National Geographic: Born of Fire Page #2

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through ensuing months

the lava would add almost one

square mile to the island

while much of the town lay buried

under cinders and ash

It would take years to dig out

But at last the precincts of the

dead are tidy again

Elsewhere in Iceland life goes on

Under the shadows of the volcanoes

that remain a perpetual enigma

farmers gather crops, prepare

for the winter to come

They are doing more

Boldly, Icelanders are making use of

the very forces that threaten them

In the north of the mainland

near the Krafla volcano

they are attempting to harness the

heat of a great geothermal field

to power homes and

industrial installations

Recent eruptions have reminded

Icelanders of the unpredictability

of the powers they are trying

to employ

With Dr. Haraldur Sigurdsson

vulcanologist from the University

of Rhode Island

Dr. Ballard visits a site where

recent lava flow

has threatened a newly-built

electric power plant

"There's the power plant below

us here

and if you look over this way..."

"Yeah. You can see the recent flows."

"The entire caldera, recent lavas..."

"Now the flows that were what

earlier this year, are down there?"

"Yes. And you can see the steam

defining the fissure

that's been erupting during the

last five years

and the black lava flows that have

been coming out."

"So if, let's say, there were another

eruption right along the caldera

where we see the fissure opening up

the lava could just come down

this valley

and go right around the corner

to the power plant."

Icelanders invested in the

costly geothermal power plant

because the field had lain dormant

for over two hundred years

Begun in 1975 as an alternative

to a hydroelectric dam

the plant was almost immediately

threatened

by a series of violent eruptions

that brought the lava flow within

a mile and a half

Trying to discern a possible

pattern in the Krafla volcanic activity

scientists keep watch on the plant

and the surrounding area

for ominous signs

Here one of the monitoring

team checks

for any ground tilt

which could unbalance

and destroy the turbines

In a field near the plant

he checks daily

for signs of subterranean activity

measures any possible change

in the gap

between two pipes planted on opposite

sides of a fissure

Like a serpent's back rising

above the sea

the steaming crest of the Mid-Ocean

Ridge stretches across Iceland

Here Ballard and Sigurdsson visit

the site of the recent lava

flow that is still cooling

"We're in the fissure that erupted

six months ago."

"So everything we are walking on

is less than six months in age?"

"That's right. And it's still

cooling off here

That's why it's still like a sauna bath."

"It's about as fresh as you can get

short of having it red."

"Yes. Let's take a look around here."

"Now, if you can sit without

cutting your pants

It's even warm

Now, I understand that when the

eruption began to take place

a tourist from Denmark

was standing right

where the fissure opened up and was..."

"Quite close to the area

where the crust split

and rifted apart and the

lava started to squirt up."

"So he just took off."

"Actually, I understand the lava

was moving quite rapidly here."

"How fast?"

"Up to ten meters per second."

"So you'd have to be a... Let's see

the world's record for

the 100-yard dash is..."

"9.8."

"So it's running about as fast as

the world's record

Hope the Dane was a fast runner."

"He was. He got away. So far there

have been no casualties."

"Before this took place

this area had been quiet for a long

long time

This is why they thought it was safe

to build the power plant."

"This area has been without volcanic

activity for about 250 years

And therefore, there was

the general feeling

that there wasn't an imminent danger

and it was a worthwhile risk to

take to start constructs

of a geothermal power station

in this central volcano."

"And they've invested what?"

"Oh, probably about 60 million dollars"

"So 60 million dollars is

really in peril then

if another major eruption occurs here

and this time it does go over

that pass and down into the basin?"

"Well, that's always a possibility

But in Iceland there is...

Iceland is a country

where you have to live with

the elements."

In patient calm, Icelanders

accept the gamble nature

has imposed upon them

the frigid climate

the sweeping storms, the hidden

threat beneath their feet

Even as they keep a wary eye

on the dangerous giant

who has built the very island on

which they live

they use his heat to warm their

cities and homes

even their indoor gardens a kind

of compensation

for the risks they philosophically endure

In winter darkness they take

light from the subterranean depths

Warmed by the hidden furnace of

the Earth itself

vegetables ripen in the arctic cold

In the volcano's fiery breath

flowers bloom

Yet the risk remains

Hardly a year after eruptions

threatened the power installation

Sigurdsson returned to Krafla

as the restless giant stirred

and became active

Once more the lava flow approached

within one-and-a-half miles of

the electric turbines

Though the fiery fountains

gradually subsided

the eruption raised the ground

level to provide a slope

for future lava flows to travel

toward the power plant

For the present the Krafla

installation is secure

But Icelanders know that eventually

they many have to pay the price

of living on the edge of creation

Sometimes the action of the

Mid-Ocean Ridge

brings surprisingly opposite effects

In Iceland its slow spreading

process over millions of years

has created the great island on

which the people live

Far southeastward

along the nearly 3,000-mile furrow

of Africa's Great Rift Valley

the spreading action is slowly

but inexorably opening the heart

of a continent

In measurable time to come

eastern Africa will be detached

from its mother continent

and this dusty desert landscape

will be an ocean floor

Already, in the Afar Triangle

at the Horn of Africa the process

has begun the sea is invading

the land

At Djibouti's Ghoubet-Al-Kharab

an inland extension of the Gulf

of Aden

the sea is temporarily delayed

by a narrow barrier of small volcanic

hills sealing off Lake Assal

But as magma seeps through

fissures in the Earth's crust

and the seven-mile rift widens

and sinks

the sea inevitably will pour

into the lowlands beyond

Already seawater from

Ghoubet-Al-Kharab

has begun to work its way downward

through cracks and

subterranean channels

undergoing substantial

chemical change

as it penetrates the heated

rock layers below

With Dr. Jean-Louis Cheminee

of the French National Center

for Scientific Research

Ballard descend into a recently

active fissure through

which a small flow of seawater

reaches the distant lake

"So this is the sea coming in, right?"

"Yes, by a system of fissures."

"This is where the water

that we see on the other side

of the rift

going into Lake Assal originates from?"

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