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Ilana Halperin
Colliding geological and personal timescales.
Serendipitous encounters.
A collection of conversational core samples. An extended strata study. In 1902, an astonishing geological phenomenon was witnessed for the first time in recorded history. A young girl and a convict were the only survivors of a massive volcanic eruption on the island of Martinique. Following this catastrophic event, ‘The Tower of Pelée’, a volcanic pillar 150 metres wide and 300 metres high, emerged from the crater of the previously dormant volcano. At the Geological Society in London, I happened across writings by Angelo Heilprin, an active geologist at the turn of the twentieth century (who may also be a distant relative). Upon observation of this geological monument, he simply stated it was “a memorial of nature for the 30,000 dead who are lying buried in the city”. Within a year, the tower was gone, eroded into the depths of the crater. Frank Perret, an early vulcanologist, monitored the seismic activity of Mount Vesuvius through clamping his teeth around the metal bedposts in his room, which were embedded in the slopes of the volcano. In daily life, it is impossible to have unmediated contact with geothermally sourced heat; to do so would be to...
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