Eyjafjallajokul Flashcards
Background
Iceland on mid-Atlantic ridge - constructive boundary
Volcano is located in south of island, under an ice cap
Relatively small composite volcano, with 2.5km-wide caldera
1666m
2010 eruption
2 months of violent eruptions which fired huge quantities of ash into the atmosphere
3-4 on VEI (out of 8)
230mil m^3 of tephra
Local impacts
Darkness
Worry of flooding as eruption melted glacier (entered river instead of hitting town)
Long grass stopped ash from being blown around
Nutrients from ash meant farmers had good yields
People had to wear face masks close to volcano as heavier ash particles fell
National impacts
230mil m^3 of tephra
Positives impact on tourism - 5x population in 1 year
SR negative impacts on tourism but over time, it led to far more people visiting island
Boats were washed away by floods - reconstruction was expensive
International impacts
European airspace disrupted
100,000 flights cancelled - 10mil passengers affected - losses of £80mil
Fresh food could not be imported
Lost jobs in Kenya due to produce not being able to be shipped to Europe
Flights stopping led to ↓ 2.8mil tonne in CO2
Human response
Flights were stopped
Monitoring allowed 800 people to be evacuated
Authorities pre-emptively removed parts of the road near the Markarfljót Bridge on the Icelandic Ring Road to create a controlled flood route, directing the glacial flooding away from more critical infrastructure
