Genealogy Forum UK

right where our resident volcanologist

caught the back end of this program

http://www.channel5.com/shows/iceland-a ... apocalypse

(advert about 3 min before start)

all doom and gloom

what i want to Know if there correct and Katla will erupt sooner than later and possibly being worst than Laki in 1783
then couldnt they prevent the magma chamber from filling to much by an underground explosion/s below the magma chamber or would this just delay the process and create a larger magma chamber ?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Eyjaf ... _Katla.png

or is the another way to releive the pressure so to stop the eruption or lesson the impact ?

Good thinking Peter

Gardener! Help!
Explain in plain language if you can
Jo

Rob wrote:Good thinking Peter

can you translate

I SO wish I could see that programme!

Yes, Katla will erupt sooner or later. Your guess is as good as mine about the date. Last ones are 1918, 1860, 1823, 1755, 1721... so you could say she is overdue but then again there have probably been some shallow intrusions (the magma didn't make it to the surface) and they also relieve the pressure in the magma chamber so can delay an eruption.

No, an explosion in the magma chamber is not really an option - apart from anything else you would have to drill down to it place the explosion and even though they draw nice neat shapes of molten magma it is not so simple and there will be a zone of semi-molten mush around it and probably little branches of melt off it. if you drill into one of those then you could get more than you bargained for.

No, it won't be anything like Laki at all. Laki was lots of eruptions along a long fissure and huge volumes of lava. Katla will be pretty much on one site and much smaller in volume but the problem is that Katla is under a glacier and when the hot lava hits the cold water it will explode and that means lots and lots of ash. Sorry about that. No way of telling how big it will be but it could be more ash than the last effort so you had best hope the wind is from the south

Mind you, I am not a vulcanologist so asking me is a bit like asking a foot doctor to do brain surgery

I think we should always expect the unexpected so maybe Askja will give us an eruption, or somewhere near there. I don't mind where, it will be so much fun

dont no if you can get u tube gb its on there to

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-9v26zFU2UY

Its just interesting and scary too!
My son said a volcano erupted near the Canary Islands, making another island. Not looked up on that yet.
I hop not ash blowing this way again, caused so much disruption But where would it normally go?
Very interesting!
Jo

this was one of the intresting parts about past eruption and genealogy


http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.anc ... /laki.html


its here

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jXDsB1g1rnA

Thanks Pete, I'll watch the Timewatch one later to today. the other isn't available here - unless my daughter can find it on another site, sometimes she can.
It must have been horrible in the volcanic smog. They say now that it probably contributed to the French revolution happening when it did.

Not sure about that Cananry Islands one, I think it never actually broke the surface of the sea though there were lots of bubbles.

Who remembers Surtsey though? I was enthralled by the tv reports for that. It and Churchill's funeral stick in my mind as being things I saw on television.