Mountains of Fire
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9 October 2024 - Istanbul
Volcanos have always fascinated me. I first visited the crater of Haleakala with my family when I was nine and was captived by the idea of liquid rock being beneath the crust. So much so that I dug a hole in my backyard in an attempt to reach the magma and start my own volcano like the one that I read about appearing in a field in Mexico. If you're going to dream, dream big, right?
Reading Clive Oppenheimer's memoir, Mountains of Fire, brought back many happy memories. I was taken back to last year when I visited the erupting Kilauea. When he talked of the Italian volcanos I could remember running on Vesuvius in the heat and climbing Etna in a blizzard. I still haven't been to Stromboli though. When he wrote about Iceland I was transported back to Þingvellir. And who can forget trips into the giant caldera that is Yellowstone National Park. The African, South American, Antarctic, and Asian volcanos are as yet unfamiliar to me, but I was excited to learn about Mount Paektu which I only had heard of from the Laibach song and didn't realize it was a volcano. Quite a few additions to the bucket list!
Throughout the book Oppenheimer tells personal tales of his field visits and the cultural and historical importance of the volcanos. I had no idea, for example, that the volcanos in the central Saharan desert captured so much rainfall when the Sahara was green a few thousand years ago that that water is still in aquifers that feed oases throughout the desert. It's a fascinating read that I had difficulty putting down.
