Iceland’s Mount Eyjafjallajökull’s eruption in 2010.
A volcanic eruption in Iceland could be imminent given that there have been over 500 earthquakes in the country over the last four days, as reported by The Independent. At least 40 mini earthquakes took place just North East of Mount Fagradalsfjall nearly two days back. The last one in the series took place in Iceland’s capital Reykjavik, measuring almost 4 magnitude on the Richter scale.
The Independent quoted the Met office as saying: “It’s quite normal for Reykjanes, there have been a series of quakes there in the past few years.”
Back in 2010, the gloomy ash cloud created by Mount Eyjafjallajökull’s eruption had caused severe hindrance to air travel across Europe for at least three months. As per a post on one volcano enthusiast site Volcanocafe, an expert has opined that ‘they have never seen such a large powerful intrusion at a Mid Oceanic Ridge at such a well instrumented place’.
The expert, Cark Rehnberg, was quoted by The Independent as saying: “We now know that the initial swarm rapidly transformed from tectonic earthquakes, via volcano-tectonic, to earthquakes consistent with moving magma in a surprisingly short timeframe. As such this is turning into a potential eruption, or a state of volcanic unrest.”
Usually, this kind of data would warrant experts to assume than an eruption could be several days or perhaps even weeks away. Rehnberg says that due to this high rate of magma ascent, close to five kilometres in four hours, a major eruption could well be a few hours away at best. He speculated that there might be a 50 per cent chance of an eruption, but the odds that it won’t erupt are increasing by the hour.
