Musings of a Compulsive Thinker

"Ashes, ashes..."

Volcanic snow.

Why not? A particle of volcanic ash is an amorphous (glass) fragment of coagulated minerals. A snowflake is just a crystalline lattice of water molecules.

In the 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens, a mushroom cloud of ash was ejected 15 miles into the atmosphere. The mountain spewed ash for about 9 hours. Three days later there were ashes falling on the east coast of the U.S.

Most of us are used to some snowfall now and then; how many people have gone out and shoveled blankets of ash off their driveways? They had to jump on that quickly, because ash can develop the consistency of concrete when it gets wet. (Talk about completely ruining the gutters on your roof.)

Volcanic ash also conducts electricity; an approaching ash cloud may look like a thunderstorm. And it carries the accompanying scent of sulfur. Can you imagine? Hellfire and brimstone are coming to town. Wow. Oh, and this ash would be extremely abrasive, so you wouldn't want to get it in your eyes -- or breathe it into your lungs. (Remember how it turns into liquid cement when it comes into contact with moisture?)

I have been out in a few driving snowstorms, when the wind is up and the snowflakes sting your exposed skin like the tiny high-velocity ice pellets they are, and you can't see ten feet in front of you for the blindingly furiously swirling whiteness. Can you imagine being caught in an ash storm? Imagine the air filled with a driving sleet of rock shards, the smell of sulfur invading your nose; your eyes start getting that nasty gritty gummy feeling, your throat stings and you can taste a tang of blood on the back of your tongue when the abrasive ash particles start making microscopic tears along the inside of your mouth. The air feels thick when you breathe it in, the sunlight has disappeared, and you're surrounded by this gathering darkness, heavy and invasive and suffocating.

Imagine.

This could be approaching hell on earth, if it was possible to begin to imagine such a thing.

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Labels: imagine yourself here, science

posted by the alygator @ 6:57 PM