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Iceland's Grimsvotn volcanic ash cloud

A natural-color NASA satellite image, acquired by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) aboard the Terra satellite, shows the towering ash plume from Iceland’s Grimsvotn Volcano

A natural-color NASA satellite image, acquired by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) aboard the Terra satellite, shows the towering ash plume from Iceland’s Grimsvotn Volcano Credit: NASA, GSFC, MODIS Rapid Response Team

24 May 2011

Iceland’s Grimsvotn Volcano, one of the county’s most active, erupted this week [21 May], sending an ash plume 12 miles (20 kilometres) high and closing Iceland’s largest airport, Keflavik. Volcanologists from the University’s School of Earth Sciences have been speaking to the world’s media about the impact of the eruptions.

Iceland’s Grimsvotn Volcano, one of the county’s most active, erupted this week [21 May], sending an ash plume 12 miles (20 kilometres) high and closing Iceland’s largest airport, Keflavik. Volcanologists from the University’s School of Earth Sciences have been speaking to the world’s media about the impact of the eruptions.

Professor Steve Sparks, Chaning Wills Professor of Geology, has been interviewed by Channel 4 News.

Dr Matthew Watson, Lecturer in Geophysical Natural Hazards, has been interviewed by Sky News, CNN International, BBC Points West, BBC World Television News, Heart Radio and BBC Breakfast Television (25 May).

Dr Jeremy Phillips, Senior Lecturer, has been interviewed by BBC Radio Bristol and LBC Radio in London, Associated Press Radio, CNN Hong Kong and BBC News 24.

The team’s expertise in this area has led to a £530,000 Natural Environment Research Council (NERC)-funded  research project into Eyjafjallajökull, the Icelandic volcano that grounded air traffic across Europe last year.

Recent research, led by Professor Jon Blundy, into predicting volcano hazards was published in Geology and reported in Planet Earth

Further information

Grimsvotn Volcano - NASA

Grimsvotn is the country’s most active volcano, but it hasn’t erupted so forcefully since 1902. The lava is basaltic, which typically erupts in non-explosive, Hawaiian-style eruptions. Grimsvotn is located beneath a glacier, however, and the interaction of melting ice with the lava can create an explosive eruption, at least in the initial stages.

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