Blog 7

The Myrdalsjokull icecap









Blasts of hot lava and ash shot out of a recently active volcano in southern Iceland on Monday, March 22nd, and small tremors rocked the ground, a surge in activity that raised fears of a larger explosion at the nearby Katla volcano. When the Eyjafjallajokull volcano erupts, Katla usually follows. But how soon I wonder? And Katla, located under the massive Myrdalsjokull icecap, threatens flooding and flying ice shards. (yes those long strange names are real, Iceland is weird) Saturday's eruption at Eyjafjallajokull which was dormant for almost 200 years, was a surprise for everyone, but some near by farmers had to move away to avoid further danger.
Iceland sits on a large volcanic hot spot in the Atlantic's mountain ridge. Eruptions, common throughout Iceland, are often triggered by seismic activity when the Earth's plates move and when magma from deep underground pushes its way to the surface. Like earthquakes, predicting the timing of volcanic eruptions is an imprecise science. Scientist use a devise called the Rictor Scale to measure how large earthquakes are, but we have no real way of measuring volcanic eruptions.

There are three main places where volcanoes normally occur along faults such as California's San Andreas fault line, along areas where plates overlapping one another such as in the Philippines and the Pacific ocean and in areas like Iceland, where two of the Earth's plates are moving apart from each other in a supposed spreading system.

The Past Katla eruptions have caused floods the size of the Amazon, and sent boulders as big as houses tumbling down valleys and roads. The last major eruption took place in 1918. The last big volcanic eruption in Iceland occurred in 2004 with the Grimsvotn volcano.



Here is a picture of Eyjafjallajokull erupting at night.




Here is a picture of Mt. Katla