Interesting Facts about Iceland's Volcano

Iceland's volcano: 9 Interesting facts

As the eruption of Eyjafjallajökull continues to cause travel chaos around the world, a look at some of the weirder stories to come out of the disaster

The closure of the European flightzone thanks to a volcanic eruption in Iceland looks set to continue well into this week, leaving vast numbers of travellers stranded around the world. But beyond the packed airport halls and grounded planes, the eruption has affected the world in many unusual ways. Here, a list of strange facts surrounding the eruption of Eyjafjallajökull:

The volcano looks like Edvard Munch's "The Scream"
Radar images of the volcano's crater appear to resemble a "nightmarish face...reminiscent of Edvard Munch's painting The Scream," reports Claire Bates in the Daily Mail. "Coincidentally it is thought that the masterpiece was inspired by the blood red skies caused by the powerful volcanic eruption of Krakatoa in 1883."

It forced a Monty Python star to take a $5,000 cab ride
John Cleese, of the classic Monty Python's Flying Circus comedy troupe, paid $5,100 for a taxi ride from Oslo in Norway to Brussels in Belgium. Known for his absurdist humor, notes Clive Irving at the Daily Beast, Cleese is "the perfect posterboy for the present situation."

Norway is being governed via iPad
Jens Stoltenberg, prime minister of Norway, is stuck in New York. But he has reportedly been running the country quite effectively from 4,000 miles away with his new Apple iPad. "It's official," says Stevie Smith at theTech Herald. Apple's latest toy is "capable of running the world."

The eruption destroyed millions of flowers — in Kenya
Floral exports make up 20 percent of the Kenya's economy — and they have been completely shut down by Europe's flight ban. The head of the Kenya Flower Council told the BBC that local growers have been forced to destroy 3,000 tons of flowers since last week with devastating effects on the local economy.

Just try buying a kumquat in Frankfurt
Like Europe's imported flowers, many of its exotic fruits and vegetables are flown in from Africa and the Middle East. With so many planes grounded, food suppliers are warning of shortages. "We will lack beans and chillies from Egypt and fresh herbs from Israel," says wholesaler Peter Grundhoefer to Reuters. And "exotic fruits like mango, kumquats and physalis" will start becoming scarce in the next day or two.

Twitter has become an emergency travel service
Stranded travellers are using Twitter to hitch rides across Europe, reports Ben Fenton in the Financial Times. By posting messages with searchable hash tags such as #getmehome or #stranded, Tweeple have been able locate "potential lift sharers and others in the same boat (or train, or car)." A boat service from France to the U.K. was also organized using the social networking tool.      

Airlines are asking for a "volcano bailout"
While the EU was recently forced to write a check to save Greece's economy, it could be forced to dig deep in its pockets for the airline industry, too. Several carriers, including British Airways, have asked for financial compensation. The bill could prove to be steep: at the same time BA is losing $30 million each day and Air France-KLM around $40 million, volcanologists are warning that eruption could go on for months.

The sports world is reeling
Marquee sporting events around the globe have been hit hard by the flight ban. Olympic runner Abdellah Falil was unable to compete in the Boston Marathon on Monday; several Olympic cyclists missed the Amstel Gold race in Holland; the Japanese MotoGP has been postponed; and wrestling fans will be devastated to learn that WWE stars including John Cena, Randy Orton and Batista are stranded in Belfast, Northern Ireland. If the disruptions persist, several European soccer games — including Tuesday's match between Barcelona and Inter Milan — may have to be postponed.

Prepare for lots of snow in New Jersey
Experts warn that the last three times Eyjafjallajökull has erupted, it triggered the eruption of Katla, an even more powerful volcano a few miles away.  Such an eruption could be a global event, reports Roger Boyes in the Times, as Katla's last eruption — in the 1820s — created severe famines around the world, and changed the global "climate so dramatically that New Jersey recorded its largest snowfall and Egypt one of its most enduring droughts."

Some of the Other Interesting Facts about it Iceland Volcano:

• It's in south-west Iceland, it's near the sea, and it covers around 40 square miles
• Its 1,666 meters tall
• The volcano has erupted TWICE. Once in March 2010, which meant 500 people were evacuated from the area, and then again in April (much more powerful than the March eruption) which caused Europe so much disruption
• It's underneath a glacier which causes two problems: 1) flooding when the heat from the volcano melts all the ice, which is why those people were evacuated, and 2) it makes the eruption highly explosive. When the water leaked into the insides of the volcano, the magma turned the water to steam. The resulting explosion shattered the magma into tiny fragments called 'volcanic ash' and shot them high into the sky
• The ash cloud reached 55,000 feet
• Iceland is a volcanic hot spot on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, which is the dividing line between the Eurasian and North American plates
• There are 35 active volcanoes in Iceland
• There is another volcano nearby and people are worried this eruption could set it off. It's called Katla

An even bigger volcano

• Katla is around 25km away from the other one
• It's got a much bigger magma chamber so it's far more powerful
• Each of the eruptions of Eyjafjallajöekull in the years 920, 1612, and 1821-1823 has been followed by an eruption at Katla
• On 20 April 2010, Icelandic President Olafur Grimsson said: "The time for Katla to erupt is coming close… we have prepared… it is high time for European governments and airline authorities all over the world to start planning for the eventual Katla eruption."
• It could cause more disruption in Europe, but also major flooding in Iceland

The disruption caused by the volcano in Iceland

• British airspace was closed for six days, which meant no planes could fly at all
• 120,000-150,000 Brits were stranded abroad, including loads of teachers and pupils on their Easter holidays
• The disruption has cost airlines across the whole world £1.1 billion
• 1.2 million passengers a day were affected by the closure

Source: BBC News & The Week

America's Ten Most Dangerous Volcanoes

10. Crater Lake Volcano, Oregon

Photograph by David McLain, National Geographic

A lava outcrop juts from the rim of Oregon's Crater Lake. Born of a blast that expelled more than 50 times the volume of magma as the Mount St. Helens eruption 30 years ago, this watery caldera is also the United States' tenth most dangerous volcano, according to the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). 

Of the 169 geologically active volcanoes in the U.S, 54 volcanoes have USGS threat levels  of "high" or worse, based on perceived explosiveness and what's at risk near the volcano.

Mother Nature, though, can reshuffle the ranking at any time. "A volcano can be quiet for a long time, and we would give it a low threat level," said John Eichelberger, coordinator of the USGS Volcano Hazards Program. "But it can surprise us."

For instance the long-gone Mount Mazama volcano cluster staged quite a surprise when it exploded 7,700 years ago—the largest Cascade Range eruption of the last hundred thousand years. Water eventually filled the resulting three-mile-wide (eight-kilometer-wide) wide crater, forming Crater Lake.

"You could look at that as a system that exhausted itself," said William Scott, a geologist at the USGS Cascades Volcano Observatory in Vancouver,Washington. "It’s been quiet for the last 5,000 years."

9. Redoubt Volcano, Alaska 

Photograph courtesy R. Clucas, Alaska Volcano Observatory/USGS

Alaska's Redoubt Volcano, which last erupted in 2009 (pictures), presents a high risk because of its proximity to the city of Anchorage, its international airport, and the flight paths overhead.

Pictured on April 21, 1990, erupting Redoubt Volcano in 1989-90 sparked volcanic mudflows, or lahars, which swept into an inlet some 13.5 miles (35 kilometers) away.

Ash from the volcano temporarily shut down a 747's engines in December 1989. Though the crew restarted the engines in midair, the incident's aftershocks can still be felt in recent on-again, off-again airport shutdowns related to Icelandic volcanic ash.

8. Mauna Loa Volcano, Hawaii

Photograph by Bill Curtsinger, National Geographic

The largest volcano on Earth, Hawaii's Mauna Loa has erupted 33 times since its first documented eruption in 1843, but has been relatively quiet since 1984. (Video: Hawaii's Mauna Loa.)

Mauna Loa's general ooziness is due largely to the fact that "the Pacific crust is sinking down below the continents," the USGS's Eichelberger said. "That introduces a lot of water into the hot area of the mantle, which causes melting—and then you get volcanoes."

The molten rock is less dense than solid rock, so it tends to rise to the surface, as at Mauna Loa, where lava constantly flows into a beleaguered nearby community. 

7. Lassen Volcanic Center, California 

Photograph by Priit Vesilind, National Geographic

It might be slightly unfair to single out Lassen Peak (pictured), since the Redding, California-area volcano (map) is simply one among several volcanoes in a volatile cluster.

"The next eruption might not be on Lassen Peak," said the Cascades Volcano Observatory's Scott. The blast could take place at a neighboring volcano—or create a new one altogether.

Lassen Peak last erupted during between 1915 and 1917. Like Mount St. Helens 30 years ago, the California volcano blew down a patch of forest, but on a much smaller scale. The previous eruption in the area—called the Lassen Volcanic Center—in the mid-17th century formed a new volcanic cone about 10 miles (16 kilometers) east of Lassen Peak.

6. South Sister Volcano, Oregon 

Photograph from Panoramic Stock/National Geographic

With South Sister (pictured) ranked by the USGS as a "very high threat" volcano, the Three Sisters area is a volcanic hotbed spanning about 115 square miles (300 square kilometers) just west of Bend, Oregon.

The next major activity in the area might not be an eruption of one of the three volcanic peaks—Middle, South, and North Sister—but the start of a new volcano altogether, the Cascades Volcano Observatory's Scott said. "It could really occur almost anywhere in that broad area."

In the late 1990s and early 2000s, an area of ground west of the Middle and South Sister started to deform. Volcanologists closely monitored the 9-mile-wide (15-kilometer-wide) area they dubbed "the Bulge," since ground deformation can indicate magma moving and accumulating underground.

The Bulge, though, is now deflating. "In the end, it didn't result in an eruption," Scott said. "But it may be evidence of a process that may eventually produce one."

5. Mount Shasta Volcano, California 

Photograph by James P. Blair, National Geographic

Flanked by an interstate, California's Mount Shasta volcano looms over thousands of homes, a key to its USGS "very high threat" rating (more California volcano pictures).

Around Mount Shasta an eruption's pyroclastic flow—rapid currents of superheated gas, ash, and rock caused by a volcanic explosion—as well as ash-infused mudflows could put towns and infrastructure in harm's way.

The last reported eruption was seen from the Pacific Ocean in 1786 and may not have "been such a big deal," the Cascades Volcano Observatory's Scott. "We haven't had [an eruption] since settlement by European settlers, but in the geologic sense the volcano has been quite frequently active."

4. Mount Hood Volcano, Oregon

Photograph courtesy Sam Abell, National Geographic

Climbers cross a ridge on Oregon's most dangerous volcano, Mount Hood. "A key issue with Mount Hood is that people live on the flank of the volcano, state highways cross its flanks—so there's a lot of stuff up close," the Cascade Volcano Observatory's Scott said.

Mount Hood was very active at the end of the last ice age, and there have been two significant eruptions in the last 1,500 years—the last of which happened just before Lewis and Clark came through in the early 1800s.

One interpretation of Mount Hood's volcanic activity is that the mountain has recently ended a long period of dormancy and "in the future it might be erupting on the order of every few centuries," Scott said.

3. Mount Rainier Volcano, Washington 

Photograph by Barbra Kates, Your Shot

The danger with Washington State's Mount Rainier is that it's covered by more snow and ice than all the other Cascade Range volcanoes combined, so it presents a high risk of lahars, or volcanic mudflows. "A lahar is like concrete flowing down the chute of cement mixer," said the Cascades Volcano Observatory's Scott.

In the past Mount Rainier's lahars have run down the river valley all the way to Puget Sound, a distance of more than 62 miles (100 kilometers). "That's where a lot of the [urban] development is. so that's a key hazard," Scott said.

Mount Rainier undergoes significant volcanic activity every 500 to 1,000 years, Scott said—and the volcano's last big explosion was about 500 years ago. "But right now we know the volcano is at rest."

2. Mount St. Helens Volcano, Washington 

Photograph courtesy Robert Krimmel, USGS

The eruption of Mount St. Helens 30 years ago on May 18, 1980 (pictured),  is the most devastating and most studied volcanic explosion in U.S. history. The blast killed 57 people and spewed 520 million tons of volcanic ash, darkening the skies of Spokane, Washington, more than 250 miles (400 kilometers) away.

Over the last 10,000 years, Mount St. Helens has erupted more frequently than any other volcano in the Cascade Range, and has continued erupting, albeit gently, in recent years.

1. Kilauea Volcano, Hawaii 

Photograph courtesy Frans Lanting, National Geographic

A photographer slinks into the Pu'u 'O'o crater of Hawaii's Kilauea volcano, which has been active since 1983.

"A lot of the time the lava's flowing into the sea, and you can walk right up to it," said the USGS's Eichelberger.

One of Kilauea's hazards includes the potential for explosive eruptions. "That's when the magma comes flying out as blocks or particles of ash instead of flowing out intact as lava," Eichelberger explained.

What volcanologists call explosive activity varies. "Sometimes they're discrete explosions ... and things go flying all over the place. Other times it's more like a spray from a fire hose," he said.

As a general rule, "it's wise not to be close to an explosive eruption."

Source: National Geography