All joking aside - Volcanic Eruption Anticipated After 17,000 Earthquakes in last 7 days in Iceland

Iceland is an island nation in the Northern Atlantic that is slightly smaller in landmass than Colorado. It has over 30 active volcanoes and averages 500 earthquakes a week. This past week they’ve had over 17,000 earthquakes. Locals have been warned a volcanic eruption is imminent. There are over 350,000 people in Iceland and millions downwind.

Throughout history, volcanic eruptions have made a significant impact on our planet including climate change. Regardless of your political stance on climate change, it’s not a good thing for current life on the planet.

Short term, volcano ash, lava flow, and accompanying gases that are released into the atmosphere are things you want to avoid. The ash and gases, including sulfuric acid, are exceptionally hard on our respiratory systems and pose a threat to most living things on the planet. The ash is also destructive to jet engines.


Here’s an image of the 2010 eruption in Iceland


Here is a magnified shot of a piece of ash from the Mount St. Helens eruption. You don't want to breathe this...

Are the geology geeks making any predictions on how severe the eruption might be? We talking Vesuvius, or more like Krakatoa?

I think we could be speaking about the Yellowstone Caldera .

Greta needs to boat over there and stop this before they pollute the air with 1000 years worth of man made pollution. Iceland needs sanctions.

j.p. is gonna yell at me again. lol (kiddin j.p.)

I have posted this numerous times as an example of how mother nature screws with the climate. I remember st helens vividly as it went off on my birthday and I spent a yr. and a half working just south of it in oregon teaching on river trips. I also lived at the base of mt etna in sicily for almost 3 yrs. if you have not seen it going off this time go look at some of the pictures online, it is 10,000' straight out of the med. and is very active year round but major eruptions only come every few decades or so.

A new tax would stop that volcano in its tracks

How dare that volcano

I've probably missed this in the past but very illustrative to counter the man-made climate fear mongers.

man has definitely impacted warming
with exhaust gasses
over population
& deforestation

impacted warming?

Perspective
One could look at the graph and see a significant increased frequency of change and severity of change (the slopes on the curves are getting more vertical) and the peaks and troughs are getting closer together.

I like charts and memes.

You left out fracking. You of all people to forget it smh.

Mount St. Helens was indeed an example of a significant volcanic eruption that some born before 1980 remember. At least 57 lives lost, millions of trees were leveled, mudslides for miles and miles. On a personal note, my mom swore it caused everyone in our family to start having allergies for the first time in family history. She was a smart lady because it turns out we're all eventually downwind of everything...

From a climate change standpoint, during the 9 hour Mount St. Helens eruption, an estimated ten million tons of CO2 exploded into the atmosphere.

While that is really significant, unfortunately it only takes mankind 2.5 hours to produce the same amount of CO2. That means humans contribute nine times the equivalent CO2 - every day, as the historic nine hour Mount Saint Helens eruption... On average we contribute 60 times as much CO2 annually compared to volcanoes. But don't get me wrong or miss the point, volcanoes are really concerning and absolutely affect climate change... I'm just a conservative honest enough to admit we do too... It baffles me that people try to make this some kind of political debate...

In the meantime, if you're so inclined, say a prayer for the good folks in Iceland and seriously, visit if you get a chance...

Blue Moon
Who made those estimates?
How are they measuring CO2?
Who paid for the research?
In one day, the average person breathes out around 500 litres of the greenhouse gas CO2 – which amounts to around 1kg in mass.
Should we quit breathing