Cameras near the Iceland volcano, which just might blow
The volcano at incredibly powerful Mount Katla in Iceland might yet blow its lid, according to scientists quoted in news reports today. Incredible fountains of orange and black lava have since Saturday been burning through the white surface of the Eyjafjallajokull glacier in the southern part of the country. The activity is only on the rise as plumes of steam stretch into the sky. Magma is still flowing into the volcano area, meaning it could grow, according to Stöd 2. "Eyjafjallajokull hardly makes a move without Mount Katla wanting to get in on the action," said Pall Einarsson, a geophysicist at the University of Iceland to Reuters. "It is therefore of utmost importance to watch events carefully."
There have been three prior eruptions at the glacier and each has prompted an eruption at Katla. A full eruption at Katla could cause a massive ice melt and flooding in a nearby town of several hundred people.
The above photograph is of the Katla volcano erupting through Mýrdalsjökull ice cap in 1918. This eruption deposited a huge volume of tephra on the ice cap and surrounding landscape and unleashed a catastrophic flood and sediment over Mýrdalssandur. Photo via the Nordic Volcanological Center in Iceland.
See current video, two views, from Web cams in Iceland at the link below:
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