Liquid Snow

Anak Krakatau volcano erupted in Indonesia. I immediately reached out to loved ones living in that part of the world and hope for air quality with COVID19.

In that pause I reflect living in South East Asia with the second largest eruption in human history.

discharging over 10 km3 of lava and ash at a height of 34 km. It was the fourth most violent eruption in history, even bigger than other incredibly violent eruptions, such as those of Krakatoa and Mount Vesuvius, which buried and destroyed Pompeii in AD 79

Most people I speak with have 0 memory of this. Some recall Mount Saint Helens. Pinatubo is ten times bigger. Scale can be difficult to grasp. Global temperatures dropped for 3 years and 30% less sunshine. This “blast from the past” is now memorialized by shock value photos on Google:

Ten inches of ash fell. Ash arrived before the news.

My only similar experience was snowfall and dusting, which made the swimming pool bizarre because snow doesn’t move like this:

Then news arrived. We sent a loved one home to the Philippines. Instead of likening the ash to snow, I now likened to cremation. Horrifying

Also jarring was that swift emotional change from 360 ‘magic’ of snow in the tropics to as massive ‘grief’ vaporized forests and more.

Ten years later, in another part of the world, a different ash fell; readers may be more familiar with 9/11.