About the Katla eruption

I‘ve seen lots of hype surrounding this subject.

Not all of what has been stated is true.

This thread's focus is to provide better facts.



www.csmonitor.com...

Katla has been known to follow Eyjafjallajökul. While its true that it has happened ,
it doesn‘t mean that it will happen right after this eruption stops.
Months and even years could pass before Katla erupts.
Records of older eruptions show that possibility clearly.

translate.google.com... 2Fkatla.html&sl=is&tl=en
(www.islandia.is/hamfarir/jardfraedilegt/eldgos/katla.html)

There should be plenty of time to prepare for the inevitable future eruptions.
Currently the eruption that is going on right now is fading.

It doesn‘t mean it has stopped ,it could change and erupt more later.
The fact remains that the glacier has melted enough so that the lava is coming through
lowering the strength of this volcano considerably.

Yes the Katla eruption will happen ,but we don‘t know when. Most likely in some months.

Usually it erupts every 80 to 100 years. It last erupted over 90 years ago.

While it is a much bigger volcano ,there‘s a chance it might not be much more catastrophic
than the current eruption has been. Every eruption is different from the last.

-Edit to fix url for translation-

[edit on 24/4/2010 by Mystic Technician]

There was a programme on UK tv last night talking about Yellowstone Park being the centre of a giant volcano. The scientists can measure the ground swelling up and falling back. Apparantly it is due to blow sometime soon and if it goes up we are all done for. Scary stuff.

Your right about the icelandic volcano activity dropping off

graphs here

I thought all this hype was over, i guess not. The volcano erupted and the reason people are still talking about it, is because it COULD of set off a chain reaction. Doomsayers are and were lining up. Anyways, good find, thanks for straightening the facts.

Katla last erupted in 1918, and humanity barely seemed to notice, what with all the man-made catastrophe going on at that time.

Yes, it's a bigger volcano but it's not a "supervolcano." It would be really irritating and economically troublesome for Europe, but beyond that I think we'll get over it.

Laki (a different volcano *not Katla* people seem to confuse the two) caused a lot more devastation when it erupted in the 18th century, because of the high fluorine content of the ash. Animals ate it and poisoned themselves and then humans ate the animals and poisoned themselves, and a thick volcanic fog covered parts of Europe sickening and eventually killing more people. This, however, unfolded over the course of about 8 or 9 months. It's not the kind of thing we can't get away from given modern monitoring, detection, and emergency management.

Speaking of, if you really want something to worry about Kamchatka's volcano monitoring system is scheduled to go completely offline May 1st if funding doesn't materialize...