Iceland Volcano Eruption…Just A Warning For Big Brother Katla?

According to NASA the current eruption of Iceland volcano Eyjafjallajokull could just be the precursor of a much bigger disaster: big brother volcano Katla who over the past eruptions each time has erupted as a follower to Eyjafjallajokull. In fact, over the past thousand years, Eyjafjallajokull has erupted only three times: in 920, in 1612 and in 1823. Each time Katla erupted a little time after and caused much more devastation than what we have  seen over the past week.

Katla volcano is one of the most dangerous volcanoes in Iceland. It is located near the southern end of Iceland’s eastern volcanic zone. The subglacial basaltic-to-rhyolitic volcano is one of Iceland’s most active. A large 10 x 14 km subglacial caldera with a long axis in a NW-SE direction is up to 750 m deep. Its high point reaches 1380 m, and three major outlet glaciers have breached its rim.

“We measure increase in intensity with Eyjafjallajokull, but we don’t expect much or any lava to erupt. We’re talking here mainly about a very strong eruption by explosion”, stated Armann Horskuldsson, researcher at the University of Iceland, on Thursday.

The duration of an eruption in Iceland is “extremely variable, which could take from several days to more than a year. But when we judge this based on the intensity of the current eruption, it could last a rather long time”, says Magnus Tumi Gudmunsson, geophysics professor in Iceland.

“A previous eruption that happened in 1823 lasted a whole year, so the current one could last evenly so”, explains Thorsteinn Jonsson, forecaster at the meteorological institute of Iceland. “At the same time it could last as short as a few weeks as was the case with some other eruptions in the past”.

The volcano which is located below the Eyjafjallajokull glacier is ten times more active than its neighbor crater which erupted last month. A thick layer of ashes reaches over several thousands of hectares in the east and the cloud has come down to the surface in certain sectors along the southern coast of the island, reports local press.

The eruption has meanwhile melted a part of the glacier, the fifth largest of Iceland, yet the situation is getting better regarding the inundations which seriously damaged roads and bridges on Wednesday.

Meanwhile many thousands of flights have been canceled across Europe, with a record of 17000 flights canceled on Saturday alone. Main airports such as Brussels has announced to be closed at least until Monday.

If Katla would be erupting next, not only would it cause disastrous situations locally in Iceland, it would pretty much paralyze air traffic across Europe and beyond for months to come. The upcoming summer season would be seriously affected and that is the last the slumped economy needs right now.

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