E15 Case Study Flashcards

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1
Q

Why it erupted and location

A
  • Iceland on Mid Atlantic Ridge
  • Constructive plate boundary
  • N American Plate moving West, Eurasian Plate moving East
  • Iceland is also situated on a hotspot
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2
Q

What happened

A
  • Erupted during April - May 2010, VEI score of 4
  • April 14th eruption occurred 250m under ice of glacier. created meltwater surge. Water entered caldera caused ash to be released 10 km high
  • April 15th a north westerly wind blew ash over to UK, Scandinavia and Europe
  • Late April - May 2nd: Ash cloud dropped to 2 km, main feature was out pouring of lava and not the ash
  • May 4th - 17th : Ash problems returned and airports in UK, Spain, Ireland etc. were closed
  • May 20th onwards: Lowered seismic activity, only some steam –> then returned to dormancy
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3
Q

Imp Social

A
  • Cattle taken in to escape ash
  • Fluoride from volcano could cause internal hemorrhaging
  • Due to meltwater floods occurred
  • 700,000 people had to be evacuated
  • Global air travel was paralysed as many European airports closed
  • People stuck in different parts of world unable to get to family, teachers stuck abroad
  • Organs weren’t able to get transported by air for transplants
  • One of Iceland’s main roads was breached to allow safe passage of water to sea
  • UK national trust allowed free entry to anyone holding an air ticket and passport –> bonds betw/ countries, kindness shown to other UK citizens abroad
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4
Q

Imp Economic

A
  • Local flooding, breach of main road etc.
  • Loss in millions of pounds per day for airline business
  • Channel and cross channel ferries had great business
  • 11.7% reduction in air passengers
  • UK lost $2.6 bn of GDP
  • Damage to planes bc ash made of 58% silica -> scratch windshield and melt in engines shutting them down
  • Shares of airline + travel industry fell
  • Trans - Atlantic flights cancelled on May 9th, all flights cancelled in Europe on some days
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5
Q

Imp Environmental

A
  • 2.8 million tonnes less CO2 emitted
  • Rock and glass mixture devastated ecosystems. Prevents photosynthesis in plants -> is toxic
  • Phytoplankton bloom of 15% in North Atlantic ocean bc ash provided dissolved iron
  • Glacier melted
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6
Q

Imp Political

A
  • Govt. personnel missing –> 400,000 Britons scattered worldwide
  • Barack Obama and Angela Merkel (German Chancellor) were unable to attend Polish president Lech Kazynski’s funeral
  • PM of Norway has to run country from New York
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7
Q

Response and future

A
  • No casualties and people were evacuated
  • Eu red cross mobilised 60 volunteers to offer food and shelter to people who had to flee and support esp. to kids who needed to flee flash floods
  • Iceland RC set up service centres for psychological support, insurance info, healthcare advice etc.
  • Netherlands RC set up 1500 beds in Amsterdam’s Schiphol airport for those whose flights were cancelled
  • 24 hr emergency information hotline set up
  • Mobile lidar system invented to test air quality from ground to check for structure of ash cloud and density to see if safe to fly
  • Investigations and monitoring of Katla bc the two eruptions have been linked in the past
  • experiments with sensors on planes that detect ash clouds using infrared radiation so they can be avoided instead of grounding all planes
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