Eyjafjallajokull: Iceland, 2010

Nature of volcano
1. 1660m high, active volcano in Southern Iceland
2. Lies on major fissure of Mid Atlantic Ridge, of which is a constructive plate margin
  1. Eurasian plate move sway from North American plate
3. Stratovolcano
  1. Crater 3 - 4km diameter
4. Plates move 1 - 5cm a year
5. First Eruption
  1. Low hazard
  2. Lava plateau
  3. poisonous gas
  4. visibility = 0
  5. Lava covered 1sq km
6. Second Eruption
  1. Great hazard
  2. plume travelled almost at speed of sound
  3. Strombolian eruption
  4. 100 million cubic metres of lava
  5. VEI 4
  6. Lava 1000 degrees Celsius
Cause
1. First eruption
  1. Fissure eruption. Diverging Eurasian and North American plates
  2. 0.5km fissure formed
  3. 1 - 2 Richter scale Earthquakes
2. Second eruption
  1. Andesitic lava - very explosive
    1. combo of hot magma and glacial meltwater led to an explosive reaction
  2. Fissure grew to 1 mile
  3. Pressure build up
Impacts
1. Environmental
  1. Primary
    1. Tephra ejected 10,000m into atmosphere, to altitude of polar jetstream
    2. 30,000 tonnes of co2 emitted per day by eruption
  2. Secondary
    1. Material carries SW over Europe
    2. freshwater acidity increased - unsafe to drink
    3. land in SE became fertile
    4. snout of glacier shrank by over a mile
2. Social
  1. Primary
    1. 2 missing from first eruption
    2. 500 farmers and their families had to evacuate
    3. Roads shut down - Route 1 highway breached, damaged by floodwater
    4. Those on Vestermannaeyjar islands isolate for over a week due to grounded flights
  2. Secondary
    1. Over year, 25% increase in respiratory illness
    2. Hundreds of thousands stranded due to cancelled flights
    3. 107,000 cancelled flights
    4. main tourist accomodation centre in Reykjavik had road connections destroyed
3. Economic
  1. Primary
    1. Airlines/associated business lost about $130 million a day
    2. 20% Kenyan economy based on export of perishable goods
    3. Port at Landeyjahofn destroyed
  2. Secondary
    1. Most food had to be imported - high prices, national recession for next 3 years
    2. Dip in tourism over next 2 years by 11%
      1. However... long term boost. In Vik, increased demand for accomodation
    3. Harvests over following two years lowered due to acidic soil
4. Political
  1. Politicians had to postpone trips - Putin postponed trip to Murmansk
  2. Blair stranded in Israel - UK election campaign disrupted
Response
1. Short term
  1. Schools = rescue centres
  2. 10 mile no fly radius up to 20,000 ft
  3. Face masks distributed
  4. Helicopters sent to rescue those unable to evacuate
  5. 500 farmers and families evacuated
  6. IVO monitoring suggested evacuation of 700. Most left area by time of eruption
2. Long Term
  1. Constant monitoring and exchanging of information between the UK and Iceland research facilities
  2. Following year, Grimsvotn prompted even earlier evacuations to be carried out

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Eyjafjallajokull: Iceland, 2010

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