E15 Case Study Flashcards
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
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
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
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
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
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
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