The Control of Nature

Red-hot lava from a volcanic eruption threatened a town in Iceland in January of 1973. Physicist Thorbjorn Sigurgeirsson proposed cooling the lava—much to the skepticism of other Icelanders. McPhee notes that, in Iceland, people are known in official records by their first names. Iceland established a Civil Defense Council in 1962 and immediately gr concerned with the appearance of layers of red lava in the Atlantic Ocean. McPhee writes, commenting on the role of the Civil Defense Council, “Behind thick concrete walls and steel anti-radiation doors […] Iceland directs the war against nature” (96).

Heimaey is the largest of the islands of Vestmannaeyjar, which contains 2.5 percent of Iceland’s population but produces a significant portion of its exports, primarily through the fishing industry—especially on Heimaey. The lava threatened not only the town but that sector of Iceland’s economy. Men followed Thorbjorn’s approach and attempted to cool down the lava by watering it.

McPhee visits Vestmannaeyjar more than a decade after the lava eruption, and steam still rises from the lava. The ash on the ground is cool to the touch but hot underneath. McPhee describes the glassy surface of lava and the bulldozers required to break it.