Fire and Ice -- Iceland's Eyjafjallajökull volcano erupted quietly at first this spring (shown), until magma shifted directly beneath a glacier. [Odd Stefan Thorisson/Nordicphotos/Corbis]
Posted on 09/15/2010 3:43:26 PM PDT by SunkenCiv
Eyjafjallajökull began erupting on March 20, but few people other than volcanologists and Icelanders took notice at first. For weeks, all it did was spurt lava gently out of an exposed ridge. On April 14, though, the eruption suddenly shifted a few kilometers west -- no longer on open land, but beneath an ice cap. Just as happened at Sveifluháls, magma met ice and turned it to steam, throwing ash into the stratosphere. European airline flights shut down for days over worries about how the ash might affect jet engines.
What a difference a little ice makes. Had the second phase of the eruption not shifted westward, the volcano would not have closed down much of Europe's air traffic. "In the absence of ice, Eyjafjallajökull would have been a much less disruptive volcano," says Dave McGarvie, a volcanologist at the Open University's campus in Edinburgh.
(Excerpt) Read more at sciencenews.org ...
Fire and Ice -- Iceland's Eyjafjallajökull volcano erupted quietly at first this spring (shown), until magma shifted directly beneath a glacier. [Odd Stefan Thorisson/Nordicphotos/Corbis]
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Oh c’mon now. Everybody knows its too cold for volcanoes in Iceland.
Eyjafjallajokull ?
forget 3 times fast, I can’t even say that 1 time slowly
Eyjafjallajökull...
It’s funny. His name is my name too...
Rick Sanchez: 'Too Cold' in Iceland 'To Have a Volcano There'
;’)
From the link:
"Icy volcanoes might even be a key to answering a vexing question — whether a warming climate could trigger more eruptions by lifting the heavy mantle of ice above volcanoes. As glaciers retreated from Iceland at the end of the last ice age, about 12,000 years ago, volcanic activity increased 10- to 30-fold. Some researchers speculate that the ongoing melting of ice caps worldwide could have a similar effect."
Relentless promulgation of a flawed premise.
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