Geophysicists Monitoring Hekla Volcano Closely
Hekla is making smoke and noise, again!
Geophysicists are currently monitoring seismic activity near Hekla volcano in southern Iceland in order to try to detect possible signals of an impending eruption. Magma appears to be moving beneath the volcano, and while this doesn’t necessarily signal an impending eruption, it could be a sign that Hekla volcano is preparing to release a little steam and ash into July skies. Hekla is actually one of Iceland’s most active volcanoes, erupting about every decade, but most recently in February 2000.
Airports to travel destinations around the United Kingdom and Europe will be watching the action surrounding events near Hekla volcano closely this week. Iceland’s volcanoes have a history of sending deadly ash into the air that has in the past grounded flights leaving and arriving in airports around the United Kingdom and Europe. In April 2010, ash plumes from Eyjafjallajokul volcano caused disruptions in air travel across the United Kingdom and Europe for days, grounding 10 million air travellers.
The recent eruption of Grimsvotn volcano was very intense according to geophysicists monitoring the volcano, blasting about 100 times more ash into the air per second than the total released by the Eyjafjallajokul volcano. This could mean the Grimsvotn volcano has actually spent the major portion of its energy and could subside quicker due to this fact. This particular eruption was in fact the most powerful eruption in Iceland during the past five decades, according to geophysicists, and measurements taken of the plume over the volcano indicate the volcanoes energy could be subsiding.
Meteorologists actually tracked the plume as it rose into the air above the Grimsvotn volcano to the height of about 10 to 15 kilometres following the eruption. Ash rising high into the stratosphere where commercial airliners cruise can damage windows and sensitive parts of an aircraft, like engines, which can cause an air pla5 655695tr 8tne to stall, according to the latest scientific information. These plumes of ash can then be carried on the winds across to the United Kingdom and Europe and even around the world, causing airports to close and air travellers to change their plans.
The natural colour satellite image below was taken by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) aboard the Terra satellite. It shows a towering ash plume above Grimsvotn volcano at 1pm local time. Clouds beneath the ash plume cover much of the area, you can see signs of lingering snow to the northeast and brown ash covers a part of the Vatnajokull Glacier near the Atlantic coast.
