Eyjafjallajökull eruption

• What was the number on VEI Scale, date and type of volcano of the Eyjafjallajokull Eruption?


  4 on VEI scale, 14th April 2010 and it was a stratovolcano
• What was the preparation for the Eyjafjallajokull eruption?

  -Reinforced embankments stopped flooding

  -500 people evacuated in March

  -Seismic metres GPS Antennas measured the volcanic activity so people were prepared
• Immediate responses of the Eyjafjallajokull eruption?


  Reinforced embankments stopped flooding

  Some embankments were broken down to allow water to move elsewhere to not break the M1 bridge

  The area around the volcano was evacuated.
• Primary impacts of the Eyjafjallajokull eruption?

  • Magma broke through crust in March 2010
  • April - gas and ash cloud erupted into the air

  5cm of ash -> good harvest as fertile

  200 million cubic metres of ash (tephra) erupted into the atmosphere

  170,000,000 cubic metres of lava

  Ash blocked the sun

  Homes and roads were damaged, services were disrupted, crops were destroyed by ash
• Long term responses of the Eyjafjallajokull eruption?

  • Built houses to make them strong as possible
  • Reinforced embankments stopped flooding
• Secondary Impacts of the Eyjafjallajokull eruption (opportunities)

  • Tourism increased - 1.7 million per year = 5 times the number of people who live there
  • Lava centre 150,000 per year £27 per adult, £64 per family. It is also the largest exhibition centre in Europe
  • 300,000 people have visited the volcano since the eruption
• Secondary Impacts of the Eyjafjallajokull eruption (negative)

  • Magma melted ice which caused flooding
  • Markarfljot river - the flood water went into here - caused by melted glaciers
  • During the eruption, a no-fly zone was imposed across much of Europe, meaning airlines lost around £130m per day.
  • The price of shares in major airlines dropped between 2.5 and 3.3% during the eruption.
  • overall, more than 95,000 flights were cancelled over 5 days
  • Local water supplies were contaminated with fluoride
• Geology of Eyjafjallajokull 


  Here, convection currents are driving apart the North American plate (moving West) and the Eurasian Plate (moving East) along a constructive or divergent plate boundary. The two plates move apart due to ridge push along the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. As the plates move apart, magma fills the magma chamber below Eyjafjallajokull—several magma chambers combined to produce a significant volume of magma below the volcano.