A Volcano: Eyjafjallajökull, Iceland

Iceland is located on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge and the plates are moving at a rate of 1-5cm a year

• True

• False

Iceland sits on which 2 plates:

• North-American plate

• Eurasian plate

• South American plate

• African plate

What plate tectonic boundaries

• conservative

• destructive

• constructive

• collision

The disruption caused by Eyjafjallajökull started on the 20th March and ending in the October of 2010.

• True

• False

Short term effects:

• The 150m thick ice cap melted, which caused major flooding to much of Iceland’s infrastructure.

• 0 reported deaths

• Airspace closed across Europe, with at least 17,000 ights a day being cancelled.

• Crops were destroyed by ash

It is located approximately 125 km ??? of the capital Reykjavik

• NorthEast

• West

• SouthEast

• East

Economic effects included:

• The eruption cost insurers £65million to customers with cancelled flights.

• Airlines lots up to $200 million each day due to postponed flights.

• Fresh food imports stopped

• Kenya’s flower council says the country lost $1.3m a day in lost shipments to Europe

• 10 million airline passengers affected and stranded abroad

The eruption was only ???? on the volcanic explosivity index (VEI).

• 1

• 3

• 6

• 9

Short term management included:

• Some 700 people were evacuated from the disaster zone three times in the past month.

• The European Red Cross provided food for the farming population

• Iceland had a good warning system with texts being sent to residents with a 30-minute warning.

• The emergency services were prepared with advanced equipment.

Long term management and changes include:

• Monitoring the larger sister volcano Katla

• Building houses on stilts

• Insurance companies and airlines have reviewed their policies to customers.

• Some airlines have built ash monitoring equipment onto their aircraft for safety.