European volcano ‘ready to ERUPT’ after several large EARTHQUAKES threaten disaster

Last week the 6,591ft tall Bardarbunga volcano was shaken by four of the largest earthquakes since its last eruption was sparked in August 2014.

A lava field and huge volumes of sulphur dioxide erupted from the volcano, plummeting air quality in Iceland and reaching as the UK and Ireland, according to the nation’s Met Office.

The eruption period was not officially declared over until six months later in February 2015.

Now experts fear that several earthquakes, measuring magnitude 3.9, 3.2, 4.7 and 4.7 on the Richter scale, which struck the caldera region last week may be signs of an imminent eruption from the 10,000-year-old Bardarbunga volcano.

The 2014-2015 eruption had been preceded by a swarm of around 1,600 earthquakes over 48 hours.

Páll Einarsson, a volcanology expert at the University of Iceland, revealed the latest quakes were part of a series that have been “in progress for two years” as he warned Bardarbunga is “clearly preparing for its next eruption” within the next few years.

According to the Catalogue of Icelandic Volcanoes – a joint project run by Iceland’s Met Office, the University of Iceland and Civil Protection Department of the National Commissioner of the Iceland Police – Bardarbunga’s activity level is high although the warning code is green – meaning the volcano is in a normal, non-eruptive state.

The Catalogue of Icelandic Volcanoes revealed that if the subglacial stratovolcano Bardarbunga was to erupt again it would likely trigger flooding in the region after hot ash and lava melted up through the ice cap of the Vatnajokull glacier.

It said: “A large fissure eruption on the southwest (SW) part of the fissure swarm may extend across Tungnaa river, obstruct water flow and cause temporary dams and unstable lakes. Floods through breached dams could be of the order 10,000 m3/sec.

“Warning period for an eruption on the SW part of the fissure swarm is unknown, but likely to be similar to that in the northern part of fissure swarm.

“Eruptions on the ice-free fissure swarm outside the Veioivotn area will be predominantly effusive and could release 1 – 4 km3 of lava and significant amounts of tephra. Lava can extend tens of km from source, eg the 35 km long Frambruni lava flow in 13th century CE.

“Depending on the location of the erupting fissure, lava flows can reach power stations on the Tungnaa river. A considerable amount of magmatic gases will be released from the erupting fissure and the cooling lava.”

Disaster expert Dr Simon Day, of University College London, said the earthquakes could “precede a large explosive eruption and consequent widespread ash fall”.

But he told Daily Star Online that “it is statistically unlikely to do so”.

Mr Einarsson said magma has been building beneath the volcano since 2015.

The geophysicist said: “The reason for the earthquakes in this place is that the volcano Bárðarbunga is inflating, i.e. the pressure of magma in the magma chamber is increasing. It has been doing this since the last eruption ended, in February 2015.

“The volcano is clearly preparing for its next eruption, that may happen in the next few years.

“The earthquakes last week are just the symptoms of this process, they do not cause the volcano to erupt.

“It is impossible to predict what the next eruption will be like, but statistics says it is most likely to be rather harmless.

“Very few people have died in Icelandic eruptions in the last centuries.

“Of course we have to be prepared for larger and more disastrous eruptions, but they are not common.”