The Devil's Breath
Page 34
Author’s Notes and Acknowledgments
I was first alerted to this most extraordinary, and yet hitherto relatively unknown, episode in modern British history by a fairly recent phenomenon. In April 2010 most of Scotland and England and, indeed, much of northern Europe, found itself at the mercy of a volcanic ash cloud. Thousands of flights were canceled, millions of air passengers were stranded, and the economic fallout was huge. The eruption of the Eyjafjallajokull Volcano in Iceland lasted twenty-three days, and yet this most recent episode pales in comparison to another eruption in Iceland’s modern history.
Our twenty-first-century inconveniences and frustrations were as nothing compared with what happened when, on June 8, 1783, another eruption in Iceland, of the Laki fissure, sent 132 tons of toxic gas hurtling into the atmosphere. The effects were devastating, not just for Iceland, where half the livestock died and a quarter of the population was wiped out due to the subsequent famine, but for a large area of northwest Europe, too.
Not only that, but contemporary European observers during that period dubbed it an “annus mirabilis,” or year of awe, because of the remarkable concentration of natural disasters. Added to the inexplicable poisonous fogs were violent thunderstorms, huge hailstones that reportedly killed cattle, and even frequent meteor sightings. There is little wonder that many people at the time feared the biblical Day of Judgment was near.
What we now know to be the simultaneous eruption of 130 craters along the huge Laki fissure sent lethal clouds of sulfur dioxide and fluorine into the atmosphere. Some saw the resulting poisonous haze as an act of God, while others, at the dawn of the European Enlightenment, regarded it as a scientific phenomenon, although its cause was not known at the time. (It was Benjamin Franklin who first postulated the theory that a volcanic eruption in Iceland was responsible.)
It seems that until we experienced our own “Great Fogg,” the catastrophic effects of Laki seemed to remain largely forgotten because of the equally momentous political events of the time, such as the American War of Independence and the French Revolution. Nevertheless, from the natural disaster there are many lessons to be learned.
This is a work of fiction and, as such, I have taken liberties with the facts to enhance the dramatic tension of the story. Scientists are still debating the full impact of the Laki eruption; the “Great Fogg” may not have been associated with a volcanic ash fall and its arrival would certainly not have been as dramatic as portrayed in the previous pages. Nor could it have been predicted. Yet its study could prove vital to our own future. When Laki does erupt again we need to be more prepared to deal with its deadly fallout. If we are not, then the consequences could be even more serious than they were 230 years ago.
In my research I am indebted to the staff at the Museum of English Rural Life, Reading; Gilbert White’s House, Selbourne, Hampshire; the Hellfire Caves and St. Lawrence’s Church, West Wycombe; the Museum of Methodism, City Road, London; and Benjamin Franklin’s House, Craven Street, London. Thanks also go to Dr. Kate Dyerson; Dr. Richard Payne of Manchester; John and Alicia Makin; my agent, Melissa Jeglinski; and my editor, John Scognamiglio.
—England, 2012
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Copyright © 2014 by Tessa Harris
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