Whitney Houston took a car ferry from Britain to Ireland to attend her concert, rather than flying. Barack Obama has canceled his trip to a state funeral in Poland. A very large magical snake protects a canyon in south Africa. These things are connected a lot more closely than you might think.
Eyjafjallajoekull1 is the volcano in Iceland that is making all the mess in Europe, shutting down most Western European airports. Iceland as a whole is a volcanic feature that sits atop the Mid Atlantic Ridge.
The Atlantic Ocean is a huge rift valley, in some ways similar to the famous rift…