As we all know , Iceland is aprofoundly volcanicplace with a assortment of eructation styles – from spewing out a petty or a lot of lava , to exploding so violently that Europe gets blanket in ash tree .
Well , as reported by theIceland Monitor , the nation ’s soothsaying geophysicist Páll Einarsson claims that four of the country ’s tempestuous good deal are exhibiting pre - eruptive condition . Apart from that , however , trivial data has been given .
The volcanoes in interrogation are Katla , Hekla , Bárðarbunga , and Grímsvötn . With no data or references chip in in the Wiley Post , we decided to do a picayune stab ourselves .
So what ofKatla ? Well , it ’s a rather sizable volcano that has indeed been showing sign of restlessness recently , with tremors hitting around the 4.6 M cross . These quakes are maybe indications of magma ascending upwards through the Earth’s crust and make it to violently fracture , but as of yet , there ’s no classical validation of this .
Katla occasionally countenance off some steam through modest lava flows , but there has n’t been a major eruption for several tenner . Its median return pace for something pregnant and potentially unsafe is once every 50 years . The last notable event back in 2011 produced some impressive flow of lava , but it was not enough to smash through the Mýrdalsjökull glacier crest it at the surface .
When it inevitably does , a massive ash plume – akin to the one bring forth by the Eyjafjallajökull in 2010 – could be generated , which would think that Northern Europe ’s airspace will be immediately shut down . agree to a recent study , however , such an epic plume only appearsonce every 44 year , so we ’ve likely get some time before that happens again .
It ’s deserving remark , however , that the 2011 event produced a “ jökulhlaup ” , a wink flood triggered by part of the glacier melting . It was hefty enough to sweep away a major bridge – although fortunately without any accompany deaths .
Eyjafjallajokull erupt in 2010 . Gardar Olafsson / Shutterstock
rent ’s take a look atHekla , also affectionately known as the “ gateway to perdition ” in local mythology . late chronicle suggests it has a recurrence interval of 10 days . As it last erupted in the twelvemonth 2000 , this mean it ’s 7 year overdue – but in vulcanology , this is easily within the margin of misplay .
If Hekla ignite shortly , it will in all likelihood generate a prominent ash plume , but not one that will cope with 2010 ’s peak . This is actually what we want to happen – a foresighted hold means that the magma bedroom is filling up more and more daytime by day .
In this caseful , if Hekla waitress for a few more tenner , then the subsequent eruption will be far more explosive , reminiscent of one of the volcano’spast paroxysmsthat were far more ruinous and explosive .
Bárðarbungahas been quite active recently , producing some salient lava flux back in 2014 - 2015 . hide beneath much of another glacier , Vatnajökull , the peril is that a particularly voluminous menstruum could raise a unsafe jökulhlaup .
seismal activity has been picking up pace for much of the last decennium , and it is possible , although improbable , that there could be a repetition of its eruption 8,600 geezerhood ago , when it produce the world ’s big lava menstruation for 10,000 years .
The land of water ice and blast . Nathan Mortimer / Shutterstock
last , we haveGrímsvötn , which is just down the road from Bárðarbunga and is likely fueled by the same magma source .
This last catch fire back in 2011 , producing an ash tree plume that led to a nonaged repeat of 2010 ’s flight of stairs - run aground events . Like Bárðarbunga , seismal activity is steadily rising , so we could see another ash tree plume come out from beneath the glacier within the next decade or so .
basically then , it ’s very likely one of these volcanoes will flare up in one means or another in the next few years – and it ’s most likely to be a minor explosive eruption , not a game - changing catastrophe of one . As always , though , it ’s hard to tell with Iceland ’s volcano , so in the meanwhile , take in this space .
