Eruptions of Eyjafjallajökull Volcano, Iceland

Guðmundsson, M. T.; Pedersen, Rikke; Vogfjörd, K. S.; Þorbjarnardóttir, Bergþóra S.; Jakobsdóttir, Steinunn S.; Roberts, Matthew J.

doi:10.1029/2010eo210002

Cited by 128 publications

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“…During the Eyjafjallajökull eruption: hydrological sensors were used to monitor river runoff in terms of chemical composition and jökulhlaup risk; meteorological sensors and visual observations were used to assess lightning hazards, behaviour of the eruption cloud and localised ash fall; and, seismic, strain and GPS sensors were used to assess the geophysical components (Gudmundsson et al 2010;Karlsdóttir et al 2010).…”

Section: Civil Protection and Emergency Management In Icelandmentioning

confidence: 99%

Crisis Coordination and Communication During the 2010 Eyjafjallajökull Eruption

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Jóhannesdóttir²,

Reynisson³

et al. 2017

Advances in Volcanology

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Eyjafjallajökull became Iceland's most infamous volcano in 2010 when the ash cloud from its summit eruption caused unprecedented disruption to the international aviation industry and considerable challenges to local farming communities and villages. The summit eruption, which began on 14 April 2010, was preceded by a 24-day long effusive flank eruption that produced spectacular fire-fountain activity and lava flows. The 39-day long summit eruption, however, was far more explosive and resulted in medium-sized jökulhlaups to the north, small jökulhlaups and lahars to the south and considerable ash fall to the east and east-southeast of the volcano. As in other crises in Iceland, the Department of Civil Protection and Emergency Management (DCPEM) coordinated efforts and facilitated crisis communication, while collaborating with the Icelandic Meteorological Office, the Institute of Earth Sciences at the University of Iceland and the National Crisis Coordination Centre. The DCPEM's role included providing information to the government and its various agencies and feeding information from scientists to local police officials, civil protection committees and the public. Communication with local residents took place through agencies' websites, the national media and frequent open town hall meetings where representatives of institutions responsible for eruption monitoring, health, safety and livestock handling provided advice. These face-to-face meetings with local residents were critical as ash fall had not affected these areas for over 60 years and plans for dealing with this hazard were not established. This chapter explores these events and in doing so, provides a narrative of crisis coordination and communication in Iceland. The narrative is based on multiple sources, including an analysis of community perspectives of the emergency response and their use and views of the various forms of communication platforms. The chapter also considers the eruptions' impacts at the local level. This exploration reveals that the trust developed through close communication between all involved prior to and during the eruption increased the effectiveness of crisis communication. The experience gained from the Eyjafjallajökull eruption is important for volcanic crisis communication at a local and international level. While the immediate evacuation plans were effective, the ash fall problems illustrated the need for necessary precautions and broadly defined preparedness strategies.

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Section: Civil Protection and Emergency Management In Icelandmentioning

confidence: 99%

Crisis Coordination and Communication During the 2010 Eyjafjallajökull Eruption

Bird

Jóhannesdóttir²,

Reynisson³

et al. 2017

Advances in Volcanology

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“…Over the last fifteen years, episodic seismic swarms and inflation-induced deformation have been taken to indicate sill injections at mid-crustal depth beneath Eyjafjallajökull volcano (Guðmundsson et al, 2010;Sigmundsson et al, 2010;Hjaltadóttir et al, 2011). A deep-sourced inflation started late December 2009, accompanied by increase in seismicity.…”

Section: The Eyjafjallajökull 2010 Eruptionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Remobilization of silicic intrusion by mafic magmas during the 2010 Eyjafjallajökull eruption

et al. 2011

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Abstract. Injection of basaltic magmas into silicic crustal holding chambers and subsequent magma mingling or mixing is a process that has been recognised since the late seventies as resulting in explosive eruptions. Detailed reconstruction and assessment of the mixing process caused by such intrusion is now possible because of the exceptional time-sequence sample suite available from the tephra fallout of the 2010 summit eruption at Eyjafjallajökull volcano in South Iceland. Fallout from 14 to 19 April contains three glass types of basaltic, intermediate, and silicic compositions recording rapid magma mingling without homogenisation, involving evolved FeTi-basalt and silicic melt with composition identical to that produced by the 1821-1823 AD Eyjafjallajökull summit eruption. The time-dependent change in the magma composition suggests a binary mixing process with changing end-member compositions and proportions. Beginning of May, a new injection of primitive basalt was recorded by deep seismicity, appearance of Mgrich olivine phenocrysts together with high sulphur dioxide output and presence of sulphide crystals. Thus, the composition of the basaltic injection became more magnesian and hotter with time provoking changes in the silicic mixing end-member from pre-existing melt to the solid carapace of the magma chamber. Finally, decreasing proportions of the mafic end-member with time in the erupted mixedmagma demonstrate that injections of Mg-rich basalt was the motor of the 2010 Eyjafjallajökull explosive eruption, andCorrespondence to: O. Sigmarsson (olgeir@raunvis.hi.is) that its decreasing inflow terminated the eruption. Significant quantity of silicic magma is thus still present in the interior of the volcano. Our results show that detailed sampling during the entire eruption was essential for deciphering the complex magmatic processes at play, i.e. the dynamics of the magma mingling and mixing. Finally, the rapid compositional changes in the eruptive products suggest that magma mingling occurs on a timescale of a few hours to days whereas the interval between the first detected magma injection and eruption was several months.

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“…After 18 years of intermittent seismic unrest (Dahm and Brandsdóttir, 1997), an effusive eruption of basalt on the eastern flank of Eyjafjallajökull occurred from 20 March to 12 April 2010, followed by an explosive eruption under the Eyjafjallajökull glacier on 14 April 2010. The interaction of magma and ice augmented explosive activity and generated large proportions of fine ash that were emitted into the atmosphere (Gudmundsson et al, 2010). Intense tephra discharge continued for several days and the prevailing meteorological conditions resulted in ash transport directly towards Europe, where air traffic was grounded for several days.…”

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Determination of time- and height-resolved volcanic ash emissions and their use for quantitative ash dispersion modeling: the 2010 Eyjafjallajökull eruption

et al. 2011

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Abstract. The April-May, 2010 volcanic eruptions of Eyjafjallajökull, Iceland caused significant economic and social disruption in Europe whilst state of the art measurements and ash dispersion forecasts were heavily criticized by the aviation industry. Here we demonstrate for the first time that large improvements can be made in quantitative predictions of the fate of volcanic ash emissions, by using an inversion scheme that couples a priori source information and the output of a Lagrangian dispersion model with satellite data to estimate the volcanic ash source strength as a function of altitude and time. From the inversion, we obtain a total fine ash emission of the eruption of 8.3±4.2 Tg for particles in the size range of 2.8-28 µm diameter. We evaluate the results of our model results with a posteriori ash emissions using independent ground-based, airborne and space-borne measurements both in case studies and statistically. Subsequently, we estimate the area over Europe affected by volcanic ash above certain concentration thresholds relevant for the aviation industry. We find that during three episodes in April and May, volcanic ash concentrations at some altitude in the atmosphere exceeded the limits for the "Normal" flying zone in up to 14 % (6-16 %), 2 % (1-3 %) and 7 % (4-11 %), respecCorrespondence to: A. Stohl (ast@nilu.no) tively, of the European area. For a limit of 2 mg m −3 only two episodes with fractions of 1.5 % (0.2-2.8 %) and 0.9 % (0.1-1.6 %) occurred, while the current "No-Fly" zone criterion of 4 mg m −3 was rarely exceeded. Our results have important ramifications for determining air space closures and for real-time quantitative estimations of ash concentrations. Furthermore, the general nature of our method yields better constraints on the distribution and fate of volcanic ash in the Earth system.

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Eruptions of Eyjafjallajökull Volcano, Iceland

Cited by 128 publications

References 0 publications

Crisis Coordination and Communication During the 2010 Eyjafjallajökull Eruption

Crisis Coordination and Communication During the 2010 Eyjafjallajökull Eruption

Remobilization of silicic intrusion by mafic magmas during the 2010 Eyjafjallajökull eruption

Determination of time- and height-resolved volcanic ash emissions and their use for quantitative ash dispersion modeling: the 2010 Eyjafjallajökull eruption

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