Eyjafjallajökull eruption - April 2010
The volcano Eyjafjallajökull erupted in April 2010, spewing a huge plume of ash that created phenomenal lightning displays, colored sunsets a fiery red across much of Europe, and forced flight cancellations for days.
As explosive as Eyjafjallajökull proved, it is actually only a moderately active volcano that is, one that erupts once every few centuries or even millennia, explained volcanologist Freysteinn Sigmundsson at the University of Iceland.
When it comes to a typical eruption of highly active volcanoes, scientists have learned over the years that magma chambers within the volcano gradually fill up beforehand and rapidly deflate as pressure is released, deforming the surface. However, the magma chamber that deflated in Eyjafjallajökull during the explosive April eruption was not the one that filled up right beforehand.
"One of the surprises was the complexity of the plumbing system," Sigmundsson said. "
The cause of Eyjafjallajökull's explosive eruption seemed to be the meeting of one body of magma, made up mostly of the common volcanic rock basalt, with another type of magma within the volcano, consisting largely of silica-rich trachyandesite.
The behavior of Eyjafjallajökull might be typical for such moderately active volcanoes.
Source:
http://www.livescience.com/29824-why-eyjafjallajoekull-volcano-erupted.html
Image via imgur
Very impressive!
ReplyDeleteThere is an even larger volcano named Katla by the glacier Mýrdalsjökull east of Eyjafjallajökull. Katla is long overdue for an eruption with the last major eruption being in 1918 and it usually erupts every 40 to 80 years. The three previous eruptions of Eyjafjallajökull have all been followed by huge eruptions of Katla.
ReplyDeleteThe last major eruption of Katla moved the coastline five kilometers and the eruption in 1755 created a Jökulhlaup (flood of melted water) with a water flow that is estimated to have been as much as twice that of the Amazon river. with 200 000–400 000 cubic meters of water per second.
Wow...that means you're going to report LIVE from the scene? Thanks Anders Öhlund =)
ReplyDeleteSure. I'll just hike over the fells to Norway, build a longship and sail over to Iceland ;)
ReplyDeleteHow about skydiving ? =D
ReplyDeleteAn old class mate of mine actually went to Iceland to visit during that eruption. I can only imagine that it was awesome. As in the true sense of the word. :)
ReplyDeleteIndeed, well I can come with you if you want to skydive in Iceland ... I can push you without any problem! griiiiiiinnnnnn
ReplyDeleteThere are some pretty amazing videos of supersonic shockwaves moving through the clouds above eyjafyallajokull, but they're dwarfed by the videos from the last eruption of Hekla, that they show in the iceland museum devoted to the gigantic floods produced when the glacier melts from Hekla's heat.
ReplyDeleteI believe that was the volcano that erupted in the new movie, "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty". Although, I could be wrong. Many of the Nordic names are very difficult for me so I could mix them up easily.
ReplyDeleteIt was hilarious watching journalists, especially those from the US, trying to pronounce Eyjafjallajökull and failing miserably. I can't claim that I can get it right but they were nowhere close =)
ReplyDeleteUh-ia-fiat-la-juh-kutl might get an English speaker somewhat close.
English is in comparison a bit limited in the range of sounds it uses so it's always hard and Icelandic uses some that have now disappeared even from the other Nordic languages. We also tend to have consecutive consonants but even us Swedes cheat when we try to say things like "typiskt västkustskt" (typically west coast-ish)