Eyjafjallajokull eruption

• Background info


  - Located in Iceland on the North American plate (moving west) and Eurasian plate (moving easy)

  - Divergent plate boundary

  - On the Mid-atlantic ridge

  - Lots of volcanic activity

  - Early 2010 seismic activity detected in the area. Gave evidence that there is movement in the magma under the crust in the magma chamber

  - Real threat came from ash clouds as people was vulnerable from a further distance

  - Little risk as little people lived in the area

  - April 2010

  - Eruption was a 4 on the VEI
• Local impact


  - 20 farms were destroyed by flooding ash clouds

  - breathing mask were recommended to be worn outside

  - livestock has to remain indoors

  - Huge amount of ice melted causing lahars and 1000 people evacuated

  - 3 mm layer of ash was destroyed across the landscape

  - Ash contained fluoride which contaminated the waters which harmed humans and animals
• Worldwide impacts


  - Airline closures affected millions of people and affected the global economy

  - London lost estimated $102 million tourist income

  - shares in airline and tourism agencies dropped by 4%

  - overall 95000 flights got cancelled

  - Cost airlines $130 million per day that the air spaced closed

  - Many europeans counties were forced to shut down their air space.

  - Ash clouds poured into higher atmosphere and blown over to Europe

  - less fuels needed so 1.87 million barrels not used and caused a loss in money in the oil industry

  - Britain has fine anticyclone weather so the ash clouds was dispersed across the country
• Responses

  - High tech equipment used t predict further eruptions

  - Had warning systems with texts being sent with a 30 min warning

  - Iceland was very prepared for the eruption due to the forecasted activity detected

  - emergency services were well prepared.