The Cloud That Closed A Continent

摘要

As volcanic eruptions go, Iceland's Eyjafjallajokull won't break the records. Icelanders dismiss the normally sleepy Eyjafjallajokull as a "weary old man," and in fact few people outside the volcanology community-or the 800 or so Icelandic farmers who needed to be evacuated-noticed when the volcano began spewing lava on March 20. Most likely it would have remained that way-a brief tourist attraction and a footnote in a few grad students' dissertations-before the earth quieted again.