The Tip of the Glacier

If you think Eyjafjallajokull is bad, wait until you meet Katla.

Eyjafjallajokull is the volcano in Iceland that has crippled the airline industry in Europe for much of the last week. By now you’ve probably seen photos and/or videos of the spectacular eruptions and enormous ash clouds. Hope you’re comfortable because we’re just getting started.

Prior to this year, Eyjafjallajokull has had 3 major eruptions in the last 1100 years. They occurred in 920, 1612, and from 1821-1823. Did you know that in each of those eruptions, the seismic activity also caused the much larger neighboring volcano, Katla, to erupt as well?

The crater of Eyjafjallajokull measures 1.9-2.5 miles in diameter. The crater of Katla measures 6 miles in diameter. Katla has shown that it erupts every 40-80 years. The last time Katla erupted was in 1918, or 92 years ago. Katla has been showing signs of unrest since 1999. Katla has the potential to be 100 times more powerful than the smaller Eyjafjallajokull volcano. And, oh yeah, did I mention that every time Eyjafjallajokull has erupted it has caused Katla to erupt?

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