hazardous earth 2 - eyjafjallajokull

Question 1

physical and human setting of iceland

Answer 1

physical: divergent plate boundary, fissure eruption and caldera, glacier present, non viscous (basaltic (48%)), over 500 years volcanoes in iceland have produced 1/3 of world lava output. VEI - 4.

Human: HDI - 0.921 - ranked 9, GDP is $42,400, population density: 3.39 people per sqkm, 99% literacy rate, pop = 300,000, 73% in services, 20% industry, 6% in agriculture.

Question 2

why live in iceland?

Answer 2

• tourism: iceland known as land of fire and ice, provides jobs.
• geothermal enerygy: provides 26% of icelands electricity and 90% of its hot water. Heats greenhouses to grow crops
• agriculture: livestock farming on plains, volcanic ash provides fertile soils.
• emotional attachment and culture: many have lived in foothills of E15 for generations.
• trust in government: respond well to natural disasters.

Question 3

hazards created

Answer 3

• thick layers of ash upon farm pastures, river levels rose causing flooding, roads blocked.
• severely disrupted air travel due to 4 factors: 1 - volcanoe was unerneath polar jet stream. 2 - explosive pwoer of the volcano - ash went 5 miles high, 3 - ash sent over NW europe via jet stream. 4 - eruption took place under 200 m of glacial ice - melt water heated by magma causing vast evaporation and making it viscous.

Question 4

impacts of eruption

Answer 4

social: new tourist centre created: 300,000 a year. 400,000 brits unable to return to work, roads and bridges closed
economic: flowers and veg rotted in Kenya costing millions, boosted tourism - biggest industry in iceland, 1.7m tourists a year: 6x that of pop, known as land of fire and ice.
political: government praised for actions, managed the events well, international cooperation toi manage ash cloud.
environmental: ash covered grass = fertile soils, global warming may increase ice melting so more frequent violent eruptions.

Question 5

mitigating the vulnerability

Answer 5

strengths:
-iceland has frequent eruptions so good hazard management: E15 managed by reykjavik institute.
-80 seismometres and 120 GPS showed shallow earthquake swarms 5 months before.
- GPS showed ground deformation in Feb 2010 - ground rose 8cm.
- 800 people evacuated overnight and local people given face masks.
- animals put inside in barns so didnt eat grass with ash containing flourine.

no limitations to mitigating the vulnerability.

Question 6

mitigating losses short term

Answer 6

strengths:
- reservoir creates near town of Vik to hold back meltwater from jokul haups.
-breaches made in south orbital road to limit damage to bridge, some roads closed in case of floods.
- met office maintained contact with iceland and produced forecast models of ash cloud to predict where it would affect.
- flights banner in NW airspace.
-community spirit to help out.

limitations:
- sporadic disruption to flights for 6 days due to 6 day flight ban, cost airlines £2.5 billion. Wider impact on Kenya, flowers and veg rotted due to no exporting flights.