Posted on 03/20/2010 6:24:33 PM PDT by Leifur
Breaking News: A volcano just erupted in southern part of Iceland, under the glacier Eyjafjallajökull. They are starting to clear farms in the lowlands below the glacier, and ash has started to fall in the area. There has not been though much earth tremors following this.
Farmers in the area are seeing fire in the glacier and the stench is reportedly very strong. These are the most affected areas, the red is in most danger of beeing flooded with toxic water at high speed:
http://mbl.is/frimg/5/25/525555.jpg
The greatest danger following this is that the volcanic eruption will melt the glacier and a huge amount of melted glacier water will flood down the floodplaines, and the grown lands in the Southern flat lands of the country below the clacier. Some farmers have just under an hour to abandon their farms and get to safety.
Most farms are though on small hilltops, so depending on how great the eruption is, and where the meltwater will mostly flow, the devastation can be all from mostly grown land and roads to severe economic damage at a hight of an extended financial crisis extended by a impotent government and blackmailing from the EU nations especially the UK and the Netherlands.
Information from the wikipedia site:
"Eyjafjallajökull [glacier] is one of the smaller glaciers of Iceland. It is situated to the north of Skógar and to the west of the larger glacier Mýrdalsjökull.
The last eruption was from 1821 to 1823, causing a fatal glacier run. The crater of the volcano has a diameter of 3–4 km and the glacier covers an area of about 100 km². The south end of the mountain was once part of the Atlantic coastline. As the sea has since retreated some 5 km, the former coastline has left behind sheer cliffs with a multitude of beautiful waterfalls, the best known of them being Skógafoss.
In strong winds, the water of the smaller falls can even be blown up the mountain. Between 3rd and 5th of March 2010 there were measured close to 3000 earthquakes at the epicenter of the volcano. Most were very small but some could be detected in the nearby towns.[1]
These tremors were thought to be maybe a precurser of an eruption, that now is coming to fruition.
Exactly, and besides, the Chinese are that far away, and have not been interested in running countries internal matters, sadly allowing bad things to happen where they trade, without interference in internal matters. Although that will be bad, and supporting that, it is better in our case than the micromanaging of our internal matters that will follow an EU province status.
I am meaning to post an article about the new Chinese Embassy they are planning to open here, it will be the biggest one in the country, and on a very prominent and visible location. Hopefully they will start loaning us money so we wan´t have to listen to EU´s blackmails. We could even lone them an abandoned military base in the country.
I was just in your country a couple of weeks ago with my daughter. She had always wanted to see Iceland and I have to admit the geography was stunning.
One of the tours we took was to a town near Reykavik on the coast. They had a church on a nearby hill that everyone had to be able to evacuate to in case a glacier tongue broke off and went into the sea. The tour guide said that the sea level at the coast would rise a lot for a brief period of time and that anyone who couldn’t get to higher ground within 20 minutes of the glacier break off would drown. I wonder if this is in the same area.
Haha, actually they would and would have to be very ashamed of themselves, as we take such things VERY, VERY seriously. Has to do with protecting the language unspoiled, so we can read 1000 year old sagas without much difficulty. It is, in fact our most important national heritage, the language and thus proper use of it is fiercely protected.
The word basically means Eyja (island) fjalla (mountains) jökull (glacier), and Mýr (wetland) dals (valley) jökull (glacier).
But i understand it sounds all gibbledegukk to english speakers ;)
But the important question is whether the hiddens are in danger?
Seems similar to German in structure, then....with the long compound words?
CLA: I hope you had a good time. It sounds like you probably were at town Vík í Mýrdal, which is in the dead center of an expected flood from the bigger volcano Katla, which we have been expecting and dreading for a while.
But as EBH pointed out, they are linked, so this could offset the wait for that eruption for a long time. Katla is bigger, and would probably affect more people as Vík has a bigger population than this hopefully will affect directly. But this eruption could devastate bigger and more importantly better land, which has been cultivated for a long time.
A green lush paradise could become a sandy wasteland of volcanic floodplaines, full of poisonous chemicals. The area around Vík is allready so although slowly greening up through our projects of binding the soil, but maybe CLA and his daughter did see an area, especially driving from Reykjavík to Vík that will be forever changed due to these events. Of course it could also be much less than chatastrophic, we just don´t have enough information at present.
Believe me, you don’t want the PRC using a military base on Iceland.
Exactly, and so many of us choose to learn german as a third foreign language (we have to choose a third one after english and danish) instead of romaniced languages like french and spanish because it is so much easier to learn, given our knowledge of Icelandic, danish and even english. It is structural and bound by strong and easy to memorize rules, so it is at least easier to pass tests in it. And it is somewhat cool, and germany has many quality engineering schools f.e. that many of our students go to for master degrees.
We have made many compounded words for new technologies and new concepts, often using old out of usage words also and created new words with old style structures to prevent words like computers, refrigerators (icebox is actually a compounded word similar in direct meaning as our word for it) and helicopters becoming part of everyday language here.
Actually I don´t wan´t it if we can avoid it, I would like the US to never have left us. But never will I accept EU and a european military presence here, because they will never accept our sovereignty once they have their foot in the door. It seems already happening, with the Icesave issue beeing treated by them, and it seems the US and the rest of the world as an ‘European internal matter’ as if the EU had some kind of hegemony over all areas considered part of the European continent.
That’s very interesting. Thanks.
hahaha, they probably started it;)
No, I don´t people genuinely believe in elfs, not even in the countryside, which is often portrayed as rife with “hindurvitnum”, belief in otherworldly “sticks and stones”.
The hidden folk are most often portrayed in the stories as beutiful and powerful folk, ruthless (LOTR comes to mind, anyone?), not small and cuddly. In fact they are presented as a great tempters to good christian men, who have to choose between following Jesus christ, or giving way to temptation and be lured into the hidden world.
The stories are fun though although I doupt you find many that take them really seriously.
Over the last week, I have done some research not only could this set off it's sister volcano, but there is a chance that it sets off a major quake on the east SISZ.
Keep an eye on the area for sure.
Thanks for that, and I hope you are right, even though my countrymen have disapointed myself very much during this time. I always imagined that when it really, really mattered we would quit our squabbles and turn our backs together and unite when the threat to our country would be great. But when you have an idealogical socialliberal party that is married to some kind of international, multicultural idea of a united Europe, bridging the differences is that much harder.
I really hope the US can avoid going down the drain of European socialism, the Health care system is of course the most important when it comes to how big the government is in our daily lives. And education right after that.
If the US decides to do as Europe has and pay for everyones health care (incrementally that will be the end result) from tax payers funds, you will have to shed your military and standing in the world. You can´t have both a strong military that protects freedom in the world (from the likes of China and the EU), and a state funded health care system. So it is make or brake time for the future of western civilization, as I don´t see Europe going anywhere but to the extinction of the native cultures.
We had a great time. I was a little anxious about coming as I can’t even say “hello” in Icelandic. But I did not meet a single person that didn’t speak English! Your other post noted that you must learn 3 other languages in addition to Icelandic. I am amazed at your nation’s multilingual abilities.
Assuming that the volcano doesn’t turn out to be too serious now is financially a great time to go to ICeland. IcelandAir was running some promotions which got us to go.
I am checking my pictures now. Looks like we were at Skogafass on one of out tours, which took us from their to the beach at Reynisjara Halsanefshellir.
You live in one of the most beautiful places in the world, been there twice and loved it.
As for volcanoes, well, that is Iceland. Best of luck to you all.
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