And now for something completely different...

I haven't told you yet what I do in my day job- I am a geologist.  In honor of the eruption of Grimsvotn volcano in Iceland I thought I'd show you a couple of fun volcano pictures.

Colima volcano, Mexico, eruption March 2005

There is a pyroclastic flow running down the left side of the volcano in addition to the obvious ash cloud.  My friend Karen was in the middle of presenting the details of some older volcanic deposits when Emilio started shouting, "!El volcan!  El volcan!" and we all turned around to see it erupting!  Pretty darn spectacular.

Lava flow from Pu'u O'o cone on Kilauea volcano, Big Island, Hawai'i, eruption November 2003

This new lava flow was covering one from the 1980's.  That shiny circle to the right of the flow is a penny for scale.  Did you know that if you put a penny in a lava flow it'll burn pretty colors?  After witnessing that I have to agree with Jack Handy: "If you ever drop your keys into a river of molten lava, forget 'em, cause man, they're gone."  A Deep Thought indeed.

And to bring this post back to gardening, volcanic soils are some of the most fertile in the world.  There's a reason the flanks of Vesuvius are covered in farms; it's just too bad she's gonna blow again one of these days.  But in the meantime, she might as well help provide food and wine, right?

This concludes our geologic interlude.  Here's hoping Grimsvotn doesn't mess things up too badly for air travel... and hoping a certain geologist I know doesn't get stranded in Greenland!