Volcanic eruption here in Iceland

[spritzer]

I woke up to this. Pretty cool and mostly harmless since it is situated right between two glaciers which means little to no flooding.

[deepak]

Eyjafjallajoekull- what a great name

Good to hear no one was hurt.

[Currawong]

I wouldn't want to be the BBC news reporter who had to read the location name from that report: Eyjafjallajoekull looks like it's a huge mouthful. I'll bet there are crazy scientists rushing to the location to get as close as possible, just like those ones who chase tornados.

[spritzer]

It's actually Eyjafjallaj

Edited March 21, 2010 by spritzer

[Aimless1]

Glad no one was hurt and they have time to evacuate. Volcanoes scary cool:cool:

[swt61]

We have them erupt in Alaska on occasion too, but never with fire and lava. Very pretty, glad nobody was injured. Otherwise it's a good thing, relieving crust pressure and such.

[jp11801]

Doesn't geothermal activity pretty much pay for heat in Iceland?

Glad to see it was a cool show and no one was hurt

[archosman]

When I was in 3rd grade I wanted to be a volcanologist. Always wondered what would have happened had I pursued that.

[aardvark baguette]

stay cool iceland

[spritzer]

Doesn't geothermal activity pretty much pay for heat in Iceland?

Yup, 99% of our electricity and heating are "green" with hydro and geothermal plants. Even in areas believed to be "cold" we have started to drill deeper and deeper (2000+meters) and discovered hot water, enough for heating our homes. Where I live we don't have enough groundwater so instead we use 90

[The Monkey]

^That's pretty cool. My building is designated as "green" and let's just say that we have a way to go.

It's ironic, though, that mother nature rewards Iceland's green efforts by spewing lava and ash all over the place on occasion and causing evacuations. That's not really a nice thank you.

[Currawong]

"No Stax were hurt in this volcanic eruption."

Glad everyone is safe despite too.

[mrarroyo]

Don't you wish they could have "harvested" all the heat energy available in the eruption. I wonder how many homes it would have been able to heat for a year, we would be surprised I bet. Anyways glad no one was hurt.

[spritzer]

^That's pretty cool. My building is designated as "green" and let's just say that we have a way to go.

It also means I can run Class A beasts all day without feeling guilty.

It's ironic, though, that mother nature rewards Iceland's green efforts by spewing lava and ash all over the place on occasion and causing evacuations. That's not really a nice thank you.

Hehe, good point. This one is pretty small though but could turn nasty if it were to spread into the volcano next to it. It's amazing just how widespread the effects can be from something like this. In 1783-1785 we had a terrible eruption up in the center of Iceland, the largest in recorded history. It not only devastated our countryside but also was a contributing factor in the French revolution a few years later. So much ash and gas was released into the atmosphere that harvests all over Europe failed.

[GPH]

It not only devastated our countryside but also was a contributing factor in the French revolution a few years later. So much ash and gas was released into the atmosphere that harvests all over Europe failed.

That's awesome, I certainly did not know that.

[spritzer]

I thought you guys would like this, the volcano on a live video feed. Click any of the links for a different view point.

Also, some members of the Top Gear team are up on the glacier now filming some crazy shit which we should see in the summer.

[Duggeh]

I think it was Clarkson who said that car accidents are worse in Iceland because you'll probably know the person you run over.

[jantze]

I thought you guys would like this, the volcano on a live video feed. Click any of the links for a different view point.

Also, some members of the Top Gear team are up on the glacier now filming some crazy shit which we should see in the summer.

I think last weekend there where at least two tourists that died there (third one survived). Stupid tourists with no real life survival skills with a car and running out of gas. Probably ameriCANs, since they won't tell the nationality.

[spritzer]

The two people who died were Icelandic but utterly clueless. They set off in a Honda CRV not equipped for heading into the highlands. They didn't have a clue where they were going, how to get there or even basic points of reference in the landscape. Now they It's a tragic story about people doing everything wrong, the car running out of gas so they decided to leave it and walk separately to lower ground. If they had just stayed in the car they would have been cold but they would have survived.

It was only a matter of time before something like this happened as people think it is just an easy stroll on a summers day to go and see the volcano, which is very far from true. Just this morning it was reported that people had tried to enter the first crater (which has no lava flowing now) which is basically suicide.

On a lighter note, this is cool. Damn Americans spying on us though...

I think it was Clarkson who said that car accidents are worse in Iceland because you'll probably know the person you run over.

Being closely related is more like it...

[morphsci]

We want your bread recipes.

[spritzer]

[Audiofiler]

Beautifully icelandic, electrostatic, and volcanic. .

[spritzer]

Now as the eruption had stopped, another one opens up this morning underneath the glacier only a few km from the old spot. This one could go badly as the flooding has already started but everybody has been evacuated out of the area.

[Salt Peanuts]

Stay safe up there. Is the new eruption close enough to cause you any problems?

[spritzer]

It's half way around the country so there shouldn't be any problems. Now if the volcano's closer to us would open up then we'd be in trouble.