Icelandic volcano 'set to erupt

Amp34 · 11 Feb 2011 at 00:11

I know, but we are going for worst case scenario. The above would be what is potentially likely to happen if we had a caldera eruption on the scale of the Huckleberry Ridge or Lava Creek eruptions. Smaller eruptions probably wouldn't affect many people other than those directly around it and downwind of it (ash).

Volcanoes are quite easy to predict eruption wise but only when they are nearing eruption (usually days/weeks for normal volcanoes), potentially a weeks to a year for large "super" volcanoes using seismic imaging (velocity modelling to compare hot/cold rock), uplift rates and heatflow readings. As you said though we don't really have any long term ideas and the notion that Yellowstone is overdue a big eruption is rubbish. As I said earlier Horizon and their Yellowstone episode a few years ago has a lot to answer for.

On a similar note Long Valley is another large caldera volcano. The ski resort of Mammoth is right next to it, in the 80s a dome started inflating within the old caldera, alongside significant seismic activity. It then calmed down again, but not before the USGS released some data that was picked up by the media, who scaremongered the whole thing up and caused massive issues in mammoth town and the surrounding area economically. Just goes to show an increase in seismics and uplift rates doesn't neessarily mean anything.

Raymond Lin · 11 Feb 2011 at 00:15

Time to buy shares in Eurostar.

Dave M · 11 Feb 2011 at 00:19

time to buy a car cover!

Radiation · 11 Feb 2011 at 00:53

Isn't it about time man tamed nature using science and technology?

Surely its better to release pressure slowly from volcanoes, if they drilled deep enough and let the lava flow into the sea they could create new land and limit the kind gas and pollution you normally get all at once in an eruption.

If another goes off and disrupts the uk we should hold iceland personally responsible.

Zip · 11 Feb 2011 at 03:44

willhub said:
Well it's sounds like it'll be worse than last time. If a super volcano erupted like Yellowstone we'd all die, it'd almost cause the extinction of the humans race.

All die? How so? Juist from the amount of smoke and ash? :confused:

I am very far from Yellow stone my self so it would fefinalt have to travel around the world a fair distance to get me

psd99 · 11 Feb 2011 at 08:07

DAMN
I got my hol next month hope I can at least get out there

wouldn't be too worried about getting back though.

psd99 · 11 Feb 2011 at 08:23

according to various sites this article isn't true and has been misguided

http://www.icenews.is/index.php/201...rofessor-hits-back-at-eruption-scare-stories/

to name just one

milkinc13 · 11 Feb 2011 at 19:20

can't we just put a cork in it to stop it???

If yellowstone goes then were doomed! as that 1's a biggie.

If anytime it'll eroupt in summer bringing another year of no holidays, atleast it makes a change from the french ATC going on strike

Amp34 · 12 Feb 2011 at 01:50

Radiation said:
Isn't it about time man tamed nature using science and technology?

Surely its better to release pressure slowly from volcanoes, if they drilled deep enough and let the lava flow into the sea they could create new land and limit the kind gas and pollution you normally get all at once in an eruption.

If another goes off and disrupts the uk we should hold iceland personally responsible.

Bad idea... Well sorta.

Mt St Helens blew like it did because of a release of pressure caused by an earthquake and subsequent landslide on one flank. The release of pressure from the slide caused what's called degassing of the magma*, this created the explosion that fired out of the side of the volcano and caused most of the damage (and deaths**).

So no, unfortunately just releasing the pressure a little bit at a time isn't quite that simple!

There's also another issue. When drilling you need to keep fluid pumping round the drill bit, when this fluid comes into contact with magma it chills it and you end up with a solidified area round the borehole. Scientists have actually drilled various volcanoes in Iceland (and hit magma on occasion) and this is what happened. It's also why the drilling of the Campi Flegrei volcano in Italy is unlikely to cause any problems (as well as the likelyhood of them hitting anything moltern being slim to none where they are drilling).

*Gas bubbles in the magma, in the chamber, expand rapidly due to pressure release.

**The lookout post was at what was considered a safe distance for a conventional explosion, unfortunately it was also right in the path of the lateral pyroclastic flow that wiped them out. There is a slightly harrowing radio message by the geologist there just before he was overtaken by that blast that's almost as famous as the blast too.

Zip said:
All die? How so? Juist from the amount of smoke and ash?

I am very far from Yellow stone my self so it would fefinalt have to travel around the world a fair distance to get me

Ever heard of Krakatoa? That erupted around 18km^3 of material. Yellowstones big eruptions erupted between 280-2500km^3 depending on what one you take...

Krakatoan sunsets were prominent for months/years after in the UK, the other side of the world and the temperature dipped all over, that from a tiny eruption.

(For reference St Helens erupted only 0.25Km^3 of material).

psd99 said:
according to various sites this article isn't true and has been misguided

http://www.icenews.is/index.php/201...rofessor-hits-back-at-eruption-scare-stories/

to name just one

Mainstream news in not reporting science subjects properly SHOCKER!

ProOrWhat · 12 Feb 2011 at 04:55

I rather die by a natural cause than by the hands of Islamic extremists.

Parsifal · 12 Feb 2011 at 05:01

Who says it's not "good for the Earth" for it to erupt? Perhaps the Earth needs volcanoes for its "health".

Cosimo · 12 Feb 2011 at 08:50

ProOrWhat said:
I rather die by a natural cause than by the hands of Islamic extremists.

I'd rather not die at all.

Doggie2k · 12 Feb 2011 at 09:13

simulatorman said:
Cancel your holidays, etc, etc.....

actually its best to go on a holiday

Last time this happened I was on a carribean cruise and because there was no way of us getting home we got an extra week free on the cruise ship

Minxy · 12 Feb 2011 at 09:27

Surely it is all to do with techtonic movement, the plates shift and boom you get a Volcano eruption (or an earthquake) or is it not as straightforward as that?

buckeejit · 12 Feb 2011 at 09:32

I hope this doesn't happen, work was hell last year when the volcano in Iceland

jake108 · 12 Feb 2011 at 11:44

simulatorman said:
I'd rather not die at all.

+1

Volcano Jihad? Weapons of mass destruction? Bomb the volcano with bunker buster. Found Osama!

simon22 · 12 Feb 2011 at 11:48

You can't stop mother nature

do_ron_ron · 12 Feb 2011 at 13:10

Fenris said:
The last eruption is assumed to have been around 70,000 years ago, this was still a big event but by no means as dramatic as people claim.

Yellowstone has has 3 "super eruptions" (the ones that cause a Caldera) within the last 2.1 million years, 2.1 million, 1.3 million and 640,000 ago, meaning around 7-800,000 years between each eruption, so theoretically it could be anywhere up to 100,000 years before any sort of super eruption, if it even happens.

Currently the magma chamber under Yellowstone is around 10Km underground, according to most geologists, we would only need to be very worried if it was under half that.

(Info taken from wiki and various articles, I'm not a geologist or a scientist, this stuff just interests me)

The land in Yellowstone National Park has been rising due to pressure from underneath.

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2007/11/071108-yellowstone.html

It has been criss-crossed with lasers to measure the rise.

Something is happening underground but this does not mean any eruption is going to happen soon.

The main danger is that the fall out would destroy the main grain producing areas of the US leading to a shortage of grains and famine.

Amp34 · 12 Feb 2011 at 14:44

Minxy said:
Surely it is all to do with techtonic movement, the plates shift and boom you get a Volcano eruption (or an earthquake) or is it not as straightforward as that?

Actually both Icelands volcanoes (and Iceland as a whole) and Yellowstone have very little relation to tectonics at all. Both are caused by mantle plumes. They transfer heat from the core to the crust, which melts and produces the magma we see when they explode. Iceland does however sit right on the mid Atlantic ridge but AFAIK it's more of a coincidence than a cause (Theres loads of evidence suggesting the spreading around Iceland is more related to the plume than the mid Altantic ridge that defines the spreading in the rest of the Atlantic).

do_ron_ron said:
The land in Yellowstone National Park has been rising due to pressure from underneath.

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2007/11/071108-yellowstone.html

It has been criss-crossed with lasers to measure the rise.

Something is happening underground but this does not mean any eruption is going to happen soon.

The main danger is that the fall out would destroy the main grain producing areas of the US leading to a shortage of grains and famine.

That happens everywhere and as you said it really doesn't mean much.

SkScotchegg · 12 Feb 2011 at 15:32

Originally posted by: Parsifal

Who says it's not "good for the Earth" for it to erupt? Perhaps the Earth needs volcanoes for its "health".

Volcanoes have always been good for the earth, life wouldn't even be here if it wasn't for volcanoes. They played a key role in making the earth a habitable planet.

When volcanoes erupt or even when asteroids hit the earth that can potentially wipe out mankind, none of these things can ever be seen as bad for the earth, only ever bad for us. We can get wiped out quite easily by many major events such as this but the earth will just keep on spinning and go on quite happily without us for probably billions of years.