World Icelandic volcano eruption intensifies

[The Helper]

REYKJAVIK (Reuters) – A volcanic eruption in Iceland, which has thrown up a 6-km (3.7 mile) high plume of ash and disrupted air traffic across northern Europe, has grown more intense, an expert said on Thursday.

The eruption under the Eyjafjallajokull glacier continued to spew large amounts of ash and smoke into the air and showed no signs of abating after 40 hours of activity, said Pall Einarsson, a geophysicist at the University of Iceland.

"The seismographs are showing that since this morning the intensity of the eruption seems to be growing," he said.

Hot fumes had melted up to a third of the glacial ice covering the crater, causing a nearby river to burst its banks, and frequent explosions on the floor of the crater sounded like bombs going off, he said.

https://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE63E2OU20100415/

 

[Dan]

Eyjafjallajokull

 

[Wiseman_2]

Eyjafjallajokull

Your ability to copy and paste does you credit

There's a pretty good chance this could set off the nearby Mt Katla volcano. That's mentioned in the article, but what it doesn't say is that in most cases of Eyjafjallajokull erupting, Mt Katla has erupted as a result. That would not be entirely unexpected and would cause severe disruption to European air traffic due to the larger ash cloud it would likely release.

 

[Wummi]

More 2012 stuff?

 

[Azlier]

My grandmother's trip to Africa was cancelled 'cause of this.

 

[Vestras]

This was crazy, they cancelled ALL out and incomming air traffic in Denmark, and I heard that some places in the country you could actually SEE the ashes. (Good thing my place is as far to the east as it can be)

Iceland is like 1500+ KM away from Denmark.

 

[Wiseman_2]

I heard that some places in the country you could actually SEE the ashes

The cloud is apparently overhead right now here in the UK, but it is so high up in the atmosphere that it is not visible to the naked eye.

 

[azareus]

They say, that if you see the ash, it will only be a slightly greyer piece of sky.

Also, most of the North European airtraffic is cancelled.

Last time it erupted for 1,5 years.

 

[Wiseman_2]

Actually, today we could see the cloud quite clearly. We live with a great view over the city and the cloud stretches right across the horizon. It's sort of a thin grey smog, and when you look up straight through it you can see the blue sky behind it, but with grey dust underneath.

 

[Orgasm]

Actually, today we could see the cloud quite clearly. We live with a great view over the city and the cloud stretches right across the horizon. It's sort of a thin grey smog, and when you look up straight through it you can see the blue sky behind it, but with grey dust underneath.

This.

In California when we had wildfires the sky would be covered in ash. Probably not as intense as the volcano would produce, but it was still pretty crazy.

This is pretty much what everything looked like during wildfires. Fires would surround everywhere. It was insane.

 

[FireCat]

Holy crap, It surely looks crazy!
Seriously, why the hell.. people want to live in earthquake and volcanic areas?

 

[Wiseman_2]

Seriously, why the hell.. people want to live in earthquake and volcanic areas?

The flanks of volcanoes have excellent, fertile soils due to the ash from eruptions. After it settles, the resulting soil is very fertile. If the volcano is only known to erupt very infrequently, then the risk is considered worth it.
In the case of Iceland, it has great fishing seas and uses geothermal energy.

As for earthquakes... well, it's usually historical reasons, because earthquake zones are much less obvious than volcano zones.

 

[FireCat]

If the volcano is only known to erupt very infrequently, then the risk is considered worth it.

Okay, So they're very happy to have it one's while. hmm Well, but it's still crazy!