The Eyjafjallajökull volcanic eruption 2010

Eyjafjallajökull is a stratovolcano like Mt. Fuji in Japan and Mt. St.Helens in the US. Before the eruption started in 2010, a 80 km2 glacier covered the volcano.  The crater at the top of the volcano is 2,5 km in diameter. The type of lava erupted by the volcano is of various types from a very mafic lava forming ankaramite to very felsic lavas which form dacite from the intermediate series.

The historical eruptions of Eyjafjallajökull are probably two. Eyjafjallajökull erupted in 1612-1613 and it seems as if Katla erupted during the same year, but the evidence is however not conclusive. The later eruption began on the 19th of December 1821. That eruption lasted up to two years. Following this eruption volcanic activity in Katla began.

It is clear that there is a connection between the Eyjafjallajökull glacier and the Katla volcano. However we do not know exactly how that connection is as much is happening subsurface. However it is clear that after a volcanic eruption started in Eyjafjallajökull in year 2010 the risk is higher that something can happen in Katla. However when and how Katla will erupt no one knows with certainty and geoscientists will now monitor both volcanoes very carefully and follow the process of the Eyjafjallajökull volcanic eruption as they always do.

See the location of Eyjafjallajökul here on the Green Pages.

You can see all major volcanoes in Iceland hera on the Green Map undir „Volcano“.