Ascension 1
VulcanSpirit
Richard & Alison Brunstrom
Mon 15 Feb 2016 06:18
Here are a few views:
Above a small crater rim, with a cinder cone in the distance topped with some sort of radar dome.
Below a typical view of a cinder cone near the US airbase with our hire car. We've parked up to look at the amazing sooty tern colony and some endemic plants.
The top of the island is greener:
But this is all 'new'. When Darwin arrived the peaks were bare rocks with ferns and mosses. He advised importing suitable plants from South America and South Africa to create an artificial cloud forest which would attract precipitation and thus improve the water supply. This was done, and it works.
Above is a view of one of the more recent lava flows, in black, emerging from the cinder cone in the distance. The pipeline is the water supply from the desalination plant run by the BBC's diesel generators and wind farm. The yellow patches in the far middle ground are the tees and 'greens' of the golf course - not a blade of grass anywhere to be seen. All the vegetation in view is introduced.
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