Iceland faces most powerful volcanic eruption

Iceland faces most powerful volcanic eruption

PanARMENIAN.Net - Hundreds of meters under one of Iceland's largest glaciers there are signs of a looming volcanic eruption that could be one of the most powerful the country has seen in almost a century.

Mighty Katla, with its 10km (6.2 mile) crater, has the potential to cause catastrophic flooding as it melts the frozen surface of its caldera and sends billions of gallons of water surging through Iceland's east coast and into the Atlantic Ocean.

"There has been a great deal of seismic activity," says Ford Cochran, the National Geographic's expert on Iceland.

There were more than 500 tremors in and around the caldera of Katla just in October, which suggests the motion of magma.

"And that certainly suggests an eruption may be imminent," Cochran says.

Scientists in Iceland have been closely monitoring the area since July 9, when there appears to have been some sort of disturbance that may have been a small eruption, BBC reported.

 Top stories
The number of state universities will be reduced from 23 to 8 by 2030, Minister of Education, Science, Culture and Sport Zhanna Andreasyan has said.
From September 21 to November 11, a total of 2,820 Russians registered at a place of residence in Armenia, the police has said.
The situation on the contact line between Karabakh and Azerbaijan was relatively stable overnight, the Defense Army says.
Defense Minister Suren Papikyan has visited the southern Armenian province of Syunik, the Defense Ministry reported on March 18.
Partner news
---