We were lucky enough to visit the last one when it erupted. Hopefully nothing major and everyone is safe.
Lava eruptions like this tend to be less dangerous than ash eruptions, which can mess up air traffic and the ashfall is bad for the lungs and crops. So I don’t think there’s much cause for concern.
TIL volcanoes even have two different eruptions. I just always imagined they came with ash as a given. That makes me feel a bit better about this, though I still echo their hope for as little damage as possible.
I’m by no means an expert but in Iceland,
eruption under a glacier = ash eruption
eruption not under a glacier = lava flow.
I’m sure it’s more nuanced than that but it seems to be the rule of thumb over here.I think it depends on the particular volcanoes. The volcanoes in Iceland and Hawaii, IIRC, have thinner and less gassy magma, so there’s not as much gas buildup, and the eruptions tend to have more liquid lava. Elsewhere, say Mt. St. Helens, the eruptions tend to have thick lava, with lots of trapped gas inside, that tend to cause giant explosions, pyroclastic flows & big ash clouds.
I would hazard a guess that it’s dependent on even more than region. Wasn’t it an Icelandic volcano that shut down air travel because of ash a few years back?
When it erupts underneath a glacier, it causes huge clouds of ash to form. The volcano you’re talking about (Eyjafjallajökull) is a glacier volcano in the highlands whereas this one is on the Reykjanes peninsula on the west side.
This is so exciting. The last time there was a major volcanic eruption in Europe, it shut down air travel for ages over there. Plus there was a cool and totally improbable scene in Walter Mitty about it.
That Walter Mitty scene made me laugh. It was filmed in Seyðisfjörður, which is around 700 km away from Eyjafjallajökull. They had even changed the map shown in the movie, so it was unrecognizable for an Icelander! 😂
Doesn’t increased volcanic activity cause an increase in global temperatures?
Typically, volcanic eruptions have a cooling effect. One of the principle emissions is sulfur dioxide which reflects high frequency solar energy (green house gases absorb and convert that same radiation into longer wave energy which excites atmospheric gases).
You can read more at the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research.
