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Iceland's Seismic Activity: A Repeat Show for Atmospheric Ash?
In 2010, ash spewed into the atmosphere by the volcano beneath Iceland's Eyjafjallajökull glacier grounded European air traffic for days (and, partially, for weeks). As reported by The Guardian, a series of similarly situated earthquakes may herald a similar ash-ejecting erruption, and the country has raised its volcano risk to its second-most-severe rating (orange). From the article:
Iceland met office seismologist Martin Hensch said the risk of any disruptive ash cloud similar to the one in 2010 would depend on how high any ash would be thrown, how much there would be and how fine-grained it would be.
Bardarbunga is Iceland's largest volcanic system, located under the ice cap of the Vatnajokull glacier in the southeast of Iceland. It is in a different range to Eyjafjallajokull.
The met office said in a statement it measured the strongest earthquake in the region since 1996 early on Monday and it now had strong indications of ongoing magma movement.
"As evidence of magma movement shallower than 10km implies increased potential of a volcanic eruption, the Bardarbunga aviation colour code has been changed to orange," it said.
"Presently there are no signs of eruption, but it cannot be excluded that the current activity will result in an explosive subglacial eruption, leading to an outburst flood and ash emission." ...
Hensch said the biggest risk in Iceland itself was from flood waves from any eruption under the glacier. He said the area of Iceland mainly at risk of flooding was mostly uninhabited but that roads in the area had been closed.
...the headline and article summary at the top says that air travel is threatened, but the quote from the article indicates that Iceland is concerned with ground effects of an eruption, without much concerns for the air.
Which is it, is one party just playing alarmist to sell more subscriptions?
Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
The only way to save the planet from the volcano is to pronounce its name backwards. Correctly.
I'm quite certain they named it after the sound it made when it first erupted.
South of Vatnajokull is an area of gravel desert with little to no inhabitants. As there are frequent floods and ever changing "river" estuaries, all of the many small bridges in the region are specifically designed to be washed away easily. It's simply cheaper to build them new ones after every serious flood. The Icelanders know what they are doing!
I hear they would have given it the highest danger rating, but that would have involved changing the lightbulb. Since all those involved already knew, they didn't see the point.
thank you /. for my word of the day.
They are about to get an ash-kicking
Table-ized A.I.
At least you can pronounce Bardarbunga.
If you ask an Icelandic person to pronounce it I'll bet you find a few surprises.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
So, the majority of the articles I've read about this eruption, have potential dangers all along the scale. From "some ash" to effects similar to the eruption of Tabora (which caused crazy weather fluctuations as far west as north america, where it seeded clouds, was able to drop temps from 85 degrees to below freezing in hours, etc). It's getting hard to find real facts from FUD. If it's as big as Tabora, I would understand governments trying to mute the possibility because it would cause widespread panic. Any geo-geeks out there who can provide some hard facts?
So what if it does? What are they realistically going to do about it? I mean the warning is great and all (if accurate), however without a way to stop it, or anyway to mitigate the consequences, what is the point?
I guess presumably you might be able to reroute traffic in advance, however I am guessing the ability to even do that would be limited, as I am pretty sure they would have done that after the first time.
It's named after some dude name Bárðar, with "bunga" translating as "bulge" or "bump." In other words: Bárðar's bulge.
You may resume your frivolity with the proper jokes for the occasion, now. :)
...is causing more and more disasters like this impending environmental catastrophe. Soon, Iceland will be completely ice-free in the summer and slowly sink into the Atlantic. They should rename now to Torfland and get ahead of the inevitable.
According to this Icelandic news site, http://www.visir.is/news, over 300 earthquakes were recorded last night at Bárðarbunga (don't ask me how to pronounce it!). Two of them were over 3 on the Richter scale. If you're making a trip to Europe, either cancel it or postpone it.
Correction: close to 300 earthquakes were recorded, not over 300 FWIW.