Volcano erupts near Eyjafjallajoekull in south Iceland
An Icelandic volcano, dormant for 200 years, has erupted, ripping a 1km-long fissure in a field of ice.
The volcano near Eyjafjallajoekull glacier began to erupt just after midnight, sending lava a hundred metres high.
Icelandic airspace has been closed, flights diverted and roads closed. The eruption was about 120km (75 miles) east of the capital, Reykjavik.
What volcanic scientists fear is the fact that this eruption could trigger an eruption of Katla, one of the most dangerous volcanic systems in the world.
Eruptive events in Eyjafjallajökull are often followed by a Katla eruption. The Laki craters and the Eldgjá are part of the same volcanic system. Insta-melt could occur:
At the peak of the 1755 Katla eruption the flood discharge has been estimated between 200,000–400,000 m³/s; for comparison the combined average discharge of the Amazon, Mississippi, Nile, and Yangtze rivers is about 290,000 m³/s.
More here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katla
Video of the eruption:
Volcano Eruption in Eyjafjallajökull Iceland 20 Mars 2010.
The volcano near the Eyjafjallajoekull glacier began to erupt shortly after midnight, leading to road closures in the area.
No one was in immediate danger, but 500 people were being moved from the area.
It is almost 200 years since a volcano near Eyjafjallajokull, 120km (75 miles) east of Reykjavik, last erupted. The last volcanic eruption in the area occurred in 1821.
Taken from C-FQWY / TF-SIF DHC-8-314Q Dash 8
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Volcanic eruptions at high latitudes have a large cooling effect on climate (http://www.agu.org/pubs/crossref/2009/2008JD011222.shtml)
Icelandic volcanism has been relatively quiescent during the past few decades duting which apparent warming has taken place. Co-incidence, correlation or cause-and-effect?
I know this is off topic but i dont find a topic where I could post this. A surprising result of algae research. “Devarenne explains, “The fuels derived from B. braunii hydrocarbons are chemically identical to gasoline, diesel and kerosene. Thus, we do not call them biodiesel or bio-gasoline; they are simply diesel and gasoline. To produce these fuels from B. braunii, the hydrocarbons are processed exactly the same as petroleum is processed and thus generates the exact same fuels. Remember, these B. braunii hydrocarbons are a main constituent of petroleum. So there is no difference other than the millions of years petroleum spent underground.” He is almost making a new explanation of the formation of fossil fuels – which in this process wouldn’t be “fossil” at all. Interesting.”
http://newenergyandfuel.com/http:/newenergyandfuel/com/2010/03/16/the-algae-that-makes-petroleum-story/
Excellent question, ammonyte. It is thought that the year without a summer, 1816, suffered extra cold conditions because of a large volcanic eruption in 1815, putting aerosols in the air that reflected heat away from Earth. It also put out huge quantities of CO2, as an interesting aside, but not relevant, as CO2 has very little, if anything, to do with global warming or cooling. It seems that CO2 primarily feeds plants, which feed us and the animals that we eat.
WE ARE ALL GOING TO DIE!!!!!
(well, eventually, when we get old, sick, or have a very bad accident, but don’t let that stop the doomsayers from saying it…)
Volcanic activity has an increased frequency of occurance & intensity in times of Solar Minimum.
eruption is misspelled in the title…
[Thanx, fixed. ~dbs]
Eruptuon? 😀
[Already been fixed. ~dbs, mod.]
The great climatologist Danny Glover will no doubt procrastinate on how man caused this to happen via co2 emissions…. rollseyes.
More links to the ongoing Eyjafjallajökull Eruption:
http://scienceblogs.com/eruptions/2010/03/eruption_started_at_eyjafjalla.php#comments
http://scienceblogs.com/eruptions/2010/03/the_2010_fissure_eruption_at_e.php
http://volcano.oregonstate.edu/education/gases/laki.html
So turning off the lights and putting up windmills has not appeased the climate and geological gods at all.
Man is foolish if he thinks he can control and regulate these forces. It’s such a folly.
Volcanic activity in Iceland in second half of 18th century caused major climatic cooling in N Europe which was a contributory factor in the French Revolution – crop failure, let them eat cake – remember all that? Interesting to see how this one develops.
Any bets on who is the first to blame it on AGW?
ammonyte (10:15:37) :
Volcanic eruptions at high latitudes have a large cooling effect on climate (http://www.agu.org/pubs/crossref/2009/2008JD011222.shtml)
Icelandic volcanism has been relatively quiescent during the past few decades duting which apparent warming has taken place. Co-incidence, correlation or cause-and-effect?
Coincidenece, and in any case there has been no statistically significant cooling for 15 years…
How many carbon credits will Iceland have to buy for the emissions from this eruption?
You pretty much have to assume that this is due to CO2 emissions, because everything is.
Glad I’m not an Icelandic taxpayer at the moment. All that carbon tax to pay for an errant volcano.
Sorry if I am missing something but: what’s so “worrisome” about a Katla eruption? Katla erupts every 40-80 years and has erupted at least 16 times since the year 930.
Coincidenece, and in any case there has been no statistically significant cooling for 15 years…
sorry meant warming…
TimesUK:
“That has to be on the table at the moment,” Dave McGarvie, senior lecturer at the Volcano Dynamics Group of the Open University, said. “And it is a much nastier piece of work.”
Icelanders agree. “This could trigger Katla, which is a vicious volcano that could cause both local and global damage,” Pall Einarsson, from the University of Iceland, said.
Tremors around Eyjafjallajokull were first recorded in early March, but precise prediction of volcanic eruption is difficult, even with the high-tech equipment available to Icelandic geologists.
Now that it has happened the only basis for prediction is history — and that does not look good.
“Eyjafjallajokull has blown three times in the past thousand years,” Dr McGarvie told The Times, “in 920AD, in 1612 and between 1821 and 1823. Each time it set off Katla.” The likelihood of Katla blowing could become clear “in a few weeks or a few months”, he said.
Iceland is built on a volcanic rock on the Atlantic’s mid-oceanic ridge and it has grown used to eruptions. The southern village of Vik, close to the current eruption, has for centuries had an escape plan in which everybody runs up to the church, which is built on high ground. They know that if Katla erupts flooding will follow.
The island’s worst eruption in modern times was in 1783, when the Laki volcano blew its top. The lava shot to heights of 1.4 kilometres and more than 120 million tonnes of sulphur dioxide was released into the atmosphere.
A quarter of the island’s population died in the resulting famine and it transformed the world, creating Britain’s notorious “sand summer”, casting a toxic cloud over Prague, playing havoc with harvests in France — sometimes seen as a contributory factor in the French Revolution — and changing the climate so dramatically that New Jersey recorded its largest snowfall and Egypt one of its most enduring droughts.”
“Iceland prepares for second, more devastating volcanic eruption”
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article7070239.ece
Follow-up article in the London Times:
Iceland prepares for second, more devastating volcanic eruption
Watch this space it seems.
ammonyte (10:15:37) :
“Volcanic eruptions at high latitudes have a large cooling effect on climate…”
Guess we’ll find out if that Katla system goes off.
This will help enforce cooling, according to Joe Bastardi of Accuweather.
A fissure eruption – that is really worrying. A large fissure eruption is very bad news. The last one (Laki 1783) killed a quarter of the icelandic population and caused several years of atrocious weather and famine around the northern hemisphere.
As one place (or several lately) subducts, some other place must weep the planet’s blood (magma forcing its way through the crust to the surface)..
Some more Icelandic wild Card Volcano surprises:
Based on an assessment of the internal pressure build up, Hekla is ‘due’ to erupt and could do so at any point in time. Grimsvotn is fast approaching pre-2004 pressure levels and so an eruption there within a year or two would not be unexpected.