“A bigger worry is Katla, which in the past has erupted in tandem with Eyjafjallajokull.
Katla is located under the vast Myrdalsjokull ice cap. An eruption could cause widespread flooding and disrupt air traffic between Europe and North America.
The last major eruption took place in 1918, and vulcanologists say a new blast is overdue.
“So far there have been no signs of the reawakening of the Katla volcano, but a lot of things can still happen, so we are monitoring it quite closely,” Einarsson said.”
Katla ALWAYS erupts sometime after the current volcano erupts. It has the potential to cause great global cooling, not mentioned in the article. A search on Katla will provide more information.
My parents actually named my sister Eyjafjallajokull.
http://www.sott.net/articles/show/205542-Global-cooling-What-happens-if-the-Iceland-volcano-blows
“The potential eruption of Iceland’s volcano Katla would likely send the world, including the USA, into an extended deep freeze.
“When Katla went off in the 1700s, the USA suffered a very cold winter,” says Gary Hufford, a scientist with the Alaska Region of the National Weather Service. “To the point, the Mississippi River froze just north of New Orleans and the East Coast, especially New England, had an extremely cold winter.
“Depending on a new eruption, Katla could cause some serious weather changes.”
Eyjafjallajokull, the Icelandic volcano that has continued to belch lava, ash and steam since first erupting last weekend, isn’t the direct problem. It’s Katla, the noisier neighbor, that’s the concern. If lava flowing from Eyjafjallajokull melts the glaciers that hold down the top of Katla, then Katla could blow its top, pumping gigantic amounts of ash into the atmosphere.
Scientists say history has proven that whenever the Eyjafjallajokull volcano erupts, Katla always follows — the only question is how soon.
“If it (Eyjafjallajokull) continues to belch, then you worry,” says Hufford.
What’s key in having volcanic eruptions affect the weather is both the duration of the eruption, and how high the ash gets blasted into the stratosphere, according to Hufford.
For example, he says, Mount Pinatubo pumped ash for two days in 1991, and spewed it 70,000 feet into the stratosphere. This dropped temperatures worldwide about four degrees for about a year.
“When volcanic ash reaches the stratosphere, it remains for a long time,” reports Hufford. “The ash becomes a very effective block of the incoming solar radiation, thus cooling the atmosphere’s temperatures.”
Mt. Pinatubo released more CARBON DIOXIDE than the entire Western Industrial Revolution from 1840 to the present.
Undersea volcanoes are estimated at over 3 million with 200,000 identified, and 30,000 of those are active. Acidification of the ocean is from this cause, and warming of oceans from volcanic activity is a currently unmeasurable, but real phenomenon.
A paper written by Benjamin Franklin in 1783 blamed the unusually cool summer of 1783 on volcanic dust coming from Iceland, where the eruption of Laki volcano had released enormous amounts of sulfur dioxide, resulting in the death of much of the island's livestock and a catastrophic famine which killed a quarter of the population. Temperatures in the northern hemisphere dropped by about 1 °C in the year following the Laki eruption.
Thanks for the info.
Indeed it is interesting the reading about Katla. They are looking for activity now, but in most instances the explosive eruption of Katla is around 6 months after Eyja.