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The eruption of Eyjafjallajökull (Iceland) in Spring 2010 and its possible consequences

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Abstract

March 20, 2010, in southern Iceland, the Eyjafjallajökull volcano began to erupt after almost 200 years of silence. Three weeks later, on April 14, a 500-m long fissure opened in the ice cap covering the volcano, ejecting molten lava and huge amounts of steam, volcanic ash, and toxic gases into the atmosphere. This produced a giant ash cloud, which disrupted air traffic across Europe for several days. This paper presents a description of the eruption and gives a brief review of the composition of volcanic lava and gases, as well as examples of the adverse effects of volcanic ash on humans and livestock in many Icelandic farms.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Schmidt Institute of Physics of the Earth, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia

    A. Ya. Saltykovskii

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  1. A. Ya. Saltykovskii
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Correspondence to A. Ya. Saltykovskii.

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Original Russian Text © A.Ya. Saltykovskii, 2011, published in Geofizicheskie Protsessy i Biosfera, 2011, No. 3, pp. 20–37.

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Saltykovskii, A.Y. The eruption of Eyjafjallajökull (Iceland) in Spring 2010 and its possible consequences. Izv. Atmos. Ocean. Phys. 48, 683–695 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1134/S0001433812070067

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1134/S0001433812070067

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