Tuesday, April 20, 2010

Unpronounceable Icelandic Volcanic Pareidolia

This past Sunday, Phil Plait of Bad Astronomy posted a Facebook link to this article in Universe Today:

Incredible Images of Iceland Volcano from Just a Few Kilometers Away Universe Today

One of Phil's running themes has been pareidolia, the human tendency to see images - particularly faces - in random or naturally-occurring formations. I've always viewed pareidolia as a fun game, so I decided to take a crack at these images and see what I could see.

Image 1: Lightning visible in the plume of the Eyjafjallajokull volcano in Iceland on April 17, 2010 - clearly an image of the head of Watto, the Toydarian junk dealer from The Phantom Menace and Attack of the Clones

Image 2: The massive plume of Eyjafjallajokull volcano dwarfs a helicopter flying nearby - Not sure on this one, but it looks like a bunch of robed figures randomly standing around. Maybe a cover for a Rush or Yes album?

Image 3: The plume of Eyjafjallajokull volcano on April 17, 2010 - Immediately obvious to me is what appears to be an oversized foam novelty hand declaring "We're #1!" in the top of the ash cloud, just to the right of center.

Image 4: Another view of Eyjafjallajokull volcano on April 17, 2010 - A sight you do not want to see: A herd of angry Rancors advancing on your position.

Image 5: Radar image of the volcano, taken by the Icelandic Coastal Patrol. - This one has gotten a lot of attention, with people seeing some sort of angry face in the image. But careful inspection will show that - unless Icelandic is a more perversely complicated language than I remember from my days of working with subtitles for DVDs - the image is upside-down. I have taken the liberty of rotating it to show that it actually portrays ...


...a dozing Jawa, taking a siesta in the Mos Eisley Cantina. Apparently Panthro from the Thundercats has joined him, and is sitting with his back to us.

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