The Gods of Hellfire

VolcanoSunrise0930, originally uploaded by carolsLittleWorld.

You often hear people saying things like, “the gods of hellfire,” without really thinking about, well, the gods of hellfire. When you hear that saying, you kind of expect the person is exaggerating, even if only just a tad. I mean, come on. The gods of hellfire? Really?

In Hawaii, I got to actually see and hear the gods of hellfire. When I got to the volcano it was nighttime, it was dark outside. The sky was illuminated mostly by the glow coming off the fresh lava plume. The thing that struck me the most was the noise. The volcano was making some crazy odd kind of grumbling noise. Seriously. I had always thought the notion of volcano grumbling and making noises like that were exaggerations at best and made-up folklore at worst. I mean, come on, really? A volcano that grumbles like some fat dudes empty stomach when he hasn’t had enough toast? Couldn’t be. Could it?

Yes, it is. I’m here now to tell you that, in fact, volcanoes do grumble. They gurgle, grumble, growl and make all kinds of funky noises just before they blow. Seriously. It’s the stuff legends are made up, it sounds like something from a fairy tale, I know, but it’s true. All kinds of noises they make.

I’m kind of sorry I did not use the voice recorder on my iPhone to pick up some of the “ambient” noise to go with the images. Could you imagine? I would probably have nightmares about it but, yes, there really was a lot of noise (volcano grumbling) going on when I took these.

And, in case you ever hear the expression “the gods of hellfire” again, well now you can say you officially know what that looks like. Here is “gods of hellfire” number 0930. Enjoy!

Until next time…