Sampling the Volcanic Ash

• Main Author: Sigurdur Reynir Gíslason
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Subjects: Eyjafjallajökull; glacier; Iceland
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.671.6145; http://www.elementsmagazine.org/archives/e6_4/e6_4_dep_travelogue.pdf

The eruption of the Eyjafjallajökull volcano started on 20 March 2010. The first phase of the eruption was effusive, producing lava flows on the glacier-free part of the volcano, with insignificant volcanic ash fallout. In the early morning of 14 April 2010, the eruption entered an explosive phase, ejecting volcanic ash to heights in excess of 9 km (Fig. 1) and causing major disruption to European air travel. The explosive phase of the eruption took place within the summit caldera under a 200–300 m thick ice cover. The meltwater and steam at the glacier-covered erup-tion site chilled the magma, causing it to disintegrate explosively and producing fine-grained volcanic ash particles that were able to travel long distances. Jökulhlaup, floods of meltwater, reached the lowlands around the volcano at about noon on 14 April. The ash-loaded erup-tion plume was deflected to the east by westerly winds, and ash started to fall in southeastern Iceland on 14 April. The next day, the eruption plume reached mainland Europe (Fig. 2). Most of the erupted material was in the form of volcanic ash. The ash was sent into the southeast-erly moving jet stream, which then carried the ash over Europe, into one of the busiest airspaces in the world.