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Volcano erupts in Iceland, hundreds evacuated

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N

NotWii

Banned
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REYKJAVIK, Iceland – Authorities evacuated hundreds of people after a volcano erupted beside a glacier in southern Iceland, Iceland's civil protection agency said Sunday, but there were no immediate reports of damage or injuries.

The eruption occurred around 11:30 p.m. Saturday (7:30 p.m. EDT) beside the Eyjafjallajokull glacier, the fifth largest in Iceland. Authorities initially said the eruption was below the glacier, triggering fears that it could lead to flooding from glacier melt, but scientists conducting an aerial survey in daylight located the eruption and said it did not occur below ice.

"The eruption is a small one," said Agust Gunnar Gylfason, a risk analyst at the Civil Protection Department.

"An eruption in and close to this glacier can be dangerous due to possible flooding if the fissure forms under the glacier," he said. "That is why we initiated our disaster response plan."

Scientists can see lava flows in the half-mile (1-kilometer) long fissure, and authorities are watching for further activity.

Authorities evacuated some 450 people in the area 160 kilometers (100 miles) southeast of the capital, Reykjavik, as a precaution, said Vidir Reynisson, the department manager for the Icelandic Civil Protection Department.

A state of emergency has been declared in communities near the 100-square-mile (259-square-kilometer) glacier, and three Red Cross centers were set up for evacuees in the village of Hella.

The Icelandic Civil Aviation Administration has ordered aircraft to stay 120 nautical miles away from the volcano area, essentially closing it off.

Three Icelandair flights from the U.S. — departing from Seattle; Boston; and Orlando, Florida — bound for Keflavik airport in Reykjavik were turned back to Boston, leaving about 500 people waiting, the airline said.

The flights were scheduled to depart for Iceland at 11:00 a.m. EDT (1500 GMT) and arrive four and a half hours later, the airline said in a statement.

Flights to Stockholm, London, Amsterdam and Frankfurt were scheduled for 11:00 a.m. local time, but a flight to Oslo has been cancelled and passengers were being rerouted. The airline expected further delays throughout the day.

All domestic flights were also canceled until further notice, the Icelandic National Broadcasting Service reported.

A European volcanic island in the North Atlantic, Iceland is largely an arctic desert with mountains, glaciers and volcanoes and agricultural areas in the lowlands close to the coastline.

The last time the volcano erupted was in the 1820s.
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Video
http://www.aftenposten.no/nyheter/uriks/article3574252.ece

Damn you global warming!
 
H

How About No

Member
If your home was being evacuated due to a volcano, and the lava destroyed everything, would you still be in awe at how cool it looks?
 
D

DeadGzuz

Banned
The island sits astride the boundary between the Eurasian and North American Plates, and most volcanic activity is concentrated along the plate boundary, which runs across the island from the south-west to the north-east of the island. Some volcanic activity occurs offshore, especially off the southern coast. This includes wholly submerged submarine volcanoes and even newly formed volcanic islands such as Surtsey and Jólnir.
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volcanism_of_Iceland

No surprise really.
 
M

Mr. Luchador

Member
I've just got images of the Queen sitting on her thrown, cackling like a loon as she looks over a globe.

"Won't pay back our money, Iceland... than you shall have FIRE!"
 
N

NotWii

Banned
NEW UPDATE - POTENTIAL GLOBAL IMPACT

iceland1_699664a.jpg


Iceland prepares for second, more devastating volcanic eruption

Iceland is preparing for an even more powerful and potentially destructive volcano after a small eruption at the weekend shot red-hot molten lava high into the sky.

About 500 people were safely evacuated from the land close to the Eyjafjallajokull volcano, which is around 120 kilometres (75 miles) southeast of the capital, Reykjavik. The country's two airports were closed for most of the day and transatlantic flights re-routed to avoid the risk of ash blocking visibility and destroying engines.

After circling the spectacular eruption in a Civil Defence aircraft, Freymodur Sigmundsson, a geophysicist, concluded that the immediate danger was receding and that the lava was flowing along a one kilometre-long fissure.

The original fear was that the volcano had erupted directly underneath the Eyjafjallajokull glacier, which could have caused glacial melt, flooding and mudslides. Instead, the volcano blew inbetween Eyjafjallajokull and the larger Myrdalsjoekull glacier.

However, the danger is that the small volcano is just the beginning and that it will trigger the far more powerful volcano of Katla, which nestles beneath Myrdalsjoekull.

“That has to be on the table at the moment," Dave McGarvie, senior lecturer at the Volcano Dynamics Group of the Open University, said. “And it is a much nastier piece of work.”

Icelanders agree. "This could trigger Katla, which is a vicious volcano that could cause both local and global damage," Pall Einarsson, from the University of Iceland, said.

Tremors around Eyjafjallajokull were first recorded in early March, but precise prediction of volcanic eruption is difficult, even with the high-tech equipment available to Icelandic geologists.

Now that it has happened the only basis for prediction is history — and that does not look good.

"Eyjafjallajokull has blown three times in the past thousand years," Dr McGarvie told The Times, "in 920AD, in 1612 and between 1821 and 1823. Each time it set off Katla." The likelihood of Katla blowing could become clear "in a few weeks or a few months", he said.

Iceland is built on a volcanic rock on the Atlantic's mid-oceanic ridge and it has grown used to eruptions. The southern village of Vik, close to the current eruption, has for centuries had an escape plan in which everybody runs up to the church, which is built on high ground. They know that if Katla erupts flooding will follow.

The island's worst eruption in modern times was in 1783, when the Laki volcano blew its top. The lava shot to heights of 1.4 kilometres and more than 120 million tonnes of sulphur dioxide was released into the atmosphere.

A quarter of the island's population died in the resulting famine and it transformed the world, creating Britain's notorious "sand summer", casting a toxic cloud over Prague, playing havoc with harvests in France — sometimes seen as a contributory factor in the French Revolution — and changing the climate so dramatically that New Jersey recorded its largest snowfall and Egypt one of its most enduring droughts.
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http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article7070239.ece

DOOOOOOOOOOOOM!

DOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!

DOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!
 
J

Jal

Member
Wii said:
NEW UPDATE - POTENTIAL GLOBAL IMPACT

DOOOOOOOOOOOOM!

DOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!

DOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laki

"It has been estimated that 23,000 British people died from the poisoning"

Shit is about to hit the fan, im keeping my windows closed.
 
Thaedolus

Thaedolus

Gold Member
Wii said:
DOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM

DOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1111111111111111111111111
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They're doing their job by reporting potential consequences and long-term impacts. You, on the other hand, might simply look pretty dumb in the coming months.
 
N

NotWii

Banned
Thaedolus said:
They're doing their job by reporting potential consequences and long-term impacts. You, on the other hand, might simply look pretty dumb in the coming months.
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Don't try and second guess my intentions :lol
 
D

Dizzan

MINI Member
Crunchie Lunchie said:
D: Not good. To light your moods, I was reading this peace of news on MSN (as you do) and found this chaps delightfully written comments.
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oh the irony
 
M

mrklaw

MrArseFace
my famiies flight back from japan just got bumped. All outbound flights from the UK are grounded, all Scottish airports closed :/
 
J

jamieson87

Member
My work will be hell today. I work for an international courier company in Edinburgh. Our inbound flight from continental Europe has been cancelled. All consignments 24 hour delayed.
 
U

UFRA

Member
Crunchie Lunchie said:
D: Not good. To light your moods, I was reading this peace of news on MSN (as you do) and found this chaps delightfully written comments.

omglol.png
Click to expand...


:lol :lol :lol
 
G

GasProblem

Member
My Amsterdam-New York flight departs at 17:35, I really hope it isn't going to be canceled. I'm expacting a delay at least, because flight to the US have to take a detour now. Sigh, stupid volcano, can't you just spew out pwetty lava without the nasty ash clouds? :mad:
 
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