Earth & Environment - Posted by Keith Randall-Texas A&M on Wednesday, April 21, 2010 14:27 - 9 Comments 
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(1 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5) Loading ...Will volcano’s ‘big sister’ erupt next?
Volcanologist Jay Miller says Mount Katla has been more active than other volcanos in the region. Eyjafjallajokull has erupted only three times in the past 1,000 years, while Katla has erupted at least 20 times since then. Every time Eyjafjallajokull has erupted Katla follows behind, always erupting within the same year, sometimes just a few months after its little sister. (Credit: iStockphoto)
TEXAS A&M (US)—While the eruption from the Eyjafjallajokull volcano in Iceland ground much of international travel to a halt, if a nearby volcano named Mount Katla should erupt, it has the potential to be many times more devastating.
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The text of this article by Futurity is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivatives License.
That’s the assessment of Jay Miller, a Texas A&M University volcanologist who has done research in the area for decades. Miller says that an eruption from Katla could dwarf anything seen so far from Eyjafjallajokull (pronounced Eye-jaff-jalla-jok-kul).
This satellite image taken in 2004 shows as from Grimsvotn Volcano, Iceland, across the Vatnajokull Ice Cap. An eruption from this volcano in 1783 released enough ash to have a cooling effect in Europe and Asia, according to Miller. (Credit: NASA/MODIS Rapid Response System)
“It’s a much larger volcano, and in the past, we know its eruptions have been much larger, too,” Miller explains.
“We know that in 934 A.D. it had one of the largest fissure eruptions of any on Iceland. We don’t have too many written records from that time, but by studying ice cores from Greenland and other weather records, we can tell that the 934 eruption was extremely powerful and had a significant impact on climate.
“So as bad as Eyafjallajokull is, Katla could be much, much worse.”
Miller says Katla has been more active than others in the region. Eyjafjallajokull has erupted only three times in the past 1,000 years, while Katla has erupted at least 20 times since then.
And, Katla seems to erupt whenever Eyjafjallajokull does. Three times in history when Eyjafjallajokull has erupted—in 920, 1612 and 1821—Katla has, too.
That’s why the current eruption could be a bad omen: Every time Eyjafjallajokull has erupted—as it has for the past week—Katla follows behind, always erupting within the same year, sometimes just a few months after its little sister.
“We don’t know when because volcanoes in that part of the world are very difficult to predict,” he notes, adding that Katla is located about 10 to 12 miles from Eyjafjallajokull but is not part of the same volcano system.
“We do know that Katla has been a much more active volcano. Its last significant eruption came in 1918,” he notes. “An eruption from nearby Grimsvotn volcano in 1783 occurred and so much volcanic haze and ash covered Europe and Asia that it had a dramatic cooling effect. Ben Franklin, who was ambassador to France at the time, called it ‘the year without a summer’ and he later wrote a paper about volcanoes affecting climate called “Meteorological Imaginations and Conjectures” and presented it at a conference the following year.
“History tells us that we need to watch Mount Katla very closely,” Miller adds.
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9 Comments
kbird5
Funny that you comment on the ease of spelling Katla’s name Stephen. It’s Katla…not Katia.
jojio
@ Stephen O’Driscoll, funny comment, but you failed to spell Katla correctly.
Daniel Greene
*facepalm*
Daniel Greene
There is a type in this paper that might need to be pointed out. After the cooling effect that occurred after the 1783 eruption Ben Franklin called it a “Year without a ‘summer’ “. In the article above it states he called it a year without a winter. lol It was basically winter all year long. I believe it was also after that eruption that the winter in N. America was so harsh the Mississippi River froze up as far south as New Orleans.
Daniel: Thanks for the tip about the typo. We’ve updated the text.
ivan
Another spelling error:
” Every time Eyjafjallajokull as erupted—as it has for the past week—Katla follows behind ”
should be
” Every time Eyjafjallajokull _has_ erupted—as it has for the past week—Katla follows behind
Try spelling “burp” as this is what happen 3.5 milion years ago when all the earths “v”-dynamics , de-compressed. If spell-check is all you can get from this paper, this very impressive research…maybe it is time to just let the earth have the last laugh on us…a 21st century earth-”fart”, a “V” dynamic closure to all spell-checkers. If earth were a person, a MD would say Earth has PTSD and Traumas are mostly unseen, mostly masked, with little “burps & farts” as clues to a bigger picture. There are no life-boats for whole of humanity in this story if in fact the theory holds water. Shifting winds & tides are current in a dance of life & times together and we are the ones who are leading…..spellcheck all day, I’m buying a bio-fuel car, energy efficent lighting stop the waste and abuse in my own lifes area a little more….and hope its not to late to do my small part too help comfort my Earth, who seems to be ill and showing the signs of compassion fatigue. http://www.operationfree.net/ join the war-fight for earth. Medics needed.
Richard Payne
Sorry to nitpick, but.. various small errors in this:
1. The guide to the pronunciation of Eyjafjallajökull is not correct. I’m not an Icelandic-speaker but I believe it would be approximately: Eye-ya-fyat-la-yu-kutl.
2. I’m pretty sure Benjamin Franklin did not coin the ‘year without a summer’ phrase (I’d like to see the reference if he did). He also did not present Meteorological Imaginations and Conjectures ‘at a conference the following year’, he wrote a letter which his correspondent Thomas Percival read at a meeting of the Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society later the same year.
3. Re: comment above, the summer of 1783 was actually a very hot one in much of Europe and North America.
At least if Katia erupts it will be easier to spell than Eyjafjallajokull.