Breathtaking Lava

Posted on June 4, 2004 by sheila

Fearsome and dangerous too but also a bit awe-inspiring.

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18 Responses to Breathtaking Lava

  1. John says:
    June 4, 2004 at 11:08 am

    Every time I look at that I get mad at myself for majoring in a lab science rather than something cool like oceanography or vulcanology. All science may be either physica or stamp collecting, but the stamp collecting looks damn fun.

  2. red says:
    June 4, 2004 at 11:10 am

    How cool, too, to answer the question: “What’s your major?” with “Vulcanology.”

  3. John says:
    June 4, 2004 at 11:28 am

    While other kids are buying textbooks, you’re buying asbestos-lined boots. not to mention the best schools are in places like Hawaii.

  4. red says:
    June 4, 2004 at 11:30 am

    Yeah, no sense in majoring in Volcano Sciene at the University of North Dakota.

  5. John says:
    June 4, 2004 at 11:38 am

    Well, they can crop up in unexpected places, like some vegetable field in 1943 (granted, pretty much all of Japan is volcanic):

    http://volcano.und.nodak.edu/vwdocs/volc_images/north_asia/showa.html

    The guy who owned the field got a message from the wartime Japanese government. It seems that US bombers were using the lava flow as a landmark on their way to night bombings of Tokyo, so he was asked to black out the light. From the lava.

    He’s got a little museum there, and the letter is in a glass case, just so Tokyo can’t deny it was sent. I love Japan.

  6. Emily says:
    June 4, 2004 at 1:04 pm

    Hey, I think I can see Frodo in that picture.

  7. red says:
    June 4, 2004 at 1:07 pm

    This photo is from the point of view of the eagles.

    They are searching for 2 crying hugging Hobbits.

  8. Dave J says:
    June 4, 2004 at 1:21 pm

    Then let me be the one to ask the perennial question: “why didn’t they just have the eagles drop the Ring in Mount Doom to begin with?” ;-)

    It’s a semi-rhetorical question, and there are better answers than “because then the story would be over.”

  9. Bill McCabe says:
    June 4, 2004 at 1:27 pm

    They’re on that rock over to the mid left.

    I love the scene with the eagles. I know it’s awfully parochial of me, but the sight of bald eagles flying to the rescue of a people speaking with a vaguely English accent gives me chills.

  10. red says:
    June 4, 2004 at 1:29 pm

    Oh Jesus, Bill, that’s quite an interpretation. :)

    Remember: NO ALLEGORY.

    DaveJ: I wondered that myself.

    I wondered: Damn, those eagles sure bide their time, and show up at the last minute … what, you only decide to help us when lava is rushing up our nostrils?? Thanks a lot, boys!

  11. Bill McCabe says:
    June 4, 2004 at 1:32 pm

    I know there’s no allegory, that’s just what I get from it.

    How long the Americans waited before entering the war is often a bone of contention, you know.

  12. red says:
    June 4, 2004 at 1:33 pm

    Well, we all see what we want to see, I suppose. Hobbit-boys see the conservation “love the trees” message, others thrill with the “Victory to the West” line.

    I hope you know I’m just teasing.

  13. Bill McCabe says:
    June 4, 2004 at 1:35 pm

    I know you’re teasing, but that’s why these books Tolkien wrote are like the great legends and myths of old: They’re open to a wide variety of interpertations.

  14. red says:
    June 4, 2004 at 1:35 pm

    Oh, and of course I know about our long-delayed arrival. Give me a little credit.

    Eddie Izzard says about that, “I think you Americans were too busy watching movies – where the cavalry always shows up IN THE LAST FIVE MINUTES!”

    Very funny bit. He pretends to be throwing pots and pans at the Germans, because they have no ammunition: “Throw a pan … wait … throw some forks at them … do we have any knives …”

  15. red says:
    June 4, 2004 at 1:37 pm

    Then let’s not make fun of the Hobbit-boys for making the books be an allegory about environmentalism, and we’ll call it a day.

  16. Ash says:
    June 4, 2004 at 4:38 pm

    Just stopped in to see what subject of conversation this picture of lava ultimately led to.

    Tolkien. Check…

  17. jackstraw says:
    June 4, 2004 at 7:23 pm

    I just want to make the slightest of corrections, but the study of volcanoes is volcanology. Vulcanology is (I imagine) one of the symposia you might be able to attend at a Star Trek convention. Unless there’s a vulcan-hobbit connection I don’t know about, in which case I’ve misinterpreted the entire thread.

  18. DBW says:
    June 4, 2004 at 9:11 pm

    Ash–I’m just relieved they aren’t talking about The Breakfast Club again.

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