E15 Case Study

Question 1

Why it erupted and location

Answer 1

• Iceland on Mid Atlantic Ridge
• Constructive plate boundary
• N American Plate moving West, Eurasian Plate moving East
• Iceland is also situated on a hotspot

Question 2

What happened

Answer 2

• Erupted during April - May 2010, VEI score of 4
• April 14th eruption occurred 250m under ice of glacier. created meltwater surge. Water entered caldera caused ash to be released 10 km high
• April 15th a north westerly wind blew ash over to UK, Scandinavia and Europe
• Late April - May 2nd: Ash cloud dropped to 2 km, main feature was out pouring of lava and not the ash
• May 4th - 17th : Ash problems returned and airports in UK, Spain, Ireland etc. were closed
• May 20th onwards: Lowered seismic activity, only some steam –> then returned to dormancy

Question 3

Imp Social

Answer 3

• Cattle taken in to escape ash
• Fluoride from volcano could cause internal hemorrhaging
• Due to meltwater floods occurred
• 700,000 people had to be evacuated
• Global air travel was paralysed as many European airports closed
• People stuck in different parts of world unable to get to family, teachers stuck abroad
• Organs weren’t able to get transported by air for transplants
• One of Iceland’s main roads was breached to allow safe passage of water to sea
• UK national trust allowed free entry to anyone holding an air ticket and passport –> bonds betw/ countries, kindness shown to other UK citizens abroad

Question 4

Imp Economic

Answer 4

• Local flooding, breach of main road etc.
• Loss in millions of pounds per day for airline business
• Channel and cross channel ferries had great business
• 11.7% reduction in air passengers
• UK lost $2.6 bn of GDP
• Damage to planes bc ash made of 58% silica -> scratch windshield and melt in engines shutting them down
• Shares of airline + travel industry fell
• Trans - Atlantic flights cancelled on May 9th, all flights cancelled in Europe on some days

Question 5

Imp Environmental

Answer 5

• 2.8 million tonnes less CO2 emitted
• Rock and glass mixture devastated ecosystems. Prevents photosynthesis in plants -> is toxic
• Phytoplankton bloom of 15% in North Atlantic ocean bc ash provided dissolved iron
• Glacier melted

Question 6

Imp Political

Answer 6

• Govt. personnel missing –> 400,000 Britons scattered worldwide
• Barack Obama and Angela Merkel (German Chancellor) were unable to attend Polish president Lech Kazynski’s funeral
• PM of Norway has to run country from New York

Question 7

Response and future

Answer 7

• No casualties and people were evacuated
• Eu red cross mobilised 60 volunteers to offer food and shelter to people who had to flee and support esp. to kids who needed to flee flash floods
• Iceland RC set up service centres for psychological support, insurance info, healthcare advice etc.
• Netherlands RC set up 1500 beds in Amsterdam’s Schiphol airport for those whose flights were cancelled
• 24 hr emergency information hotline set up
• Mobile lidar system invented to test air quality from ground to check for structure of ash cloud and density to see if safe to fly
• Investigations and monitoring of Katla bc the two eruptions have been linked in the past
• experiments with sensors on planes that detect ash clouds using infrared radiation so they can be avoided instead of grounding all planes