The recent eruption of the Icelandic volcano with the unpronounceable name, Eyjafjallaj-jokull, that simply means- ‘island-mountain-glacier’(Eyja-fjalla-jokull), has woken us up to the reality that our lives here in Ireland can be affected and disrupted by a seemingly distant geological event.

We know that a volcano is an opening, or rupture, in a planet’s surface or crust, which allows hot, molten rock, ash, and gases to escape from below the surface. But do you know where the name ‘volcano’ originates?

Throughout history, volcanoes have frequently been identified with Vulcan and other mythological figures. There seems to be something about these fiery phenomena that fires the human imagination as well.

The word ‘volcano’ comes from the little island of Vulcano in the Mediterranean Sea off Sicily. Centuries ago, the people living there believed that Vulcano was the chimney of the forge of Vulcan– the blacksmith of the Roman gods.

They thought that the hot lava fragments and clouds of dust erupting from Vulcano came from Vulcan’s forge as he beat out thunderbolts for Jupiter, king of the gods, and weapons for Mars, the god of war.

Vulcan, Roman God of Fire
In Roman mythology, Vulcan, the god of fire, was said to have made tools and weapons for the other gods in his workshop at Olympus.
In Greece, Vulcan was known as Hephaistos, god of fire and craftsmanship. He became the smith and manufacturer of arms and armour for gods and heroes, also using a volcano as his forge.

Pele– Hawaiian Goddess of Volcanoes
Hawaiian legends tell that eruptions were caused by Pele, the beautiful Goddess of Volcanoes, during her frequent fits of anger. Pele’s home is the Kilauea volcano, just under 4,200 feet tall, on the south side of the Island of Hawaii. One of the most active on earth, it rests on the flanks of its larger neighbour volcano, Manua Loa.

Pele was both revered and feared; her immense power and many adventures figured prominently in ancient Hawaiian songs and chants. She could cause earthquakes by stamping her feet and volcanic eruptions and fiery devastations by digging with the Pa’oe, her magic stick. An oft-told legend describes the long and bitter quarrel between Pele and her older sister Namakaokahai that led to the creation of the chain of volcanoes that form the islands.

Llao and Skell– Native American Gods of Mount Mazama
Fiery avalanches sometimes interrupted the lives of Native Americans near Mount Mazama– now Crater Lake– more than 6,000 years ago. These people interpreted Mazama’s violent eruptions before its collapse as a war between two gods, Llao and Skell.

Archeological evidence suggests that human beings did witness this cataclysmic event. Shamans in historic time forbade most natives to view the lake, and no information was offered about the lake to pioneers, who crisscrossed the area for 50 years without discovering it.

Northwest Indians and Mt St Helens
Northwest Indians told early explorers about the fiery Mount St. Helens. They called it Louwala-Clough, ‘smoking mountain’.

According to one legend, the mountain was once a beautiful maiden, ‘Loowit’. When two sons of the Great Spirit ‘Sahale’ fell in love with her, she could not choose between them. The two braves, Wyeast and Klickitat fought over her, burning villages and forests in the process.

Sahale was furious. He smote the three lovers and erected a mighty mountain peak where each fell. Because Loowit was beautiful, her mountain (Mount St. Helens) was a symmetrical cone of dazzling white. Wyeast (Mount Hood) lifts his head in pride, but Klickitat (Mount Adams) wept to see the beautiful maiden wrapped in snow, so he bends his head as he gazes on St. Helens.

Native American legends describe how the brothers Wy’east (Hood) and Klickitat (Adams) competed for the fair Louala-Clough (St. Helens). Behaviours attributed to Wy’east include hurtling of hot rocks from gaping holes, sending forth streams of liquid fire, loss of formerly high summits, and choking of valleys with rocks.

Iceland and the Katla Witch
While the name Eyjafjallajokull is merely descriptive, there is a legend about Katla, the bigger volcano– 4,961 feet- next to it. She is rumoured to be a witch who gets very angry and wreaks damage as a result. In 1755, following an eruption, Katla caused flooding that displaced enough water to equal the amount of water in the Amazon, Mississippi, Nile and Yangtze rivers.

Volcanoes are generally found where tectonic plates are diverging or converging. A mid-oceanic ridge, for example the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, has examples of volcanoes caused by “divergent tectonic plates” pulling apart; the Pacific Ring of Fire has examples of volcanoes caused by ‘convergent tectonic plates’ coming together.

Volcanoes can also be caused by ‘mantle plumes’. These so-called ‘hotspots’, for example at Hawaii, can occur far from plate boundaries. Hotspot volcanoes are also found elsewhere in the solar system, especially on rocky planets and moons.

Volcanoes are described as active, dormant, or extinct. More than 500 volcanoes are known to have erupted on the earth’s surface since historic times, and many more have erupted on the ocean floor unobserved by humans.

Fifty volcanoes have erupted in the United States, which ranks third, behind Indonesia and Japan, in the number of historically active volcanoes.

Of the world’s active volcanoes, more than half are found around the perimeter of the Pacific, about a third on midoceanic islands and in an arc along the south of the Indonesian islands, and about a tenth in the Mediterranean area, Africa, and Asia Minor.

There are a number of extinct volcanoes in Ireland, one of the best preserved being Lambay Island.

You could create an entire dictionary of the names of the different kinds of volcanoes (ice volcanoes, mud volcanoes, supervolcanoes, strato, subglacial, submarine, etc.) and craters. One thing is certain: we haven’t heard the last of them yet.

Picture: Mt Cleveland, USA