Week 4 - Eyjafjallajökull Volcano, Iceland

Week 4 - Eyjafjallajökull Volcano, Iceland

In 2010, I was in the US Air Force as a meteorologist at our global headquarters in Nebraska. Part of our duties there were weather updates on the Armed Forces Network, space weather in cooperation with the Space Weather Prediction Center in Colorado, and volcano updates with other international organizations. When Eyjafjallajokul blew, it was quite a busy several days for us! The Air Force is naturally quite concerned with aviation, and while this eruption was relatively minor, it affected millions of passengers in twenty countries. The biggest threat to the airlines was the immense amount of smoke and ash in the air, which can potentially destroy engines if ingested. 

Eyjafjallajokull erupting in 2010

Eyjafjallajokull is on the southern edge of Iceland, covered entirely by an icecap and stands almost 5,500 feet. It is a stratovolcano, which is a composite of many layers of hardened lava, pumice, and tephra. Unlike shield volcanoes, Eyjafjallajokull has a steep profile because of the high viscosity of the lava. The lava is mostly felsic, consisting of basalt and andesite. Explosions are most common with Eyjafjallajokull, although fissures along its flank are also responsible for lava flow. The lava here comes from magma channels which originate from the divergence of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge.

Cross section

This volcano has been explosively erupting more frequently since the last glacial period, with significant eruptions in the 1820s. The first eruption expelled large amounts of fluoride into the air, at levels that could be potentially dangerous to animals and people. In 1823, another explosion shot ash high into the air, eventually blanketing much of Iceland, killing sheep and cattle. The next significant activity started in 2010, in which I tracked for our Atlantic assets. I think the most interesting fact about Eyjafjallajokull is that the neighboring volcano Katla erupts closely after Eyjafjallajokull does. Currently, volcanologists are monitoring cracks that have appeared on Katla.