31 March 2021

Of Fiction, Non-Fiction, and Volcanic Eruptions

By Jonatan Pie via Unsplash
It’s been an interesting month. More on the pic in a moment.

My current work-in-progress is crawling to its finish (let’s not mention when I started writing it). It’s a Mystery, which is a bit of a departure for me, and there will be more on this next month. I should have a cover for it by now, but I don’t, organised as I am.

I’ve also become aware of the potential of the blogging platform, Medium. Though, to call its subject matter blogging is a bit of a misnomer; it’s been referred to as social journalism, and I think that fits.

The platform, which works as a subscription model, holds a large number of digital magazines marketed under diverse topics. Like paper magazines, it majors in non-fiction articles, most of which are behind a paywall. If an article holds perceived quality for its readers, then the writer is paid, and the article can be widely distributed under its topics, not merely available in a search. Despite being early in the learning curve I am finding it rather better than I expected, both in reading content and in rewards.

And now to the image. Since mid-month our household has been glued to Iceland and the natural wonder that is the birth of a volcano in Geldingadalir, the Valley of the Wethers. Or, if you prefer the blunt version, the Valley of the Castrated Rams – Gelding? Get it? Dalir is the English dale, or valley.

The Reykjanes peninsular, where the Keflavik international airport is situated, began being hit by earthquakes in late February, which by early March had built to a swarm – the official name for quakes numbering in the tens of thousands. As nearly 600 were over magnitude 3 and over 60 over magnitude 4, the earth was meaning business.

On the evening of 19 March a red glow was seen reflected from clouds south of the capital, Reykjavik. When daylight broke the first scientists flew out, followed by hiking Icelanders who refused to take no for an answer. I wrote an article on it for Medium. If you’re a member you can view it HERE. If not, enjoy this two-minute time-lapse recorded on 22 March.

 

Or watch the daily Live Feed. The weather can be interesting, too.

Enjoy!

 

Update 05 April 2021: around noon local time a line fissure opened up 500 metres away from the main double cone. Within eight hours it was throwing up a cooling dark-lava wall along its length. CameraFlo is showing it; CameraBob is focused on the original double vent. Both cameras are renewed daily.


[Note: apologies for the line spacing. This is what happens when technology is updated. I have no idea.]