Out of need or curiosity
man has learned much about the Earth on
which he is both guest and prisoner
Often baffled in his brief journey through time
he has found reassurance in the order revealed in nature
the recurring sequence of the seasons
the symmetry in storm
Yet nothing has lessened his terror
when nature seems to turn against him
when the Earth shudders and explodes in fire
maKing rubble of all he has built
"Twenty thousand people dead;
anywhere from fifty thousand to one hundred
and fifty thousand injured..."
"If that's it, there's a CCP there
The communication may go bad
but that's the angle they ought to go."
"There's two more in there."
Against the sudden blows of an adversary
that often striKes without warning
some have tried to create defenses
Powerless to prevent eruption or earthquaKe
they seeK to diminish its toll
Others light candles of faith seeK safety in prayer
Today new candles light the darK
instruments whose beams are refected from distant objects
or catch signals from outer space
to measure the smallest movements of the Earth's surface
Now man has devised new concepts
of the forces altering our planet
forces that move the continents
twist the globe's thin crust
build vast mountain ranges even beneath the sea
LiKe all living things Earth is in ceaseless change
Born of fire, it too is being transformed day by day
Once this was blanK ocean the cold
storm-swept Atlantic off the southern coast of Iceland
Then, in fiery eruption during the winter of 1963
the island of surtsey began to emerge from the sea
Today its single square mile of ash
and lava forms one of the newer additions
to the land surface of the globe
Yet this virgin terrain is no longer wasteland
Already life has found it
Already seeds borne by wind
and wave have taKen root in the ash
and birds have begun to nest along the cliffs
A closed preserve to casual visitors
the island has become a living laboratory
Here scientists from distan countries can study the ways
by which life tests
and gradually seizes a new domain
Among them is Dr. Robert Ballard, geologist
from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution on Cape Cod
"The story I often tell to try to get across the point
that the Earth really is alive
if you were to interview a butterfly
standing on a branch of a sequoia tree
Now, a butterfly lives for only a few days
and a sequoia tree can live for over a thousand years
And if you were to asK that butterfly
'D' you perceive the object on
which you are standing as being alive?
' 'Nd the butterfly would say, 'O' course not
I'v' been here all my life five days
and the tree hasn't done a thing
Same problem with the human being
If you were to asK a human being
perhaps one that's lived a hundred years
if they perceive the Earth which is over four
and a half billion years in age as being alive
they'd probably say
Of course not. I've been here all my life
and it hasn't done a thing.'
But the Earth really is a very dynamic object
In fact, I thinK of it as a living organism."
LiKe Surtsey, Earth too is an island not in the North Atlantic
but in the vaster sea of space
In time beyond the measure of man's brief experience
it too is in slow and ceaseless change
Some two hundred million years ago
its landmasses formed a single continent scientists call Pangea
Then slowly, Pangea's fracturing plates began to move apart
liKe pieces of a vast jigsaw puzzle
gradually assuming the shapes
and arrangement we recognize on maps today
Riding upon a semiplastic layer of Earth's fiery interior
the ocean floors and continents that form its crust
or lithosphere are in continuing motion
Through the continents seem stationary to living populations
they move an inch or more each year
The friction occurring along the plate margins
is often marKed by earthquaKes
and volcanic eruption
Sometimes, as in California's San Andreas Fault
the opposing plates grind against each other in a sideways
or lateral motion called translation
It is when a section of the fault locKs, builds up tension
then abruptly releases that major earthquaKes occur
In other areas such as Japan
in a movement Known as subduction
the edge of one crustal plate slowly slides beneath another
causing volcanic activity and tremors
Along the 46,000 mile Mid Ocean Ridge
in an action called spreading molten rocK
or magma, emerges through fissures in the ocean floor
soon congealing in new submerged crust
Sometimes, as in Iceland
and its offshore islands of Surtsey and Heimaey
the action has created new land above the sea
Barely two hundred miles south of the Arctic Circle
on the fiery seam still building Iceland itself
Heimaey is accustomed to change
Port or the fleet that fishes the abundant waters nearby
its only town of Vestmannaeyjar has seen many a storm
taKe its toll of men and ships
Hardy descendants of the ViKings
who colonized the island more than a thousand years ago
its people long have learned to live with uncertainty
to meet risK and hazard with a cheerful face
Each summer by long-standing tradition
the entire population moves out of town
on a three-day community holiday
It is a gathering that harKs bacK to ViKing times
when villagers assembled to review the spoKen laws
by which they lived
On the grassy floor of an anicent volcanic crater
they build a tent city where the people of the town rediscover
each other in a quite different setting
Side by side, they celebrate many things
home rule
won from DenmarK more than a century ago
the inheritance of their ViKing past
their survival of dangers
that sometimes rise from the Earth itself
At midnight
young men set fire to a great wooden structure built on the hillside
As the flames flare against the darK
they summon varied emotions among the watchers
To their Nordic forefathers fire brought warmth in the numbing cold
It was a symbol of life, of rebirth
But the people of Heimaey have long Known
that it also can bring destruction and death
In the winter darKness of January 1973 it brought disaster
Just beyond the town's edge a fissure cracKed the earth
abruptly spewing molten lava and ash hundreds of feet into the air
Roused from their beds by the sudden threat
most of the population was evacuated to the nearby mainland
but volunteers would fight a five-month battle with the new volcano
now called Eldfell, "Fire Mountain."
Within a weeK Eldfell had raised a blacK
smoldering cone six hundred feet high
and covered the town in ash
More than a hundred buildings had been burned
or crushed under the advancing wall of lava
In early February the lava threatened to blocK the entrance to the harbor
Desperately, emergency teams fought to dam the flow
by hardening the lava
with great streams of cold seawater
At last, by heroic effort the harbor was saved
But as the eruption continued through ensuing months
the lava would add almost one square mile to the island
while much of the town lay buried under cinders and ash
It would taKe years to dig out
But at last the precincts of the dead are tidy again
Elsewhere in Iceland life goes on
Under the shadows of the volcanoes
that remain a perpetual enigma
farmers gather crops, prepare for the winter to come
They are doing more
Boldly, Icelanders are maKing use of the very forces that threaten them
In the north of the mainland near the Krafla volcano
they are attempting to harness the heat of a great geothermal field
to power homes and industrial installations
Recent eruptions have reminded Icelanders of the unpredictability
of the powers they are trying to employ
With Dr. Haraldur Sigurdsson
volcanologist from the University of Rhode Island
Dr. Ballard visits a site where recent lava flow
has threatened a newly-built electric power plant
"There's the power plant below us here
and if you looK over this way..."
"Yeah. You can see the recent flows."
"The entire caldera, recent lavas..."
"Now the flows that were what
earlier this year, are down there?"
"Yes. And you can see the steam defining the fissure
that's been erupting during the last five years
and the blacK lava flows that have been coming out."
"So if, let's say, there were another eruption right along the caldera
where we see the fissure opening up
the lava could just come down this valley
and go right around the corner to the power plant."
Icelanders invested in the costly geothermal power plant
because the field had lain dormant for over two hundred years
Begun in 1975 as an alternative to a hydroelectric dam
the plant was almost immediately threatened
by a series of violent eruptions
that brought the lava flow within a mile and a half
Trying to discern a possible pattern in the Krafla volcanic activity
scientists Keep watch on the plant
and the surrounding area for ominous signs
Here one of the monitoring team checKs
for any ground tilt
which could unbalance and destroy the turbines
In a field near the plant he checKs daily
for signs of subterranean activity
measures any possible change in the gap
between two pipes planted on opposite sides of a fissure
LiKe a serpent's bacK rising above the sea
the steaming crest of the Mid-Ocean Ridge stretches across Iceland
Here Ballard and Sigurdsson visit the site of the recent lava
flow that is still cooling
"We're in the fissure that erupted six months ago."
"So everything we are walKing on is less than six months in age?"
"That's right. And it's still cooling off here
That's why it's still liKe a sauna bath."
"It's about as fresh as you can get short of having it red."
"Yes. Let's taKe a looK around here."
"Now, if you can sit without cutting your pants
It's even warm
Now, I understand that when the eruption began to taKe place
a tourist from DenmarK was standing right
where the fissure opened up and was..."
"Quite close to the area where the crust split
and rifted apart and the lava started to squirt up."
"So he just tooK off."
"Actually, I understand the lava was moving quite rapidly here."
"How fast?"
"Up to ten meters per second."
"So you'd have to be a... Let's see
the world's record for the 100-yard dash is..."
"9.8."
"So it's running about as fast as the world's record
Hope the Dane was a fast runner."
"He was. He got away. So far there have been no casualties."
"Before this tooK place
this area had been quiet for a long long time
This is why they thought it was safe to build the power plant."
"This area has been without volcanic activity for about 250 years
And therefore, there was the general feeling
that there wasn't an imminent danger
and it was a worthwhile risK to taKe to start constructs
of a geothermal power station in this central volcano."
"And they've invested what?"
"Oh, probably about 60 million dollars"
"So 60 million dollars is really in peril then
if another major eruption occurs here
and this time it does go over
that pass and down into the basin?"
"Well, that's always a possibility
But in Iceland there is... Iceland is a country
where you have to live with the elements."
In patient calm, Icelanders accept the gamble nature
has imposed upon them the frigid climate
the sweeping storms, the hidden threat beneath their feet
Even as they Keep a wary eye on the dangerous giant
who has built the very island on which they live
they use his heat to warm their cities and homes
even their indoor gardens a Kind of compensation
for the risKs they philosophically endure
In winter darKness they taKe light from the subterranean depths
Warmed by the hidden furnace of the Earth itself
vegetables ripen in the arctic cold
In the volcano's fiery breath flowers bloom
Yet the risK remains
Hardly a year after eruptions threatened the power installation
Sigurdsson returned to rafla
as the restless giant stirred and became active
Once more the lava flow approached
within one-and-a-half miles of the electric turbines
Though the fiery fountains gradually subsided
the eruption raised the ground level to provide a slope
for future lava flows to travel toward the power plant
For the present the rafla installation is secure
But Icelanders Know that eventually they many have to pay the price
of living on the edge of creation
Sometimes the action of the Mid-Ocean Ridge
brings surprisingly opposite effects
In Iceland its slow spreading process over millions of years
has created the great island on which the people live
Far southeastward
along the nearly 3,000-mile furrow of Africa's Great Rift Valley
the spreading action is slowly
but inexorably opening the heart of a continent
In measurable time to come
eastern Africa will be detached from its mother continent
and this dusty desert landscape will be an ocean floor
Already, in the Afar Triangle at the Horn of Africa the process
has begun the sea is invading the land
At Djibouti's Ghoubet-Al-harab
an inland extension of the Gulf of Aden
the sea is temporarily delayed
by a narrow barrier of small volcanic hills sealing off LaKe Assal
But as magma seeps through fissures in the Earth's crust
and the seven-mile rift widens and sinKs
the sea inevitably will pour into the lowlands beyond
Already seawater from Ghoubet-Al-harab
has begun to worK its way downward
through cracKs and subterranean channels
undergoing substantial chemical change
as it penetrates the heated rocK layers below
With Dr. Jean-Louis Cheminee of the French National Center
for Scientific Research
Ballard descend into a recently active fisure through
which a small flow of seawater reaches the distant laKe
"So this is the sea coming in, right?"
"Yes, by a system of fissures."
"This is where the water
that we see on the other side of the rift
going into LaKe Assal originates from?"
"Yes."
"So it comes in from the sea..."
"...from the sea and crosses the rift
by the fissures inside the mountain..."
"...and out the other side."
"Yes."
"Now, was this fissure in existence in 1978?"
"Yes, yes."
"It just widened?"
"Just widened."
"Because a lot of these rocKs are just perched
as if they're ready to come down."
"And the car here - just here..."
"Yeah, well, we should move the car."
"So we go liKe this."
"So we'll go across the..."
"Not across exactly liKe this. No."
"We go across this area, right?
Now how long will it taKe us to get to Assal?
If we went from here all the way across
went across that flat desert-liKe area
how long would it taKe to get there?"
"Maybe six hours."
"Six hours." "Yeah, six hours
Terrible road. Six, six and a half."
In torrid heat that reaches more than 130 degrees Fahrenheit
the water here and in the Rift Valley is often reduced to a caustic brine
"I'm standing 500 feet below sea level
near the shore of LaKe Assal."
"The ocean is only six miles away
If it weren't for these young lava flows filling the valley floor
I'd be under water right now
In fact, the ocean is trying to do that
As rifting develops in the valley
these deep fissures start to form
This lets water travel beneath the valley
through the fissures
and it can enter LaKe Assal along this outlet
In fact, there are several of them in the valley."
"At the present moment it's so hot that most of the seawater
that comes in evaporates leaving the salt behind
But as rifting continues
more and more water will pour through these fissure systems
until the sea claims this entire area
as the ocean penetrates deeper
and deeper into the continent of Africa."
Here, as in Iceland, the spreading action creates new crust
Elsewhere, in compensation
the distant edges of an expanding plate must be destroyed
Outpost of Asia
Japan's island chain bears the shocK of the Philippine
and Pacific Plates as they thrust beneath the Eurasian Plate
in a massive subduction zone
In the deep ocean trenches off Japan
the aging plates plunge bacK into Earth's molten interior
causing powerful disturbances
The mists here are dragon's breath
the hissing steam of Japan's 20,000 hot springs
and forty sctive volcanoes
With a long history of destructive earthquaKes
Japan has begun a massive effort to prepare for the future
In ShizuoKa Prefecture near ToKyo
school children taKe lessons in reading, writing
and catastrophe learning the sKills
that may save their lives
In this temple to the victims of a great disaster
memory and reality are liKe the mismatched faces
of an earthquaKe fault
Here survivors come to witness again the day a world ended
search again for faces that exist only in old men's dreams
Just before noon on Saturday September 1, 1923
an earthquaKe registering 7.9 on the Richter scale strucK ToKyo
shaKing the earth for a full five minutes
Ignited by hot coals thrown from stoves against paper walls
and straw matting the city burst into flame
As the people fled into the streets
they converged on the river
From opposite banKs refugees started across the wooden bridges
only to meet head on in midspan
Surrounded by walls of fire with no excape
the fleeing mass was locKed in panic and chaos
Next day two-thirds of ToKyo lay in smoldering blacK ash
and more than 140,000 persons were dead
Today the Japanese are building more than temples to the dead
Fearful of a predicted recurrence of the great anto quaKe
thirteen million persons in the ToKyo
and nearby ToKai areas participate in a vast drill in
which every citizen is learning to play a role
Public communications center during a crisis
NH television relays information
from the Japan Meteorological Agency, or JMA
Here a vast warning system Keeps constant watch
through scores of seismic stations
and a 125-mile line of seismic monitors
along the floor of Suruga Bay
probable epicenter of the expected quaKe
At the first sign of unusual activity
JMA instantly alerts the head of a six man committee of seismologists
nown as the HanteiKai
this team quicKly evaluates the information
and the prime minister is notified
While police, firemen and other public employees
taKe their posts to prevent general confusion or panic
there is a delay of 30 minutes before a warning is broadcast
Each of the ToKai region's cities and towns
has a municipal disaster plan
and through drills most people
have learned the precise steps required after a warning
Turning off gas and electricity citizens secure doors and cabinets
then taKe up their earthquaKe Kits
and march off to join the general exodus
through predetermined escape routes
In the street a rope helps maintain unity
and orde wards off panic
by providing a sense of common security within a group
Guided and patrolled by emergency forces
a swelling flood of people from home
and factory moves toward assigned refuge areas
To escape the giant sea wave or tsunami
which often follows a quaKe the harbor fleet sets out to sea
The drill has been a costly effort
but the price seems small compared to the threatened loss of life
in one of the most heavily populated areas on Earth
Eastward across the sea
this tree-shaded oasis near California's Mojave Desert
offers deceptive sanctuary
LiKe Japan's thermal caldrons
it too is part of the Ring of Fire that circles the Pacific
Here along the 700-mile San Andreas Fault
the pacific plate grinds slowly northward
against the North American plate sometimes locKing
building stress, then suddenly releasing in earthquaKe
Whether exposed as a naKed scar
crossing the Carrizo Plain near Los Angeles
or pleasantly disguised under grassy slopes
and a chain of sag ponds near San Francisco
the fault stretches liKe a taut line of danger
between the state's two most heavily populated centers
In times past each of the cities has felt its power
Once the fabled gateway to the gold rush
its hills crowned with ornate palaces of mining and railroad tycoons
San Francisco today soars in a dazzling array of sKyscrapers
along its Embarcadero daring evidence of a city that refused to die
Dr. Ballard recalls a fateful morning
at the beginning of the century
"On the 18th of April 1906
the San Andreas Fault suddenly snapped
The city of SAN Francisco felt the brunt of the blow
Some 700 people were Killed
and most of the city was destroyed by fire
"Today, people thinK of it as an event found in history booKs
Yet to geologists, the fault is very much alive
We are monitoring the fault system
attempting to understand its behavior
predict its next move
One thing we do Know
We will experience another earthquaKe liKe that of 1906
It's just a matter of time
At dawn February 9, 1971
an earthquaKe registering 6.4 on the Richter scale
strucK the San Fernando Valley in Los Angeles
Twisting railroad tracKs
shattering highway overpasses
it strewed disaster across the city landscape
as if by an angry giant's hand
LiKe a silent accomplice
flames leaped through the wrecKage
Great hospitals and other structures collapsed
Everywhere the quaKe trapped its casual human victims
When it had passed, the city counted the cost 64 dead
500 million dollars in property damage
Because the water behind a weaKened dam was quicKly lowered
thousands of lives were saved
which otherwise might have been lost
In it's aftermath alarmed public agencies radically
expanded their earthquaKe preparations
Today not only standard surveying methods
but a wide array of new instruments are employed
to monitor California's fractured landscape
Using laser beams and radio waves
from remote stars
scientists can measure the state for crustal changes
or plate movements as small as an inch
Along the San Andreas a networK of seismic devices
reports local changes in the release of radioactive gas from rocK strata
sudden drops in the water level of wells
variations in gravity or the Earth's magnetic field
Other meters detect the slightest movement deep beneath the surface
measure strain in a locKed section of the fault
the state of California also is checKing its basement"
above which 24 million people live
From hundreds of instruments scattered
across the length of the state
continuous reports flow into separate computer centers
for the southern and the northern sectors
At the nited States Geological Survey in Menlo parK
widely diverse in formation is correlated
and condensed to provide a summary of seismic activity
during each passing month
LiKe scholars trying to breaK an enemy code
or decipher a lost language
scientists are trying to discern a consistent meaning
in all the signals sent from the Earth
Though the San Andreas remains an enigma
a silent threat of havoc to come
sophisticated technology is bringing closer the time
when man may be able to predict earthquaKes
with reasonable accuracy and certainty
Scientists Know
that in prediction lies a major defense against catastrophe
Using an instrument no more complicated than a garden hoe
one young geologist
from the California Institute of Technology has shown
that the Key to the future may lie in the past
At excavations along the fault at Pallett CreeK near the Mojave
Dr. Erry Sieh has revealed a repeat pattern
of California quaKes hundreds of years
before any recorded history of the region
"We are on the main trace of the San Andreas Fault
And the layer that I just scraped off
has been radiocarbon dated at 1350 A. D.
The layer right above it
which has the beautiful orange color here
and here has a radiocarbon date near its top of about 1560 A. D
or about the time Michaelangelo was painting the Sistine Chapel
This layer dates from about the birth of Benjamin FranKlin 1700
and this layer about right here was the surface of the Earth
at the time of the 1857 earthquaKe
"Now, this is the main trace of the San Andreas Fault running up
through these layers up though to about here."
"Here's the 1353 A. D. Layer broKen
by the fault trace coming up
through the 1560 A. D. Layer here
So here we have the Pacific Plate
and here we have the North American Plate
broKen only by this very narrow trace, or plane
of the San Andreas Fault."
"And it continues on up up through the 1700s level
and stopping at this level the 1857 level
In 1857 there occurred the great Fort Tejon earthquaKe
which was the last great earthquaKe to breaK the San Andreas Fault
in the southern part of the state."
"Elsewhere at this site
we have exposures a total of 11 prehistoric earthquaKes
and the great Fort Tejon earthquaKe of 1857
The radiocarbon dates show
that the earthquaKes occur with frequency
they occur about every 145 years
It's been 125 years since the great Fort Tejon earthquaKe
The chances are really quite good that
within our lifetime
we're going to see another great Fort Tejon earthquaKe."
"Give me the number of dead you anticipate
that you are estimating
and I will try to worK it out on the end."
"Estimates of injured range from 50 to 80 thousand
with an unKnown number trapped in collapsed structures
At this time the numbers of dead may be in excess of ten thousand."
To train disaster agencies
and to alert the public the state's Office of
Emergency Services stages yearly drills
"I would liKe to clarify what's turned out to be a rumor
of a radioactive release problem at Cal Tech."
Alex Cunninham
director of the California Office of Emergency Services
"The scenario for this exercise is
that an earthquaKe occurred yesterday in Los Angeles
actually about 30 miles northwest of San Bernardino
along the San Andreas Fault
Its magnitude, for exercise purposed 8.3."
"And believe me we are very selective
at this level on using Guard resources
And I recommend strongly now
I can't handle a delicate issue liKe this on the phone
I recommend very strongly that if you want the Guard for this
that you are going to have to come through bureaucratic channels."
"We need to have an update
as of this time on the number of injuries and deaths, please."
"All the hospital beds in northern county appear be down
Southern county looKs liKe they're in pretty good shape
But the Needs Assessment Team will be
bacK half an hour and will give us all the figures."
"Hold on a second. We got to get this together."
"The State of California is very well prepared to
handle a moderate earthquaKe
And the citizens who have been through these Kind of quaKes
are reasonably well prepared
But when we talK about a catastrophic earthquaKe
something in the area of an 8
or an 8.3 no level of government
and particularly the individual citizens
are prepared for such an event
It's no longer a question of if the big earthquaKe is coming
It's simply a matter of when
Scientists are telling us
because of recent seismic activity
and other phenomena other scientific data
that the great earthquaKe will striKe in southern California
some time in the next 30 years
Unfortunately, many people say well
if it's 30 years away
we don't have to worry about it
It's not 30 years away
It could happen tomorrow it could happen today;
it could happen next month
But sometime in the next 30 years
we're going to have it
and people damn well better prepare themselves for it."
Distantly aware of threatened holocausts
most Los Angeles residents remain caught in the traumas
and traffic jams of daily life
Too few Know the mathematics of terror
At the time of the 1857 quaKe 11,000 people lived in Los Angeles
Today there are more than seven million
Many remember the impact of the San Fernando tremor
But the 8.3 earthquaKe
which scientists now predict
will be a shocK 800 times as strong
a natural disaster without precedent in American history
Thirty-five hundred years ago on the Aegean island of Santorini
these ruins too held a civilization
Here, long before the Parthenon
the maritime community of AKrotiri created a culture
that rivaled the splendors of nearby Minoan Crete
In frescoes artists painted
the sunlit landscapes of man in his springtime
the years in Eden when the Earth was filled with wonders
Upon the walls were mirrored the ordinary tasKs
and pleasures of a small world
in which the simplest acts of everyday life held meaning
and even the gods often behaved liKe noisy neighbors
Over the wide sea, returning seamen brought strange gifts
and creatures from the shadowy lands beyond
told of odysseys across a world still new
Now they are gone
abruptly vanished in a great catastrophe
All that remain are a half-excavated civilization under glass
a few amphoras in orderly array
life and death filed on an index card
One of the scientists trying to decipher the puzzle of the past
Dr. Christos Doumas of the University of Athens leads Dr. Ballard
through the remains of a city
that died thirty-five centuries ago
"This is an ancient street leading to the Triangle Square
flanKed on the left by the Building Delta
and on the right by the West House."
"Now here's where you found the frescoes."
"Yes, we found frescoes and other things which show
that we are discovering here a very highly civilized society
of the Bronze Age."
"The houses are individual surrounded by streets
There are several stories as you see
and we have indoor plumbing connected directly
with the drainage system of the street."
"So you had a society of individual families living together..."
"Yes. And every house was an entity by itself."
"And here we can see how sophisticated these houses were
The basement, as in
many of the houses was used for storing
goods a variety of crops liKe barley flour of barley
lentils, various nuts liKe almonds."
"So they had a pretty good diet
I mean it was varied."
"Yes. And they were consuming also seafood
because we found shells of sea urchins
and remains of dried fish
"The city was captured by the earthquaKes and
this staircase shows
that it was broKen before the eruption of the volcano
"So this probably caused them to evacuate."
"Yes. It was a warning for the people."
"And then after the earthquaKe
the major eruption occurred."
"Yes. It destroyed almost everything
as you sea and then the site was covered with volcanic ash."
Before the great warning tremors
AKrotiri lay on the flanK of a steeply sloping island
unaware that miles below
the Earth's crust was in movement
Soon after the quaKe
the island exploded in one of historical prodigious volcanic eruptions
Suddenly a mountain had disappeared
its walls collapsed into a volcanic caldera now filled
by the inrushing sea
A vast searing cloud of pumice and ash buried AKrotiri
and surged over the Mediterranean
with an impact on history that still is being assessed
"We're inside the caldera
Behind me are the layered walls of the volcano
which record its long history
The blacK layers are basaltic lava flows;
the red ones a tephra ejected from the volcanic vent."
"These prehistoric layers once
formed a great volcano over 5,000 feet high
About 3,500 years ago
the entire volcano erupted destroying over two-thirds of the island
At the top today you can see a white layer of pumic
and ash which records that great event
That layer is over 100 feet thicK."
Human beings still cling to the narrow rim of cliffs
that now surrounds emptiness
Today several thousand islanders live on the heights
and fish or search for sponges in the depths of the caldera
Steep paths linK them with the ports through which supplies
much of their fresh water
and occasional visitors arrive by sea
Today the centers of Western civilization
have moved far beyond Santorini
Insulated from the rumors and alarms of a wider world
it has settled into the ways of village life
Upon the cliffs worKmen build
and repair structures using the very ash
and pumice of the explosion
that once destroyed their island
In the fields around them
farmers tend vineyards
and reap grain planted in the volcano soil
The pumice is even sold for profit
was once exported for the building of the Suez Canal
more than a century ago
Intermittently strong tremors still shaKe the island
but the widows of Santorini remain solitary symbols of the tenacity
by which life endures
Beneath them one plate slides
under another in endless movement
even the gods may change
but prayer remains a step in the search
for reassurance and certainty
On Good Friday
worshippers are surrounded by frescoes
that describe not the joys of life but its tragic burdens
Yet for the devout islanders
faith holds a triumphant hope
Out of death's darKness life returns
a flame passed from candle to candle
In the ritual of twenty centuries the villagers
again find a ancient recognition
In the Easter story of resurrection
they tell their own
After the resurrection joy
the breaKing of eggs to release the symbolic life within
Across the island
after forty days of fasting
the villagers feast and dance
The world has changed many time
since this woman lived in Santorini
Her gods have vanished
The wtreets on which she walKed now end in walls of ash
Yet in these dancing rhythms of life
she might hear echoes of another time
the refrains of home
Imperceptible to living generations
the change goes on
toward a future that science's computers
already have begun to outline
By its present drift
Africa, in its clockwise movement
will close the Mediterranean
and collide with southern Europe
raising great new mountain ranges liKe a rumpled rug
In Africa itself the sea at last will flood the desert thorn trees
isolate eastern Africa
invade a domain once held by elephants and lions
In the Americas, as elsewhere
life will be radically altered
Mecca for millions of fugitives from the wintry East
Los Angeles may have to doctor its swimming pools with antifreeze
Set at the edge of the Pacific Plate
it is moving relentlessly toward AlasKa
at the rapid of two or three inches a year
Ten million years from now
San Francisco will find
that for a time its scorned southern rival has become a suburb
New YorK may become part of a vast volcanic range
as the expanding Atlantic floor passes under the eastern coast
Compared to Earth's history
man's tenure has be dazzling and brief
In ten thousand years he has created language
built cathedrals, invented the means to destroy life one Earth
His computers can project the destination
of continents 200 million years from now
But where man will be none can predict