies, life, but not as we know it. He was an enthusiastic autodidact in science and incorporates in his story many geologic observations made at the time, he even cites repeatedly the geological results of the 1928-30 expedition by explorer Richard Evelyn Byrd. Only in 1929-31 the British-Australian-New Zealand Antarctic Research Expedition was mapping the last unknown coastlines and still not much was known about the geology and palaeontology of the interior of the continent.

The first fossils, fragments of petrified wood, described from Antarctica were collected in 1892-93 on Seymour Island by members of the Norwegian Antarctic Expedition led by Carl Anton Larsen (most fossils were traded later by the sailors for tobacco, Larsen handled his specimens to the University of Oslo). One of the first geologists to collect fossils in Antarctica was the Swedish geologist Otto Nordenskjöld in 1902-03, he and his crew discovered Jurassic plant fossils, shells and the bones of gigantic penguins (which also have an cameo in Lovecraft’s tale). Based on the plant fossils Nordenskjöld was also one of the first researchers to propose that Antarctica in the past experienced a much warmer climate and was covered by forests of ferns and other tropical plants. Lovecraft will evocate this long lost past in his story by the unexpected discovery of a cave that acted as sediment trap for millions of years:

“The hollowed layer was not more than seven or eight feet deep but extended off indefinitely in all directions and had a fresh, slightly moving air which suggested its membership in an extensive subterranean system. Its roof and floor were abundantly equipped with large stalactites and stalagmites, some of which met in columnar form: but important above all else was the vast deposit of shells and bones, which in places nearly choked the passage. Washed down from unknown jungles of Mesozoic tree ferns and fungi, and forests of Tertiary cycads, fan palms, and primitive angiosperms, this osseous medley contained representatives of more Cretaceous, Eocene, and other animal species than the greatest paleontologist could have counted or classified in a year. Mollusks, crustacean armor, fishes, amphibians, reptiles, birds, and early mammals – great and small, known and unknown. No wonder Gedney ran back to the camp shouting, and no wonder everyone else dropped work and rushed headlong through the biting cold to where the tall derrick marked a new-found gateway to secrets of inner earth and vanished aeons.“

In 1920 the geologist William Thomas Gordon described the oldest Antarctic fossils, archaeocyathids found in rocks dated to the Cambrian Period (more than 500 million years ago). Archaeocyathids, sponge-like organisms, were also discovered in samples coming from a moraine of Beardmore Glacier and collected in 1907-09 by Ernest Shackleton during his failed attempt to reach the South Pole.
 

The desire to understand the ancient history of Antarctica had also a tragic consequence. December 14, 1911 Roald Amundsen and his team had reached the South Pole, four weeks later Robert Falcon Scott and his team sighted the tent with the Norwegian flag. This unexpected discovery demoralized Scott and his men who had also to face the impending polar winter and an insufficient stock of supplies. However Scott decided during his return to stop at a moraine and collected rock samples, loosing precious time and adding ulterior weight on the sleigh pulled by the men.

“The moraine was obviously so interesting that when we had advanced some miles and got out of the wind, I decided to camp and spend the rest of the day geologizing. It has been extremely interesting . . . Altogether we had a most interesting afternoon, but the sun has just reached us, a little obscured by night haze.“

The samples were discovered in 1912 along with the frozen bodies of the men. In 1914 British palaeontologist Albert Charles Seward described the fossil plant remains collected by Scott’s party as Glossopteris and Vertebraria, two species of plants distributed almost worldwide that will later be used by Alfred Wegener as evidence that Antarctica was once connected to the other continents.

Lovecraft apparently was fascinated by the theory of continental drift as proposed by Wegener in the 1920s, as he describes the discovery of an ancient topographic map of unknown origin in a dead city, showing the slow movement of the continents on the surface of earth.

“As I have said, the hypothesis of Taylor, Wegener, and Joly that all continents are fragments of an original Antarctic land mass which cracked from centrifugal force and drifted apart over a technically viscous lower surface- an hypothesis suggested by such things as the complementary outlines of Africa and South America, and the way the great mountain chains are rolled and shoved up-receives striking support from this uncanny source.“

For Lovecraft the geology and the detailed description of the discovered fossils is an essential part to present the idea of deep time, especially the pre-Cambrian, when according to the knowledge of his time no life existed on earth. However the expedition of Dyer discovers in rocks dated to this ancient period the traces of highly evolved creatures, referred only as the Elder Ones. They are far superior in their culture, technology and abilities to our civilization, most important they are immeasurable older than humans and Lovecraft’s tale ends with a warning: compared to the almost unimaginably vastness of the age of earth (and these creatures) we should feel quite humble (and afraid).

“I am forced into speech because men of science have refused to follow my advice without knowing why. It is altogether against my will that I tell my reasons for opposing this contemplated invasion of the antarctic – with its vast fossil hunt and its wholesale boring and melting of the ancient ice caps. And I am the more reluctant because my warning may be in vain.“

 

Fig.2. Digital Elevation Model of the bedrock of the Antarctic continent, after data from LYTHE, M.B., VAUGHAN, D.G. and the BEDMAP Consortium (2000): A new ice thickness and subglacial topographic model of the Antarctic.

Today much more is known about the geology of Antarctica.  The landmass of Antarctica is composed by two large blocks separated by the Transantarctic Mountains, a 2.800km long mountain range with 4.000m high peaks (Lovecraft´s imaginary Mountains of Madness were more than twice as high as these mountains).

East Antarctica is dominated by Precambrian igneous and metamorphic rocks, however almost completely covered by a 4.000m thick ice cap. Even if East Antarctica is thought to be an ancient and stable continental shield, geophysical investigations showed prominent mountains buried under the ice, like the Gamburtsev Mountain Range, a 1000km long mountain range with peaks almost 3.000m high. The origin of these mountains was for a long time an intriguing mystery – volcanic origin, mountains formed by subduction very recently or the remains of an ancient Gondwanan-orogeny were the most popular hypotheses. Most recent research (FERRACCIOLI et al. 2011) proposes that these mountains are much elder ones, formed by movements during the collision of the various blocks.

West Antarctica is a mosaic of five smaller blocks covered by the West Antarctic Ice Sheet; however rocks are exposed on the Antarctic Peninsula. The Antarctic Peninsula was formed by uplift and metamorphism of sea-bed sediments during the late Paleozoic and the early Mesozoic, as proved by the fossils that inspired Lovecraft.

Bibliography:

HUNTFORD, R. (2010): Race for the South Pole – The Expedition Diaries of Scott and Amundsen. Continuum International Publishing Group: 330
LONG, J. (2003): Mountains of Madness – A Scientist’s Odyssey in Antarctica. Jospeh Henry Press, Washington: 252