National Geographic: Born of Fire Page #4

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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 Krafla

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 Krafla

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-Kharab

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-Kharab

has begun to work its way downward

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