
Four of Iceland’s main volcanoes are preparing for eruption - Jerry2
http://icelandmonitor.mbl.is/news/nature_and_travel/2017/02/07/four_of_iceland_s_main_volcanoes_all_preparing_for_/
======
peterhartree
I live in Reykjavík. I was lucky enough to have a friend with a plane when
Bárðarbunga erupted in 2014.

Photos:
[https://www.flickr.com/photos/41812768@N07/albums/7215764724...](https://www.flickr.com/photos/41812768@N07/albums/72157647247278902)

If you're planning a visit to Iceland I'm happy to answer questions here or by
email.

~~~
SideburnsOfDoom
Isn't it dangerous to fly over erupting volcanos? A lot of flights were
grounded last time due to concerns about ash in the engines.

And at that range, there might be a risk of fumes affecting the people?

~~~
pgeorgi
The problem with ash is due to how jet engines work: they push air through
them, which is heated up significantly. The ash melts and becomes glass which
can damage the engine.

The machine they flew in is a Piper PA-28-181 (Archer II), which looks like
this: [http://iowaflighttraining.com/wp-
content/uploads/2015/11/Arc...](http://iowaflighttraining.com/wp-
content/uploads/2015/11/ArcherII-Copy.jpg)

Ash still isn't a great medium to fly in, but at least they won't fly through
(a high density of) glass particles.

~~~
xg15
So... any chances of a market on propeller-driven airliners opening up?

------
Isamu
>Katla is Iceland's most dangerous volcano and is located underneath the
Mýrdalsjökull ice cap.

Had to look this up:

>Katla is a large volcano in southern Iceland. It is very active; twenty
eruptions have been documented between 930 and 1918, at intervals of 13–95
years. It has not erupted violently for 99 years, although there may have been
small eruptions that did not break the ice cover, including ones in 1955,
1999, and 2011.

Small eruptions that did not break the ice cover?

~~~
throwaway5752
The glacier covering it is a quarter to a half a mile thick.

~~~
kijin
A half-mile ice cap means that the ice has accumulated at a rate of 8 meters
per year since the last major eruption 99 years ago. That's equivalent to
several dozen meters of snowfall per year.

I wonder if the caldera really gets that much snow, or if the last few
eruptions were too small to melt all the ice in the caldera.

~~~
SideburnsOfDoom
I would assume that since a caldera is usually shaped like a cup, there is
some flow towards the center where it's deeper. I.e. like with water flowing
into a lake, the glacier has a catchment area.

~~~
throwaway5752
I think both of you are correct. Just dumping links for the record:

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M%C3%BDrdalsj%C3%B6kull](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M%C3%BDrdalsj%C3%B6kull)
is the glacier. "Mýrdalsjökull is an exceedingly wet location, with models
suggesting it receives more than 10 metres of precipitation annually"

Here is 30 yr avg annual precipitation (1970-2000) from the Icelandic
Meteorological Office
[http://www.vedur.is/vedur/vedurfar/kort/medalurkoma_a/](http://www.vedur.is/vedur/vedurfar/kort/medalurkoma_a/)
(Katla is under the deep blue southernmost area).

The caldera has pronounce subsidence, as seen at
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katla_(volcano)#/media/File:Ey...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katla_\(volcano\)#/media/File:Eyjafjallaj%C3%B6kull_en_Katla.png)

For a bonus, about halfway down this has a picture of the glacier after a
minor eruption:
[https://volcano.si.edu/volcano.cfm?vn=372030](https://volcano.si.edu/volcano.cfm?vn=372030)

~~~
SideburnsOfDoom
From being in Iceland for a few days, it appears to be an "exceedingly wet
location" in general. Magnificent waterfalls are one effect.

------
jboggan
I'm headed there Thursday, here's hoping it can hold off a few more days.

On a related note, is WOW Air actually running flights below cost in some sort
of promotion for Icelandic tourism? I know a lot of people in my social circle
in LA who have all independently booked trips there solely because of the
ridiculously cheap direct flights.

I wonder if fermented shark tastes good with poisonous ash.

~~~
arianvanp
Please refrain from eating shark, puffin or whales. The only reason why we are
still killing endangered species is solely tourism. The local population does
not eat them. Please try lamb soup instead. Or one of the amazing Iceland
hotdogs.

OT:

Both WOW air and Icelandair promote iceland as a great "stop" on your way to
eurotrip. A lot of people I met there in the rykjavik hostel were people who
were just staying in iceland for 4 days to tour around quickly and then fly
further to amsterdam. Apparently there is some promotion that there is no
additional cost to stay in iceland a few days if you book a trip to europe
through them.

If you're there on a budget, I highly suggest hitch hiking. It's one of the
last european countries where you can really properly do this. Longest i
waited for a hitch was 3 hours in the rain in a mountain range. But I think
the mean waiting time has been 15 minutes.

There is only one main road, so you cannot really go into a wrong direction,
just keep going right and you end up going all around the island back to
rykjavik. I did it clock-wise, whilst most tourists did it counter-clockwise I
think. The upside was that we mostly hitched rides from locals and we really
got to know the country and its people this way.

It took me 20 days (with no rush) to cruise around the entire island this way.
Must admit, we spent most of our time in the myvatn area, as it's just
beatiful. The landscape changes every 20 metres and it's just gorgeous.

~~~
Sir_Substance
>Please refrain from eating shark, puffin or whales. The only reason why we
are still killing endangered species is solely tourism. The local population
does not eat them. Please try lamb soup instead. Or one of the amazing Iceland
hotdogs.

I feel compelled to point out that none of the species are endangered[1][2][3]
and that the hot dogs are honestly not that amazing[4].

[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minke_whale](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minke_whale)
[2]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlantic_puffin](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlantic_puffin)
[3]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greenland_shark](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greenland_shark)
[4] Citation needed

~~~
arianvanp
Endangered is indeed the wrong word I guess. What i was trying to convey is
that the only reason to whaling seems to be tourism[1], and if you think
whaling is a bad thing (which I think it is, as it is pretty cruel), you as a
tourist can have a direct effect on this economy by refraining from
participating, and going on a whale sightseeing tour instead

Also, must admit, I have had some really horrible hot dogs as well in random
gas station ;)

[1] [http://us.whales.org/campaigns/visiting-iceland-help-us-
keep...](http://us.whales.org/campaigns/visiting-iceland-help-us-keep-whales-
off-dinner-menu)

~~~
Sir_Substance
>What i was trying to convey is that the only reason to whaling seems to be
tourism[1], and if you think whaling is a bad thing (which I think it is, as
it is pretty cruel), you as a tourist can have a direct effect on this economy
by refraining from participating

That's a totally reasonable and very fair standpoint, but I want to be super
clear on this: That argument has nothing to do with the conservation status of
the species. You meant well, but you lied.

It's hard to talk about things like rational people if everyone is running
around lying. Being passionate about something isn't an excuse for lies. It
muddies the waters. Neither side is helped by lies, all lies do is entangle
the discussion so that no progress can be made.

Also, you can't buy good sausages in this country. They're all pork, no one
makes an honest aussie beef snag on the whole island. How can you make good
hotdogs without good snags? :(

~~~
arianvanp
I wanted to update my comment to readjust it to reword the part your
criticised. but I cannot anymore sadly enough. Is there some kind of timeout
period after which you cannot edit it anymore?

~~~
Sir_Substance
Yeah, there is. I'm not 100% sure how long, it might be like 30 minutes?

edit: apparently it's at least 54 minutes

------
juandazapata
If any of needs a place to stay, my home in Colombia is honored to have some
guests.

------
johansch
Great.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_travel_disruption_after_th...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_travel_disruption_after_the_2010_Eyjafjallaj%C3%B6kull_eruption)

~~~
emodendroket
It seems plausible to me that there could be much worse consequences than an
air travel disruption if four volcanoes all have big eruptions.

~~~
johansch
Yeah, serious health consequences for people globally.

In 1783 Laki erupted:

[http://www.economist.com/node/10311405](http://www.economist.com/node/10311405)

"Japan suffered one of the three worst famines in its history in 1783-86, when
exceptional cold destroyed the rice harvest and as many as 1m people died.
Special crews had to be hired to clear the roads of the dead. In Japan this
famine is usually attributed to another volcanic eruption, that of Mount
Asama, but its impact was small compared with Laki's."

------
abraves10001
Well, that had significantly less information than I was hoping for.

~~~
tomhoward
I'm not usually much impressed by content on IFL Science, but their post about
this topic seems quite good:

[http://www.iflscience.com/environment/four-icelands-
volcanoe...](http://www.iflscience.com/environment/four-icelands-volcanoes-
priming-erupt/all/)

------
ironic_ali
How much CO2 could these pump out?

~~~
edmccard
>How much CO2 could these pump out?

There are around 60-80 volcanic eruptions per year; for a total of about 300
million tons of CO2; so all four together, even if they produce twice as much
as an average eruption, would account for about only 3.5 million tons. (Human-
produced CO2 is estimated at between 20 to 30 _billion_ tons per year)

~~~
ironic_ali
Wow, humans...

------
solidr53
Now its just waiting for the foreigners to try pronounce them.

~~~
bwilli123
[http://en.vedur.is/earthquakes-and-volcanism/volcanic-
erupti...](http://en.vedur.is/earthquakes-and-volcanism/volcanic-eruptions/)

------
runeks
So, how good are we at actually predicting when these things will erupt?

------
staticautomatic
I love that there's an Air Iceland ad on that page. Placement fail.

------
dfischer
Hmm. Heading there Tuesday for Sonar. Hope it'll be safe.

------
interfixus
Tangential, but: That was a rare example of advertising done right. The top
banner, from Air Iceland, is served inline as it should be, not from some
sleazy external ad-provider.

And here's the thing: It works. Made it past my uMatrix and various other
filtering. And thus became probably the first internet ad for twenty years
which I have knowingly clicked. Could the rest of the world please look and
learn?

[Edit: typo]

~~~
vacri
Did you click because you actually wanted a Northern Lights holiday, or
because it was novel? If the latter, then your traffic was pointless - if you
weren't thinking of buying, then they won't be interested in your visit.

~~~
interfixus
I clicked out of interest, yes. But of course they should be interested, no
matter what. 'Conversion rate', I believe it's called.

~~~
vacri
Conversion rate for the entity paying for the ad is number of purchases
against number of visits. A low conversion rate indicates a bad marketing
activity.

------
c-smile
Oh, please no!

The world will die trying to pronounce another Eyjafjallajökull name.

~~~
sehr
[https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=hSo_ND41-6g](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=hSo_ND41-6g)

It's easier than you think!

