History and description of Eyjafjallajökull volcano

From time immemorial, volcanoes fear and attract a man. For centuries they can sleep. An example is the recent history of Eyjafjallajökull volcano. People cultivate fields on the slopes of fiery mountains, conquer their peaks, build houses. But sooner or later the fire-breathing mountain will wake up, bring destruction and trouble.

In size it is the sixth glacier of Iceland, located in the south 125 km east of Reykjavik. Under it and partly under the neighboring glacier Myrdalsjökull there is a volcano with a conical shape.

The height of the glacier top is 1666 meters, its area is about 100 km ². The volcanic crater reaches a diameter of 4 km. Five years ago, its slopes were covered with glaciers. The nearest town is Skogar, located in the south of the glacier. From here comes the Scogau River, with the famous Scogafoss waterfall.

Icelandic volcano Eyjafjallajökull - origin of the name

The name of the volcano comes from three Icelandic words that denote an island, a glacier and a mountain. Probably, that's why it is so hard to pronounce and badly remembered. According to linguists, only a small part of the inhabitants of the Earth can pronounce this name correctly - the volcano Eyyafyatlayokudl. Translation from Icelandic sounds literally like "an island of mountain glaciers."

Volcano without a name

As such, the phrase "Eyjafjallajökull volcano" entered the world lexicon in 2010. It's funny, considering that in fact the fire-breathing mountain with such a name does not exist in nature. Iceland has many glaciers and volcanoes. The last is on the island about thirty. 125 kilometers from Reykjavik, in the south of Iceland, is a fairly large glacier. He also shared his name with the volcano Eyyafyatlayokudl.

It is under it is a volcano, which for many centuries did not come up with a name. He's anonymous. In April 2010, he disturbed the whole of Europe, for some time becoming a world newsmaker. In order not to call it an anonymous volcano, the media was asked to name it by the name of the glacier - Eyyafyatlayokudl. In order not to confuse our readers, we will refer to it in the same way.

Description

The Icelandic volcano Eyyafyatlayokudl is a typical stratovolcano. In other words, its cone is formed by numerous layers of solidified mixture of lava, ash, stones, etc.

The volcano of Iceland Eyyafyatlayokudl has been active for 700 thousand years, but since 1823 it has been classified as sleeping. This suggests that since the beginning of the XIX century eruptions have not been recorded. Eyyafyatlayokudl volcano did not cause special concern for scientists. They found out that over the last millennium he erupted several times. True, these manifestations of activity could be attributed to calm - they did not pose a danger to people. As the documents show, the last eruptions were not distinguished by large emissions of volcanic ash, lava and hot gases.

Eyjafjallajökull - Irish Volcano - the Story of an Eruption

As already mentioned, after the eruption in 1823, the volcano was recognized as asleep. At the end of 2009, seismic activity increased in it. Until March 2010, there were about a thousand tremors by force of 1-2 points. This excitement occurred at a depth of about 10 km.

In February 2010, the staff of the Icelandic Meteorological Institute, using GPS measurements, recorded a glacial shift of the earth's crust 3 cm to the southeast. Activity continued to increase and its maximum reached by March 3 - 5. At this time, up to three thousand shocks per day were recorded.

Waiting for the eruption

From the dangerous zone around the volcano, the authorities decided to evacuate 500 local residents, for fear of flooding the area, which could cause intensive melting of the glacier covering the volcano of Iceland Eyyafyatlayokudl. For the sake of precaution, the Keflavik International Airport was closed down.

Since March 19, concussions have moved to the east of the northern crater. They listened at a depth of 4 - 7 km. Gradually the activity spread further to the east, and concussions began to occur closer to the surface.

At 23:00 on April 13, scientists of Iceland recorded seismic activity in the central part of the volcano, to the west of the two formed cracks. An hour later a new eruption began in the south of the central caldera. A column of red-hot ash rose 8 km.

Another crack appeared, more than 2 kilometers long. The glacier began to melt actively, and its waters flowed both to the north and to the south, to populated areas. 700 people were urgently evacuated. Within a day the meltwater flooded the motorway, the first destruction occurred. In southern Iceland, precipitation of volcanic ash was recorded.

By April 16, the ash column reached 13 kilometers. This caused the alarm of scientists. When the ash rises to a height above 11 kilometers above sea level, it penetrates the stratosphere and can be carried over long distances. The spread of ash in the east was promoted by a powerful anticyclone over the north of the Atlantic.

The last eruption

This happened on March 20, 2010. On this day the last volcanic eruption in Iceland began. Eyyafyatlayokudl finally woke up at 23:30 GMT. In the east of the glacier a fault was formed, the length of which was about 500 meters.

At that time, no large ash emissions were recorded. April 14 eruption intensified. That's when powerful emissions of giant volumes of volcanic ash appeared. In this regard, the airspace over part of Europe was closed until April 20, 2010. Episodic flights were limited in May 2010. Specialists estimated the intensity of the eruption on the VEI scale of 4 points.

Dangerous ash

It should be noted that nothing outstanding in the behavior of the volcano Eyyafyatlayokudl was not. After seismic activity lasting several months, a fairly calm eruption of the volcano began in the glacier area on the night of March 20-21 . This is not even mentioned in the press. Everything changed only on the night of April 13 to April 14, when the eruption was accompanied by the release of a huge volume of volcanic ash, and its pole reached a huge height.

What caused the air traffic collapse?

It is worth recalling that from March 20, 2010, the air transport collapse collapsed over the Old World. It was connected with a volcanic cloud, which was created by the suddenly awakened volcano Eyyafyatlayokudl. Where this mountain, which was silent since the XIX century, gained strength, it is not known, but gradually a huge cloud of ash that began to form since April 14 covered Europe.

After the airspace was closed, more than three hundred airports were paralyzed all over Europe. Many volcanic ash was also brought to Russian specialists. In our country hundreds of flights were detained or completely abolished. Thousands of people, including Russians, expected improved conditions at airports around the world.

A cloud of volcanic ash seemed to play with people, changing the direction of the movement daily and completely "did not listen" to the opinions of experts who calmed the desperate people by the fact that the eruption will not last long.

Geophysics of the meteorological service of Iceland on April 18, told RIA Novosti that they are not able to predict the duration of the eruption. Mankind prepared for a protracted "battle" with the volcano and began to calculate considerable losses.

Strangely enough, but for Iceland itself, the awakening of Eyjafjallajokull volcano did not have any serious consequences, except, perhaps, the evacuation of the population and the temporary closure of one airport.

And for continental Europe, a huge column of volcanic ash has become a real catastrophe, naturally, in the transport aspect. This was due to the fact that volcanic ash has such physical properties, which are extremely dangerous for aviation. If it hits the turbine of an airplane, it can stop the engine, which will undoubtedly lead to a terrible catastrophe.

The risk for aviation is several times higher because of the large accumulation of volcanic ash in the air, which significantly reduces visibility. This is especially dangerous when approaching. Volcanic ash can cause disruptions in the operation of on-board electronics and radio equipment, on which flight safety largely depends.

Losses

Eyjafjallajökull volcano eruption brought losses to European travel companies. They claim that their losses exceeded 2.3 billion dollars, and the damage that hit their pockets daily was about $ 400 million

Losses of airlines were officially estimated at $ 1.7 billion. The awakening of the fiery mountain touched 29% of the world aviation. Every day, more than a million passengers became hostages of the eruption.

Affected and Russian Aeroflot. During the closure of overhead lines over Europe, the company did not complete a 362 flight in time. The losses were estimated at millions of dollars.

Opinions of specialists

Experts argue that the volcanic cloud is indeed a serious danger to aircraft. When you hit it, the crew notes very poor visibility. On-board electronics works with large interruptions.

Formed glass-like "shirts" on the rotor blades of the engine, clogging holes that are used to supply air to the engine and other parts of the aircraft, can cause their failure. The captains of air ships also agree with this.

Katla Volcano

After the extinction of the Eyjafjallajokull volcano, many scientists predicted an even more powerful eruption of another Icelandic fire mountain, Katla. It is much larger and more powerful than Eyyafyatlayokudl.

The last two millennia, when a man watched the eruptions of Eyyafyatlayokudl, Katla exploded with them at intervals of six months.

These volcanoes are located in the south of Iceland, at a distance of eighteen kilometers from each other. They are connected by a common underground system of magma channels. The Cutla Crater is located under the glacier Mirdalsyekudl. Its area is 700 square meters. Km, thickness - 500 meters. Scientists are sure that when it erupts into the atmosphere, the ash will fall tens of times more than in 2010. But fortunately, despite the menacing forecasts of scientists, Katla does not yet show signs of life.