Eldgja: Feeding the Fire

The facts of Eldgja are well established. We know approximately when it happened, where it happened, how much lava, tephra and sulphate was ejected. We have found the tephra in Greenland. We think we know the human impact over much of the northern world, arising from three years of winter. But on other aspects, our…

Eldgja: Eruption dating

The previous post described what we think we know about the Eldgja eruption. Our knowledge about one of the largest eruptions in Iceland is somewhat limited, surprisingly so given that Iceland was already well populated. One of the few things which seems secure is the date. Eldgja is believed to date to 934 AD, continuing…

The Eldgja Eruption: Iceland’s Baptism by Fire

Iceland is the most volcanic place in the world. Explosive eruptions, from many different volcanoes, are common, unpredictable and, when seen from afar, exciting. But don’t be fooled. These volcanic explosions are small fry, and mostly harmless. Less common but far more devastating are the other type, responsible for 80% of all Icelandic lava and…

Rulers of Earth

    We haven’t seen a large eruption since Tambora, 200 years ago. That is a good thing: the world has had enough troubles in that time, and a major volcanic disaster was really not needed.  There has never been  a major eruption in a highly developed area, and we don’t know how resilient a…

Who ordered a Bárðarbunga?

After writing the Woolly Mammoth Guide to Icelandic Volcanism I vowed to not write about Iceland for a while. That comment bit me in the posterior rather quickly. Since the cessation of the Holuhraun eruption the central volcano Bárðarbunga has been highly seismically active. Many people have fervently believed that this has been due to…

Reinterpreting Grimsvötn

In the previous part we learned that Grimsvötn indeed is able to produce large scale eruptions as we looked closer into the Saksunarvatn tephras. The first part can be found by following the link below. http://www.volcanocafe.org/grimsvotn-the-saksunarvatn-tephras/ This time we will look into what this new information might mean for the future eruptions of Grimsvötn. But…

All Calderas are not Calderas

Sometimes our readers send in questions to us that literally sends the writers into a frenzy of volcanic exploration. This week’s question was about if the area between Fort Rock and Chemult in Oregon is indeed a large caldera. The area is situated south of the eastward Cascade volcanic range south of Newberry (Paulina Peak),…