The BBC has an interesting story about a forgotten natural disaster in Great Britain. In 1783, the Laki volcano in Iceland erupted, and belched clouds of toxic gas (mostly sulphur dioxide) that blew over Britain and much of Western Europe. The clouds must have lasted for weeks, and researchers in the UK have recently estimated (based on parish burial records) that 23,000 people died from it there alone.
This death toll makes it the largest natural disaster in modern British history, yet it seems to have almost completely fallen out of the national history. A third of the population of Iceland was killed in this eruption, so it has left its mark on their national memory. The British treatment of the Laki eruption reminds me of the similar fall of the New Madrid Earthquake down the memory hole in this country.
The worst part of this story is that it will repeat. Iceland is volcanically very active and it’s only a matter of time before another eruption sets a “killer cloud” loose again.
Steve Stirling’s “Draka’ books postulate Icelandic activity in a parrallel world.
He does love to examine disasters’ effects on society!
Ben Franklin saw the eruption on his ship returning to America and deduced that’s why the weather had been so chilly in England.
Smart guy, that Ben.