Iceland’s Eyjafjallajökull may have quietened but it has not gone away, warn volcanologists
THE EYJAFJALLAJÖKULL volcano in Iceland has finally gone quiet – at least for now.
Volcanologists warn, however, that it has not gone away and could resume belching out ash and steam at any time. They also point ominously to the nearby Katla volcano, a larger structure that could throw up a much greater ash plume should it begin to erupt.
“Either it is the calm before the storm or it has gone quiescent,” said Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies experimental officer Tom Blake. “We are very much in a waiting phase as to what this volcano is going to do next.”
Eyjafjallajökull last erupted in 1821 and this eruption seemed to wake the larger Katla volcano.
If this paired eruption is repeated, it could have a serious impact on air travel, given the disruption caused by Eyjafjallajökull, Mr Blake said.
“We have seen how vulnerable we are. It only took a small eruption to bring us to heel,” he said. “We march to the beat of Mother Nature’s drum.”
Eyjafjallajökull began erupting on April 14th, spewing volcanic ash up thousands of metres, where it blanked European air space. The ash grounded an estimated 100,000 flights and cost airlines more than €1 billion in lost seat sales.
Some steam is venting from the volcano but no more ash, according to Icelandic Civil Protection Agency official Iris Marelsdottir. “Now we can only wait and see,” she said. “It is too early to say this is over, but at the moment it is quiet.”
The Icelandic meteorology office said there were no reports of ashfall around the volcano yesterday. The temperatures in the volcano have also dropped to boiling point, according to geologist Magnus Tumi Gudnundsson of the University of Iceland.
Iceland is a very active region for volcanos because it sits above the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, effectively a slowly moving split in the Earth’s crust that runs from north of Iceland all the way to where the Atlantic meets the Southern Ocean.
Coincidentally, Mr Blake yesterday convened a four-day meeting of seismologists in Dublin, organised by the institute and by the Observatories and Research Facilities for European Seismology (Orfeus) network.
It was held here this year to mark the bicentenary of Irish scientist Robert Mallet, a TCD graduate who was the “father of seismology”, Mr Blake said.
Mallet led the world in measuring seismological events such as earthquakes and volcanic eruptions.
This has been a year for devastating earthquakes, with powerful events in Haiti, Chile and China that caused significant loss of life, Mr Blake said.
While Eyjafjallajökull caused weeks of trouble and worry for air passengers in Europe, it came nowhere near the record for the longest continuous volcanic eruption.
This goes to the Kilauea volcano on Hawaii’s Big Island, which has experienced continuous eruption and lava flows for 10,000 days. It started on January 3rd, 1983, and has not stopped since.
Hawaii’s big volcanos tend to be slow-flowing rather than violent, however, so ash plumes are not an issue. – (Additional reporting: PA)