The gray-black evening sky hid any hint of stars, much less the brilliant northern lights that are sometimes visible in that part of the world.

“They are cat-sized, gray-black creatures with enormous floppy ears, large round eyes and bushy black tails,” the Duke news release explains.

Most of the vineyard and the house were spared, but the eruption left a huge wall of gray-black lava rock that bisected the estate.