New Iceland volcano set to erupt....
Discussion
A lil heads up for those set to fly soon (inc me!)
My company's been put on awareness of Katla in Iceland which is showing increasing activity of a major eruption.
http://www.clickgreen.org.uk/news/international-ne...
http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/10/earthqua...
My company's been put on awareness of Katla in Iceland which is showing increasing activity of a major eruption.
click green said:
Iceland's massive volcano Katla appears on the brink of a major eruption just days after officials confirmed they had detected the start of eruptions over the summer.
Measuring devices this morning have picked up a large earthquake swarm, usually a tell-tale sign of a potential volcanic eruption.
The Icelandic Government last month announced it was increasing monitoring Katla, which is one of Europe's most feared volcanoes, following a consistent and strengthening spike of tremors and quakes.
And last week, officials at the Iceland Meteorological Office confirmed a series of smaller eruptions had occurred in July strengthening fears of an imminent, much larger, eruption.
Measuring devices this morning have picked up a large earthquake swarm, usually a tell-tale sign of a potential volcanic eruption.
The Icelandic Government last month announced it was increasing monitoring Katla, which is one of Europe's most feared volcanoes, following a consistent and strengthening spike of tremors and quakes.
And last week, officials at the Iceland Meteorological Office confirmed a series of smaller eruptions had occurred in July strengthening fears of an imminent, much larger, eruption.
http://www.clickgreen.org.uk/news/international-ne...
http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/10/earthqua...
This seems to now be intensifying...
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-15995845
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-15995845
Article says said:
Hundreds of metres under one of Iceland's largest glaciers there are signs of an imminent volcanic eruption that could be one of the most powerful the country has seen in almost a century.
Mighty Katla, with its 10km (6.2 mile) crater, has the potential to cause catastrophic flooding as it melts the frozen surface of its caldera and sends billions of gallons of water surging through Iceland's east coast and into the Atlantic Ocean.
"There has been a great deal of seismic activity," says Ford Cochran, the National Geographic's expert on Iceland.
"There have been more than 500 tremors in and around the caldera of Katla just in the last month, which suggests the motion of magma. And that certainly suggests an eruption may be imminent."
Scientists in Iceland have been closely monitoring the area since 9 July, when there appears to have been some sort of disturbance that may have been a small eruption.
Eruption 'long overdue'
Even that caused significant flooding, washing away a bridge across the country's main highway and blocking the only link to other parts of the island for several days.
"The July 9 event seems to mark the beginning of a new period of unrest for Katla, the fourth we know in the last half century," says Professor Pall Einarsson, who has been studying volcanoes for 40 years and works at the Iceland University Institute of Earth Sciences.
It means you actually see the crust of the earth ripping apart”
Ford Cochran
Iceland expert, National Geographic
"The possibility that it may include a larger eruption cannot be excluded," he continues. "Katla is a very active and versatile volcano. It has a long history of large eruptions, some of which have caused considerable damage."
The last major eruption occurred in 1918 and caused such a large glacier meltdown that icebergs were swept by the resulting floods into the ocean.
The volume of water produced in a 1755 eruption equalled that of the world's largest rivers combined.
Thanks to the great works of historic literature known as the Sagas, Iceland's volcanic eruptions have been well documented for the last 1,000 years.
But comprehensive scientific measurements were not available in 1918, so volcanologists have no record of the type of seismic activity that led to that eruption.
All they know is that Katla usually erupts every 40 to 80 years, which means the next significant event is long overdue.
Eyjafjallajokull's relatively small eruption in 2010 halted air traffic across Europe
Katla is part of a volcanic system that includes the Laki craters. In 1783 the chain erupted continuously for eight months generating so much ash, hydrogen fluoride and sulphur dioxide that it killed one in five Icelanders and half of the country's livestock.
"And it actually changed the Earth's climate," says Mr Cochran.
"Folks talk about a nuclear winter - this eruption generated enough sulphuric acid droplets that it made the atmosphere reflective, cooled the planet for an entire year or more and caused widespread famine in many places around the globe.
"One certainly hopes that Katla's eruption will not be anything like that!"
The trouble is scientists do not know what to expect. As Prof Einarsson explains, volcanoes have different personalities and are prone to changing their behaviour unexpectedly.
"When you study a volcano you get an idea about its behaviour in the same way you judge a person once you get to know them well.
"You might be on edge for some reason because the signs are strange or unusual, but it's not always very certain what you are looking at. We have had alarms about Katla several times."
Mighty Katla, with its 10km (6.2 mile) crater, has the potential to cause catastrophic flooding as it melts the frozen surface of its caldera and sends billions of gallons of water surging through Iceland's east coast and into the Atlantic Ocean.
"There has been a great deal of seismic activity," says Ford Cochran, the National Geographic's expert on Iceland.
"There have been more than 500 tremors in and around the caldera of Katla just in the last month, which suggests the motion of magma. And that certainly suggests an eruption may be imminent."
Scientists in Iceland have been closely monitoring the area since 9 July, when there appears to have been some sort of disturbance that may have been a small eruption.
Eruption 'long overdue'
Even that caused significant flooding, washing away a bridge across the country's main highway and blocking the only link to other parts of the island for several days.
"The July 9 event seems to mark the beginning of a new period of unrest for Katla, the fourth we know in the last half century," says Professor Pall Einarsson, who has been studying volcanoes for 40 years and works at the Iceland University Institute of Earth Sciences.
It means you actually see the crust of the earth ripping apart”
Ford Cochran
Iceland expert, National Geographic
"The possibility that it may include a larger eruption cannot be excluded," he continues. "Katla is a very active and versatile volcano. It has a long history of large eruptions, some of which have caused considerable damage."
The last major eruption occurred in 1918 and caused such a large glacier meltdown that icebergs were swept by the resulting floods into the ocean.
The volume of water produced in a 1755 eruption equalled that of the world's largest rivers combined.
Thanks to the great works of historic literature known as the Sagas, Iceland's volcanic eruptions have been well documented for the last 1,000 years.
But comprehensive scientific measurements were not available in 1918, so volcanologists have no record of the type of seismic activity that led to that eruption.
All they know is that Katla usually erupts every 40 to 80 years, which means the next significant event is long overdue.
Eyjafjallajokull's relatively small eruption in 2010 halted air traffic across Europe
Katla is part of a volcanic system that includes the Laki craters. In 1783 the chain erupted continuously for eight months generating so much ash, hydrogen fluoride and sulphur dioxide that it killed one in five Icelanders and half of the country's livestock.
"And it actually changed the Earth's climate," says Mr Cochran.
"Folks talk about a nuclear winter - this eruption generated enough sulphuric acid droplets that it made the atmosphere reflective, cooled the planet for an entire year or more and caused widespread famine in many places around the globe.
"One certainly hopes that Katla's eruption will not be anything like that!"
The trouble is scientists do not know what to expect. As Prof Einarsson explains, volcanoes have different personalities and are prone to changing their behaviour unexpectedly.
"When you study a volcano you get an idea about its behaviour in the same way you judge a person once you get to know them well.
"You might be on edge for some reason because the signs are strange or unusual, but it's not always very certain what you are looking at. We have had alarms about Katla several times."
MitchT said:
Interesting. OH wants to go to Iceland for her birthday in January.
Talk her out of it, 4 hours of sunlight and temps hovering around zero deg C. Add this to almost constant drizzle/sleet and the possibility of a f
king huge Volcano splitting the country in half and it sounds like a fun holiday!I went in July and it was much more pleasant, 20 hours of daylight, 10-15 deg C every day with almost constant drizzle and a f
king huge Volcano just rumbling a bit 
Tis a cracking place to visit though and not as expensive as everyone keeps saying.
It's a great place to visit, we were there a couple of weekends ago, and only a 2.5 hour flight.
We have no flights booked for a while now, so the volcano can to whatever it likes.
Whilst over there, I did notice t-shirts which said:
"Don't fk with Iceland. We may not have cash, but have ash."
Which I found amusing...
We have no flights booked for a while now, so the volcano can to whatever it likes.
Whilst over there, I did notice t-shirts which said:
"Don't f
k with Iceland. We may not have cash, but have ash."Which I found amusing...
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