The What's New Archive

April 2010

19 April

11:00 - Volcanic eruption in Iceland
Since I've gotten several e-mails from worried people around the world I need to explain this a bit. The eruption at Eyjafjallajokull glacier, causing the biggest disruption of air travel in European history, has largely spared the local population and our communications. Areas in the immediate area are drowning in ash and mud but major population areas have not been affected due to Western- and Northernly winds.

The current eruption could go on for many months but the main worry is that her much more powerful neighbor volcano Katla will almost certainly erupt soon (within a year or so, or tomorrow, ...). If Katla goes like in 1918 it will be 50-100 times bigger than the current eruption, which is spewing out 750 tons of ash a second! So in short, we are doing fine (apart from people right next to the volcano who are suffering, but no casualties due to excellent disaster plan) as of now but let's see what the immediate future brings. Gudmundur

In addition to the items shown here above we made some 713 additions or changes in our databases during April 2010.