Cooling the Lava - Assignment Example

Cooling the LavaSurely, nobody on earth would have thought that man can cool red-hot lava and protect the world from its destructive effects. In February 1973, the town of Iceland experienced an aggressive volcanic eruption that was threatening the Iceland town and it outskirts. An inevitable tide was moving red-hot lava. However, a small crew led by Thorbjorn Sigurgeirsson squirted the lava in front with fire hoses producing vapors of steam (John A. McPhee. 102). The red lava swelled to form a layer upon layer in the Atlantic Ocean.

The fresh lava had hissed for about three years into the ocean. In the same period, strange masses of ice drift obstructed harbors and caused wide destruction. Suddenly, a fissure opened in the community outskirts and a lava curtain fountained high into the sky. The crew courageously watered the lava front as a garden. The water reduced the heat of the lava and a chilled lava wall was created to dam the red lava behind. As the lava moved below the air, the skin of glass developed. The skin could be repeatedly broken by the liquid motion under and tinkled (John A. McPhee. 104).

The crew used bulldozers to flatten a jagged surface glass and make way for the crew to move heavy pipes. Some individuals could catch fire and cool themselves with water and return to work. There was no any minute to waste as the crew had declared fight against the fatal lava. It seemed like the crew was in combat. The eruption vapors choked the people, but no one dared to put the tools down. They focused to contain the lava and turn it black. The falling ash formed a fog that obstructed visibility, but could not deter their effort.

They steadily watered and cooled the advancing lava from the summit until they stopped the flow (John A. McPhee. 107).Work citedJohn A. McPhee. The control of nature. New York. Noonday Press, 1990. Print