Eyjafjallajökull - EDC Volcanic Eruption Case Study

Location

• Europe; South of the Arctic Circle
• Divergent plate boundary; Eurasion and North American plates→Moving apart at 2-5cm per year
• Mid Atlantic Ridge runs through Iceland
• South East of Reykjavik

Key Facts

• 15th April 2010
• 2.5km wide caldera
• 2000m tall stratovolcano
• Began to erupt 20th March
• Fissure eruption resulted in lava flowing predominantly from the West
• Ash plume reached 11000m into the atmosphere; distributed by high velocity jet streams

Social

• 150m thick icecap melted, causing major flooding and rsulting in 700 people being evacuated
• 20 farms destroyed by flooding and ash plume
• >10 million stranded or unable to board flights
• Air travel prevented for 10 days
• 17,000 flights per day were cancelled
• Respiratory probelsm as ash settled; 25% of the ash was <10μm
• Destroyed part of Route 1; other roads bulldozed to divert flooding

Economic

• Government paid to dredge rivers and recover damage to homes from ash
• Fine grain ash posed a problem to airlines→Airlines lost $1.7 billion in revenues
• £102 million lost in tourism
• 50,000 farmers in Kenya lost jobs as they could not export goods

• Fine ash silted rivers, causing blockages
• Respiratory problems of livestock and flouride ingestion reduced agricultural production and caused food shortages
• Flash floods damaged land
• 30000 tonnes of CO2 input into the atmosphere per day, although this did not conribute to global anthroprogenic emissions

Short Term

• As the evacuation began in March, Icelandic government had time to prepare (e.g. exclusion zones and evacuation)
• Text warnings alerted Icelanders 30 minutes prior to the eruption
• Contingency plans (e.g. Tesco avoided being affected by the ash cloud by flying Kenyan produce to Spain then using road transport to recieve goods in the UK)
• High tech. equipment helped predict eruptions; Icelandic Meteorlogical Office measures earth movements around the volcano

Long Term

• Further research into the effects pf ash on aircrafts
• Reconstruction of roads and improved flood defenses
• Local emergancy services were trained