Eyjafjallajökull Is Beginning of Decades of Misery

The ash clouds of the Eyjafjallajökull are just the beginning of decades of volcanic activity in Iceland en consequently represent the equal number of years of disturbance for the airline industry. Scottish scientists have come to this conclusion. They studied 205 eruptions out of a total of the past 1,100 eruptions.

One of the conclusions is that each time the eruptions happened in clusters of several decades.

Peak

“The past 50 years we experienced a quiet period. But now it looks like this has come to an end. We are slowly approaching a new peak in activity.”, says Thor Thordarson at the University of Edinburgh.

Hekla and Katla

Three volcanoes bigger than Eyjafjallajökull – Grimsvöth, Hekla and Askja – are building up to reach the point of eruption. On top of the Hekla, snow has started melting already, which is an indication that magma is rising to the top. The Eyjafjallajökull itself could stay active for years to come.

Previously Katla, 25 kms from Eyjafjallajökull, was named as a potential successor in Iceland eruptions. Eruptions by Katla have been preceded by eruptions of the much smaller Eyjafjallajökull 2 out 3 times.

Nuance

Other volcano experts are more optimistic about the outlook on these sad predictions. Amongst them volcano expert Manuel Sinbutin of KU-Leuven (University of Belgium), points out that despite the accurate monitoring, there is no scientific proof that the other craters are active now. At the same time they cannot exclude this either.

The Katla volcano is being tracked by GPS to detect any swelling. Seismological scientists currently have not detected movements at this time.

In any case, if any of these volcanoes becomes active, the world will experience effects 100 to 1000 larger than currently with the small Eyjafjallajökull. This in itself will completely alter the way we use transportation and likely global climate for many decades to come.

Source: http://blog.2012pro.com