Icelandic scientists have raised the level of risk for the Grimsvoton volcano and warned that there are now several signs that it will erupt soon.
The volcano erupted in 2011 with an unusually powerful eruption, firing a 20-kilometer ash pillar into the air, but last year it was engulfed in a small volcanic eruption, forcing the cancellation of nearly 100,000 flights in unprecedented disruption.
Recently, the volcano has been seen to “inflate” as new magma re-enters its lower chamber, and more ice has melted in the resulting thermal activity. There has also been an increase in seismic activity locally, all indicating that an eruption could occur soon.
Seismologists are now searching for the quake’s acute pests, which can last up to 10 hours, indicating a rush of magma to the surface and an imminent eruption.
Despite a slim prospect, an explosion of the same scale as in 2011 would exacerbate an already precarious situation for the airline industry, which has been damaged by the coronavirus epidemic.
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The Grimsvoton volcano is hidden beneath an ice sheet, with only one old belt exposed on the south side, where it has recently erupted. Grimvot has experienced at least 65 eruptions in the last 800 years, making it one of the most frequently erupting volcanoes in the country.
Between smaller, more recent eruptions there are usually gaps of four to 15 years, while larger eruptions occur every 150 to 200 years, with larger events recorded in 2011, 1873, and 1619.
Heat production from the volcano has increased dramatically in recent months, raising warning levels, and is currently very high, melting the surrounding ice and creating a large hidden lake of melted water 100 meters deep beneath a 260-meter-thick glacier. Above.
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This poses a threat to nearby infrastructure as meltwater can escape without warning, traveling through an underground volcanic tunnel before erupting about 45 kilometers away. The waterway is monitored through this tunnel so that no one can be killed in a flash flood.
However, these sudden flood events also dramatically reduce the pressure on the volcano and can even trigger a fully developed eruption.
Mercifully, as a result of the ice sheet at the top of the volcano and the molten reservoir beneath it, the ash from the volcano will immediately get wet.
There will be a slight disruption in air travel, hopefully not on the basis of the Ayajfazallajokul incident, however, it is very difficult to predict the volcanic activity that has protected the world, as evidenced by the 2010 eruption.
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