Experts warn of new volcanic eruption in Iceland
It was a just a few months ago when a volcanic eruption caused the largest air shutdown in Europe since World War II, and with another eruption in Iceland imminent, experts are unable to specify whether or not this situation would repeat.
According to Gunnar Sigurdsson, a water measurement specialist at the Icelandic Meteorological Institute, the water levels in the river Gigja have almost tripled since the previous night. And this is due to the fact that an increase in thermal temperatures has caused the melting of an icy lake in the crater of the Grimsvoetn volcano as well as the Vatnajoekull glacier. This, in turn, has caused the crater to fill up to such an extent that it has spilled causing a river-run and which is one of the reasons why an eruption can easily occur.
A geophysicist who is with the Icelandic Meteorological Institute, Thorunn Skaftadottir, says that with the occurrence of a river-run, the pressure in the Grimsvoetn volcano could decrease thus causing an eruption from a volcano. However, she also adds that a volcanic eruption will not happen unless the volcano has collected enough magma.
The Meteorological Institute have registered strong seismic activity in the form of three moderate earthquakes ranging from 2.7 to 4.0 on the Richter scale, Sigurdsson also maintains that an eruption will not occur unless these water levels reach a maximum, and while also insinuating that it might take a couple of days to do so.
Since Iceland authorities do not know whether the volcano will spew out ash or lava, they are not sure of whether a disruption with air control will occur again, and similar in magnitude to the 100,000 flights and eight million passengers that were affected by the Eyjafjoell eruption that occurred a few months ago.
And while experts suggest that it will be an ash eruption, they are not so sure that it will be as strong as the Eyjafjoell eruption, and this means that it will not affect air travel as much as it did the last time around.