Eyjafjallajokull why did it happen

Today the aftermath of the volcanic eruption can be seen in Thorsmork Glacier Valley, the natural oasis that lies just behind the volcano. You can also see a part of the ice cap is still covered in ash, though that is slowly disappearing under layers of snow. Perhaps you would like to go on a snowmobile tour on the ice cap and see the crater, which also offers you a great view of southern part of Iceland. Eyjafjallajokull is a strato volcano. It is a conical volcano built by many layers of hardened lava, tephra, pumice and volcanic ash.

Strata volcanoes are among the most common volcanoes. Due to the glacier on top of Eyjafjallajokull eruptions are explosive and contain much ash. A large magma chamber under the mountain feeds Eyjafjallajokull. The chamber derives magma from the tectonic divergence of the Mid-Atlantic ridge.

The volcano is a part of the chain of volcanoes that stretch across Iceland , including volcanoes like Hekla , Katla and Grimsvotn. Eyjafjallajokull and Katla , neighbouring volcanoes, are believed to be related. Eruptions of Eyjafjallajokull have usually been followed by eruptions of the volcanoe Katla , which is a far larger and more powerful volcano than Eyjafjallajokull. Not far from Eyjafjallajokull volcano is a very nice museum dedicated to the volcanoes in Iceland, called Lava center.

You can find it in Hvolsvollur village. Eyjafjallajokull and neighbouring Myrdalsjokull dominate the landscape in South-Iceland and can be seen miles away. We recommend that you make a stop at viewpoints and admire the volcanoes from afar. The ash cloud brought European airspace to a standstill during the latter half of April , and cost billions of euros in delays.

The price of shares in major airlines dropped between 2. However, it should be noted that on the trade front, both imports and exports are being impacted across countries in Europe, so the net trade position was not affected markedly overall. Secondary effects: Sporting events were cancelled or affected due to cancelled flights. Fresh food imports stopped, and industries were affected by a lack of imported raw materials.

Local water supplies were contaminated with fluoride. Flooding was caused as the glacier melted. International Effects: The impact was felt as far afield as Kenya, where farmers have laid off workers after flowers and vegetables were left rotting at airports.

You can read more about this on the Guardian website. Despite the problems caused by the eruption of Eyjafjallajokull, the eruption brought several benefits.

The grounding of European flights prevented the emission of some 2. As passengers looked for other ways to travel than flying, many different transport companies were able to benefit. There was a huge increase in passenger numbers on Eurostar. It saw an increase of nearly a third, with 50, extra passengers travelling on their trains. Following the negative publicity of the eruption, the Icelandic government launched a campaign to promote tourism.

Inspired by Iceland was launched with the strategic intent of depicting the beauty of the country, the friendliness of its people and the fact that it was very much open for business. Tourist numbers increased significantly following the campaign, as shown in the graph below.

Routes of several FAF aircraft figure 15 suggest that the flight distances were on the order of a few hundred kilometers. The Flightglobal website reported the FAF released images showing the effects of volcanic dust ingestion from inside the engines of a jet fighter that flew through the ash cloud on the morning of 15 April. One aircraft engine showed melted ash clearly visible on an interior surface.

Another jet trainer flew through the plume carrying an air sampling pod to collect dust from the atmosphere at various altitudes, however the measurements have yet to be reported. Einarsson, P. This compilation of synonyms and subsidiary features may not be comprehensive.

Synonyms of features appear indented below the primary name. In some cases additional feature type, elevation, or location details are provided. It consists of an elongated ice-covered stratovolcano with a 2.

Fissure-fed lava flows occur on both the E and W flanks, but are more prominent on the western side. Although the volcano has erupted during historical time, it has been less active than other volcanoes of Iceland's eastern volcanic zone, and relatively few Holocene lava flows are known.

An intrusion beneath the S flank from July-December was accompanied by increased seismic activity. The last historical activity prior to an eruption in produced intermediate-to-silicic tephra from the central caldera during December to January The following references have all been used during the compilation of data for this volcano, it is not a comprehensive bibliography.

Volcanic hazards in Iceland. Jokull , Post-Miocene Volcanoes of the World. Jakobsson S P, Petrology of recent basalts of the eastern volcanic zone, Iceland.

Acta Nat Islandica , Johannesson H, The endless lavas at the foot of Eyjafjoll and glaciers of the last glaciation. Jokull , in Icelandic with English summary. Geological map of Iceland, sheet 6, south Iceland.

Oskarsson B V, Unpublished Master's thesis , Univ Iceland, p. Pedersen R, Sigmundsson F, Temporal development of the intrusive episode in the Eyjafjallajokull volcano, Iceland, derived from InSAR images. Bull Volcanol , Steinthorsson S, et al. Catalog of Active Volcanoes of the World - Iceland.

Unpublished manuscript. May summit eruption, indicating gradual deflation of a source distinct from the pre-eruptive inflation source. Black orthogonal arrows show the satellite flight path and look direction.

One colour fringe corresponds to line-of-sight LOS change of Black dots show earthquake epicentres for the corresponding period. Background is shaded topography.

Thick lines below indicate the time span of the interferograms. Red stars and triangles same as in Fig. Hooper, T. Pedersen, M. Roberts, N. Oskarsson, A. Auriac, J. Decriem, P. Einarsson, H. Geirsson, M. Hensch, B. Ofeigsson, E.

Sturkell, H. Feigl, Nature , , Remarks: GPS and InSAR data reveal a pre-eruptive stage of inflation due to a complicated time-evolving magma intrusion that produced variable and high rates of deformation, in particular after 4 March. One of the nine interferograms selected for modeling the intrusive episode.

Incoherent areas are masked. Amplitude image in background. The area corresponds to Fig. The time span insets show the relation to the period s of elevated seismic activity Dark gray main seismic period; Light gray secondary seismic period. For details on dates please refer to Table 2. One full color cycle corresponds to a change in range of 2.

Einarsson, F. Sigmundsson, S. Hreinsdottir, and H. Geophysical Research Letters , 30, Remarks: Deformation at Eyjafjallajokull is accompanied by an earthquake swarm in June and can be modeled with a horizontal sill intrusion.

All images cover the area shown in Figure 1B. Glacier outlined in black. Details on image-pairs in Table 1; f Fringe pattern predicted by variable opening sill model. Dashed line shows outline of uniform sill plane. Green star: optimal Mogi source. Grey circles: best micro-earthquake locations from the swarm; g Variable sill opening. The three minor areas of opening disconnected from the main sill are artifacts due to atmospheric noise in the data.

Sigmundsson,, Geophysical Research Letters , 31, L The maps shown below have been scanned from the GVP map archives and include the volcano on this page.

Clicking on the small images will load the full dpi map. Very small-scale maps such as world maps are not included. The maps database originated over 30 years ago, but was only recently updated and connected to our main database.

We welcome users to tell us if they see incorrect information or other problems with the maps; please use the Contact GVP link at the bottom of the page to send us email. Catalog number links will open a window with more information.

Figure Courtesy of USGS. Stars indicate eruptive sites map scale at top left. The map includes a small slice of the Atlantic ocean along the lower left-hand margin. Revised from a map by Sigmundsson and others The scene helps explain the high degree of water and ice interaction with the erupting lavas.

Snow had melted from numerous ash and lava-covered surfaces black areas. Although portions of the crater emitted steam, evidence of substantial ongoing lava emissions were absent at this point in time. Courtesy of Sigmundsson and others The left-hand graphic is a true-color RGB red-green-blue composite, and the right-hand image is a false-color composite of Bands 32, 31, and 29 12, 11, and 8.

These data were processed with the decorrelation stretch D-stretch , a technique for enhancing spectral contrast based on principal components analysis. In this rendition the ash plume appears red and the ice-rich clouds appear blue. The D-stretch was based on scene statistics and was intended to be a quick method for discriminating material that may be volcanic in origin. Courtesy of Vincent J. Marked arrows on the map give locations of labeled photos A-E taken 18 September A Fresh lava darker seen looking N.

In the distance appear fresh black lava flows, some portions of which formed the lava falls down the valley walls. B View showing the elongate ridge as seen from the upslope perspective people in the distance for scale.

This photo was taken with a flash, otherwise the fissure walls would have been very dark. D The fracture indicated on the map as it appeared near the rim of the ridge of newly erupted lava. E The same fracture seen in D from another perspective. Courtesy of John and Ludmilla Eichelberger. Information is preliminary and subject to change. Figure 1. Index map showing some eruptive centers is from Laursen Base map courtesy of IMO.

Figure 2. Starting on 14 April, eruptions took place at the summit caldera. Figure 3. The image shows both visible information and heat signatures from areas of anomalously high thermal infrared IR radiation for colored versions, yellow is hottest, red, cooler.

At the summit, the vent is clearly active, with a thermal signature and a dense white plume blowing SSE. Courtesy of Rob Simmon, the U. Figure 4. Inset photograph is of station SKOG. Courtesy of IES. Figure 5. Figure 6. Note N arrow and scale at lower left. Figure 7. Photo showing lava falls developed when lava flows encountered steep canyon walls, 1 April Figure 8. Table indicates cumulative areal extent of the deposits. Figure 9. Values shown are elevations and those in parentheses refer to the approximate net gain in elevation due to fresh deposits on the pre-eruption surface.

The glacial snow and ice had deformed and melted, forming circular depressions ice cauldrons in the icecap's surface. Flooding from the melting glacier had led to the various features on and below the glacier to the N and S illustrated by labels.

The data were acquired via aircraft by the Icelandic Coast Guard during on 15 April The glacier margin and surface contours came from a investigation. Compilation of graphic daily Volcanic Ash Advisories showing the assessed or inferred extent of ash plumes at UTC for 10 days, April Ash blew S as both a dense band and a much wider, less dense plume see text.

The N side of the crater was stained yellow with sulfides. Bluish fumes, sulfuric gases, blew S and SW. Courtesy of Gunnar B. Europe experienced air travel chaos for almost one month as much of the continent ground to a standstill.

The ice-capped volcano started to erupt in mid-March, following several months of increased seismic activity in Iceland. The first eruptions were isolated on the North-East flank, but problems started to arise in April when the eruptions spread to the centre of the volcano, a three kilometer-wide crater surrounded by ice. As the ice started to melt, glacial water began flooding into the volcano where it met the bubbling magma at the centre of the eruptions.

This rapid cooling caused the magma to shear into fine, jagged ash particles. Large plumes of volcanic ash quickly spread above the volcano, moving eastwards with the jetstream towards the Faroe Islands, Norway, and northern Scotland. Iceland responded by declaring a state of emergency and European airspace was closed as a safety precaution.

In order to reopen air space and reduce the economic impacts and disruption to travellers, the National Centre for Atmospheric Science was called in to map the volcanic plume.