Iceland's eruptions could have global consequences

Iceland's eruptions could have global consequences

news.yahoo.com

Iceland's Laki volcano erupted in 1783, freeing gases that turned into smog. The smog floated across the Jet Stream, changing weather patterns. Many died from gas poisoning in the British Isles. Crop production fell in western Europe. Famine spread. Some even linked the eruption, which helped fuel famine, to the French Revolution. Painters in the 18th century illustrated fiery sunsets in their works.

(visit the link for the full news article)

They went on to say

The winter of 1784 was also one of the longest and coldest on record in North America. New England reported a record stretch of below-zero temperatures and New Jersey reported record snow accumulation. The Mississippi River also reportedly froze in New Orleans

Well there you have it and I don't know if I should be worried or not... but there is some rather nasty history there

news.yahoo.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

reply to post by DaddyBare


Wow, interesting, and ominous.... S&F

thanks for the post, will have to read up on this one so I can respond properly...

cheers##TFJ

Worrying,

Which way is the wind blowing lol?

I knew about gases from volcanoes killing people but nice find I never knew of the actual gas poisonings in Britain due to an earlier eruption.

The Geologist spouting this may be looking for a name, as many other volcanoes have erupted in Iceland since that bad event.

A range of factors will determine if or when that could happen again, however he did say:

"These are Hollywood-sort of scenarios but possible," said Colin Macpherson, a geologist with the University of Durham. "As the melt rises, it's a little like taking a cork out of a champagne bottle."

1

I wonder how much time a warning if any would occur, and with a much higher population in the UK since a couple of hundred years ago it potentially is a bit of a nightmare scenario.

Thanks, will research and dig for original historic docs on how many, where and when these gas deaths occurred in UK, Fascinating.

Kind Regards,

Elf


[edit on 22-3-2010 by MischeviousElf]

it does seem the earth is going through some changes normal or not cyclical or not its getting hard to avoid all the evidence the site of lava flowing througha glacier sure;y sets off alarm bells for me.

mother earth is changing her look and we are the old fashion ...

OKay yes this happened, wow.

And I forgot for a moment myself, Iceland is the ONLY place in the world where the Atlantic Ridge rises above the water line.

Documentary evidence suggests there may have been
significant human illness and morbidity in parishes in rural England in
the late eighteenth century. Demographic data for a number of rural
parishes in different environmental settings point to a singular peak in
burials taking place in 1783. The Laki Fissure eruption of 1783-84 and
the resultant atmospheric loading by gas and sub-PM10 aerosol, in
particular H2SO4 generated massive, but entirely natural air pollution.
In northwest Europe, the air pollution was manifested as a persistent,
foul-smelling dry fog and various forms of acid-damage to crops, trees
and water-bodies and a consistent range of human health problems.
These link the presence of the dry fog with headaches, eye irritation,
decreased lung function and asthma. The concept that intense
anthropogenic air pollution may cause respiratory illness and/or the
death of vulnerable sections of the population is familiar in modern
western societies. There is no reason to suggest that volcanic air
pollution may not have had a similar impact in the past. Mortality
patterns from widely separated English rural parishes suggest that a
crisis did occur during the summer of 1783 û awareness of physical
process and the circumstantial evidence suggests acid volcanic gases
may have been the key agent. Calculation of mortality indices from
available demographic data does suggest that death rates did increase
significantly at this time and mortality in the summer of 1783 is
classified as a ôcrisisö. In raw numbers over 10 000 more people died
at this time than would normally be expected û this is actually a 1000
more people than died in Iceland following the Laki fissure eruption.

PDF


And further as in the words of the USGS its better to live in Hawaii than by Laki!!

For eight months during the years 1783-1784, lava erupted from dozens of vents along a 27-km-long (17-mile-long) fissure system in the highlands of southern Iceland. Basaltic lava flows—just like the flows we see here in Hawai`i—poured south out of the mountains onto the coastal plains, burying 599 square km ( 231 square miles) in the process. The total volume of lava erupted in eight months is estimated at 15.1 cubic km (3.6 cubic miles). In comparison, Kīlauea's ongoing east rift zone eruption, approaching the end of its 26th year of activity, has produced only about 3.4 cubic km (0.8 cubic miles) of lava.

In addition to these enormous lava flows, eruptive episodes from the Laki fissure started with explosive eruptions that blanketed more than 8,000 square km (3,089 square miles) with volcanic ash and cinders. And if you think the vog here can be bad, Laki pumped out 122 million tons of sulfur dioxide in eight months. Compare this to Kīlauea's 0.85 million tons from February to September, 2008—less than one percent of Laki's output over the same length of time. Half of the livestock in Iceland died after eating grass contaminated with fluorine from the gas plume, and 20 percent of Iceland's population starved during the famine that followed. The sulfur dioxide released led to crop failures throughout Europe and may have led to, or exacerbated, other famines in the northern hemisphere that occurred at about the same time.

USGS

There was a very good docu on this, vaguely remember it but cant find whole one now, here is a clip:



More here from the lead researcher in this.

This was PAN Europe though not just the UK the following occurred in France!



In the doomsday nature of ATS this is the only one at the moment with real and likely, to happen, besides Iran.

The science shows when the current one erupts, Katla always follows!!!!

This is worth keeping a very very close eye on.

Flag this Muther.

OMG first they steal our savings now they will poison us all

Does anyone have a copy of the original Timewatch show?

Kind Regards

Elf

[edit on 22-3-2010 by MischeviousElf]

Well, that's one way to deal with French farmers and their strangle hold over European Union policy.

Hope that was not too callous and repugnant...

[edit on 22-3-2010 by infinite]

reply to post by MischeviousElf


Fantastic work ... I would give you a lot more stars (not flags) if I could
Seems a lot of things are popping their ugly heads at the moment, and this one seems really nasty..

(I'm trying to erase from my mind the bot thing about a cloud circling the planet, it is surprisingly hard to crowbar out information once it gets in my head, it just rattles around)

edit... my backwards brain

[edit on 22/3/10 by thoughtsfull]

reply to post by MischeviousElf


Thanks for finding that stuff....
wish I could give you a dozen stars...
But I have to admit after reading what you dug up, I'm evem more worried now...May hap I'm going to have to invte my UK friends to come stay with me in the states if things get grim...

double post
sorry bout dat

[edit on 22-3-2010 by DaddyBare]

The Katla volcano has potencial for major global-impact eruptions, because it's also linked to the great Laki fissure and Grimsvotn volcano.

Katla often erupts with a VEI value of 4 or 5, sometimes with 6, causing small to medium-scale volcanic winter in the following year. Kind of a small but global "year without summer" (which would be bad because of the current socio-economic trouble). On other ocasions, it only releases much ash but causes no global effects.

Katla has not erupted yet. But remains very LIKELY.

This was written ten days ago, before this eruption.
The funny thing is... next month I will move to Iceland for a few months!

The Icelandic volcano Eyjafjallajökull has been very restless recently. The current seismicity and apparent inflation may be precursory to an eruption, or it may not.

It seems, however, that there is a connection between these two closely-spaced volcanoes. Eyjafjallajökull’s most recent eruption, December 1821 to January 1823, was followed by an eruption of Katla in June and July 1823. More recently an intrusion at Eyjafjallajökull in 1999 appears to have been followed by a small subglacial eruption in the Katla caldera.

It’s intriguing that recent earthquake activity around Katla and Eyjafjallajökull has clustered in three areas: (1) shallow quakes around and within the Eyjafjallajökull caldera, (2) shallow quakes largely confined to the eastern part of Katla caldera, and (3) quakes with a deeper focus in the Godabunga area between the first two clusters. One possible interpretation of this pattern is that a cryptodome – an underground lava dome – is active beneath this area. The presence of viscous rhyolitic lava beneath Katla and Eyjafjallajökull makes for potentially explosive eruptive activity, if an eruption occurs.

volcanism.wordpress.com... ull-and-katla-restless-neighbours/



[edit on 22-3-2010 by segurelha]

reply to post by segurelha


Going there????
Well normally I would say something like take a gas mask with ya...
However one of the few things I do know about volcanoes in one of the many poison gasses they burp out is H2S.
Hydrogen sulfide had this telltale characteristic foul odor of rotten eggs. Problem is once it gets to lethal levels the first thing it kills is your sense of smell... we're talking one breath at high concentrations and your dead...
To make it worse no gasmask will protect you from H2S you’d need a full SCBA or rebreather ...
I should know, worked around the stuff before... scarry stuff that...

Look here for H2S

reply to post by segurelha


Yep....

I found this:

I would also like to point out that if we by an active volcano even mean a volcano that is likely to erupt some time again most of the Icelandic fissure volcanoes such as Laki can be left out as active because seldom during the whole postglacial time it has happened that a fissure has erupted more than once. Hekla is the main exception from this rule in Iceland.

Be it as it may with the number of active volcanoes in Iceland.
What we can tell with certainty is, that during the last two centuries
or so we have had an eruption on average every fifth to sixth year.
And it is also an established fact that many eruptions in Iceland in
Historical time have wrought great havoc and some of them resulted
in most disastrous catastrophes such as the Helda initial eruption in
1104, the initial eruption of OrsefajSkull in 18622 the Kafla eruption

PDF Cited Abstract

Katla the one that always goes after the current one, has in the past had global consequences changed weather etc:

Researchers in a NASA/NSF/NOAA funded study have identified connections between high latitude volcanic eruptions and periods of low water flow in African rivers. Using computer models they linked Iceland's Laki Volcanic Event (a series of about ten eruptions that occurred between June 1783 and February 1784) to the lowest water levels in the Nile River in a historical record dating back to 622 AD.

Using computer models developed by NASA they found that the Laki Volcanic Event altered surface temperature patterns that produced extremely low levels of rainfall across much of Africa. The initial atmospheric response to the eruption was a decline in global temperatures. This temperature decline produced a reduced temperature difference between land and ocean. Without that temperature contrast, onshore winds weakened and the delivery of moisture and rainfall from the ocean was severely reduced.

Geology.com

Here Is The Nasa Research

The NILE nearly dried up from the last big event in Iceland, poisoned much of Europe, and cooled global temperatures.

My God it was horrific there are historical records from priests in France being made to exorcise the noxious clouds!

As the volcanos are under miles of ice anyhow it’s difficult to know until it’s well under way to.

Kind Regards,

Elf

[edit on 22-3-2010 by MischeviousElf]

reply to post by segurelha


Well, I really am not sure what advice anyone can offer, I am sure tho there will be some plans in place in Iceland to deal with the situation.

Tis rather disconcerting that this thing has come along right now... I appears almost as if the deck is being stacked against mankind.

Originally posted by thoughtsfull
reply to post by segurelha

 

Tis rather disconcerting that this thing has come along right now... I appears almost as if the deck is being stacked against mankind.

You said it brother!
Funny how this little news blurb might just turn out to be the most important post to ever grace ATS.... or the entire world for that matter

Originally posted by DaddyBare

Originally posted by thoughtsfull
reply to post by segurelha

 

Tis rather disconcerting that this thing has come along right now... I appears almost as if the deck is being stacked against mankind.

You said it brother!
Funny how this little news blurb might just turn out to be the most important post to ever grace ATS.... or the entire world for that matter

While the deck is being stacked, It certainly feels like we are playing find the lady with some one eyed hustler....

But aside from that, do you know what bothers me most! it's the opportunistic nations that might take advantage of a global calamity to further their own nefarious ends..

We know this cork is going to go pop at some point, lets just hope it's a nice quiet one.

Originally posted by thoughtsfull
Tis rather disconcerting that this thing has come along right now... I appears almost as if the deck is being stacked against mankind.

Considering all of humanities crimes against nature, and all that bad karma surrounding the human species these days, I'd say it's about time mother nature did something with the lot of them.

There is a swarm now being monitored and reported under another Caldera on Iceland

An earthquake swarm began under Eyjafjoll volcano in January 2010. There was a 40 mm inflation of the volcano. At the beginning of March 2010 over 3000 earthquakes were measured in a 24 hour period, with a maximum at magnitude 3.1. The last eruptions at Eyjafjoll volcano were in 1821-23. The subglacial Esjufjöll volcano at the SE part of the Vatnajökull icecap, north of Öraefajökull volcano, consists of the Snaehetta central volcano and a large caldera. Most of the volcano, including the 40 sq km caldera, is covered by the icecap, but parts of the SE flank are exposed in NW-SE-trending ridges. Most of the exposed rocks are mildly alkaline basalts, but small amounts of rhyolitic rocks are also present. A large jökulhlaup that came down the Jokulsa a Breidamerkursandi along the coast SE of Vatnajökull in the beginning of September 1927 was accompanied by a sulfur stench, and on one occasion, ash fall on the Breidamerkurjökull considered to have possibly originated from Esjufjöll. Although Holocene eruptions have not been confirmed from Esjufjöll, earthquake swarms that could indicate magma movements were detected in October, 2002.

RSOE AlertMap

So its getting active for sure there, do we have 2 events or one?

Anyhow further info to a 3.4 very shallow earthquake very close to another volcano on the opposite part of Iceland HERE in another caldera!

Is Iceland going the way of Atlantis?

Now you see it, now you dont?

Kind Regards,

Elf

Are the bankers really this powerful? All kidding aside, a volcanic winter right now would be hard on a lot of people in the northern hemisphere.

Pray it's just a burp and not a full blown belch!

reply to post by DaddyBare


S&F.

Rented "2012" this afternoon, watched it for the first time, came online, checked the news and read about the Iceland eruption.

....

Seems almost prophetic...