What Is A Grímsvötn Volcano?
Grímsvötn volcano is located near the center of the Vatnajökull ice cap in central Iceland. At a height of 5658 feet, it has the highest eruption frequency of all the volcanoes in Iceland. Grímsvötn volcano has a complex of calderas, of about six by eight kilometers in area, and a subglacial caldera lake sustained by geothermal heat. A caldera, a large, circular depression at the summit of a volcano, is formed when magma is withdrawn or erupted from a shallow underground magma reservoir. The caldera lake is covered by a two-hundred-meter thick ice cap. Beneath the lake is where the magma forms for the Grímsvötn volcano.
Grímsvötn is considered a cinder cone volcano, which is the simplest type of volcano. A cinder cone volcano is built from …show more content…
The explosive nature of the eruption was due to the interaction of hot magma with ice and water, producing ash particles. Multiple earthquakes indicated that magma was on the move. The ash cloud reached a height of twenty kilometers (twelve miles), cancelling more than nine hundred flights. The Grímsvötn volcano eruption was ten times larger than the 2004 eruption but did not disrupt nearly as much air traffic as the 2010 eruption on the island. The eruption released two thousand tons of ash per second during the first forty-eight hours of the eruption. The ash particles were much coarser than the eruption the previous year on Iceland. Reykjavik, the capitol, which is only one hundred and twenty miles from the volcano had large amounts of ash rain down on the city. The ash was so thick in parts of the island that it turned day into night. It was the most powerful eruption of Grímsvötn since 1873.
Grímsvötn’s volcanic active is said to be periodic. Active periods lasted from about one hundred to one hundred and fifty years ago with more restful periods of a few decades in between. However, with the eruption in 1983, an increased activity has started. Scientists believe that new magma is moving into the system. It is believed that the four eruptions in the last fifteen years indicate the beginning of an active period of volcanism on the island is beginning. New eruptions can be expected every two to seven years if the information provided by the scientists is
Grímsvötn is considered a cinder cone volcano, which is the simplest type of volcano. A cinder cone volcano is built from …show more content…
The explosive nature of the eruption was due to the interaction of hot magma with ice and water, producing ash particles. Multiple earthquakes indicated that magma was on the move. The ash cloud reached a height of twenty kilometers (twelve miles), cancelling more than nine hundred flights. The Grímsvötn volcano eruption was ten times larger than the 2004 eruption but did not disrupt nearly as much air traffic as the 2010 eruption on the island. The eruption released two thousand tons of ash per second during the first forty-eight hours of the eruption. The ash particles were much coarser than the eruption the previous year on Iceland. Reykjavik, the capitol, which is only one hundred and twenty miles from the volcano had large amounts of ash rain down on the city. The ash was so thick in parts of the island that it turned day into night. It was the most powerful eruption of Grímsvötn since 1873.
Grímsvötn’s volcanic active is said to be periodic. Active periods lasted from about one hundred to one hundred and fifty years ago with more restful periods of a few decades in between. However, with the eruption in 1983, an increased activity has started. Scientists believe that new magma is moving into the system. It is believed that the four eruptions in the last fifteen years indicate the beginning of an active period of volcanism on the island is beginning. New eruptions can be expected every two to seven years if the information provided by the scientists is