Horses are herded to safety away from the volcanic ash.
A Sleeping Giant Wakes Seemingly overnight, Eyja had changed. It became active. Around the world, as many as 1,500 other volcanoes could become active at any time. Active volcanoes blast out steam, fi ery rocks, gases, and ash. People try to stay away from them. Other volcanoes are extinct. T ese
erupted long ago and have stopped for good. If a volcano is not active, it is dormant. T ese volcanoes are “sleeping.” T ey can be unpredictable. Hanna’s volcano had been sleeping for a long time. T e last time it erupted was in 1821! T is time, it erupted in the middle of the
night. With little warning, Hanna and her neighbors had to leave their homes. No one was hurt. Yet many worried about their homes and farms. T eir animals and crops needed to be cared
for, too. Hanna leſt behind 60 dairy cows. Last time, the volcano spewed for 14 months. Her cows could not wait that long to be milked. What were they going to do?
In the Thick of It From their safe evacuation spot, Hanna and her neighbors could hear the volcano. Its deep rumbling sounds carried for miles. T ey saw spectacular displays of lightning inside the ash. T e lightning fl ashes when charges of
static electricity build up inside a cloud of ash. T e same kind of thing happens inside a thundercloud during a storm. Hearing and seeing the volcano was one
thing. Smelling it was quite another. A stinky odor fi lled the air. Was it rotting seaweed? Rotten eggs? T e stench burned their noses. When they saw the spreading plume of ash, they understood. About 24 hours aſt er the eruption began,
the ash and foul-smelling gases had risen 11 kilometers (seven miles) into the sky. Air currents carried them over parts of Iceland and beyond. T e ash looked like smoke, but it was made up of hard, gritty particles of rock, glass, and sand. It could be as fi ne as talcum powder and dangerous to breathe. Now Hanna and her family had two fears: fl ooding and ash.
OCTOBER 2010 15
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