The volcanic ash has transformed rich green pastures into a charcoal lunar landscape
THICK PLUMES of smoke were bellowing unrelentingly out of Iceland’s Eyjafjallajökull glacier yesterday.
Although three weeks have passed since it erupted on April 14th, the volcano shows no immediate sign of easing.
The main R246 road to the town of Vik continues to attract busloads of volcano tourists. Many just stand by the roadside to watch what locals describe as “an act of God”. Construction work has begun on the roads that were washed out due to the floods of melted ice from the eruption.
The strikingly flat lands on the foothills of the glacier region are dotted with tranquil, picture-postcard farmhouses with distinctive red corrugated rooftops, belying the extraordinary scenes above the skyline. Those with long-range cameras and binoculars can easily see the rocks and boulders spitting out of the crater.
The dead clouds of ash drifting towards Europe have become compulsive viewing. The ash churned out by Eyjafjallajökull has transformed rich green pastures into a charcoal lunar landscape. Deep dust has replaced what once was green. Some locals have taken to calling their newborn calves gosi, the Icelandic word for volcano.
Volunteers, many from the Westman Islands with relatives in the volcanic region, will descend on farms below the Eyjafjöll mountain range this weekend to help clean the ash from the affected farms.
Kjarval supermarket in Hvolsvollur is one of the last landmarks before the best viewing point. When asked what she thought about the volcano, Asta, who works at the checkout, said it came as a “relief from the doom and gloom” that had dominated the Icelandic economic collapse since October 2008.
The rural areas closest to the volcano in southeast Iceland are hopeful that their natural phenomena will generate an eruption in the tourist economy.
Iceland’s minister for finance, Steingrímur J Sigfússon, said he was hopeful the volcano would become more stable in the near future.
Since coming to power after the kitchenware revolution in April 2009, the government has prioritised the legacies of the banking collapse, negotiations with the International Monetary Fund and the overwhelming 93 per cent rejection of the controversial Icesave referendum.
A trained geologist by profession, Sigfússon noted that governments get blamed for many things but there “was not much we could do about a volcano”.
Elaine Byrne reports from Eyjafjallajökull in tomorrow’s Weekend Review