Four of Iceland’s main volcanoes are preparing for eruption | Hacker News Reader

Four of Iceland’s main volcanoes are preparing for eruption

icelandmonitor.mbl.is

147 pointsJerry260 comments

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I live in Reykjavík. I was lucky enough to have a friend with a plane when Bárðarbunga erupted in 2014.

Photos: https://www.flickr.com/photos/41812768@N07/albums/7215764724...

If you're planning a visit to Iceland I'm happy to answer questions here or by email.

I've always wondered, do volcanoes wreak of sulfur? Even more so when erupting?

Iceland's geysers certainly do.

wreak -> reek

sulphur reeks

havoc is wreaked

There was no smell from the plane. But the Bárðarbunga eruption did emit a lot of sulphur dioxide [1][2].

[1] http://en.vedur.is/pollution-and-radiation/volcanic-gas/meas...

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2014%E2%80%932015_eruption_of_...

I am wildly jealous.

Isn't it dangerous to fly over erupting volcanos? A lot of flights were grounded last time due to concerns about ash in the engines.

And at that range, there might be a risk of fumes affecting the people?

The problem with ash is due to how jet engines work: they push air through them, which is heated up significantly. The ash melts and becomes glass which can damage the engine.

The machine they flew in is a Piper PA-28-181 (Archer II), which looks like this: http://iowaflighttraining.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/Arc...

Ash still isn't a great medium to fly in, but at least they won't fly through (a high density of) glass particles.

So... any chances of a market on propeller-driven airliners opening up?

I'd imagine it's safer if your plane isn't going 900km/h with turbofans.

> Isn't it dangerous to fly over erupting volcanos?

I'm not a pilot, but I trusted the judgement of the pilot and felt like it was worth the risk. The pilot planned our approaches carefully and though we got quite low, we were always circling around rather than going directly over the fissure. At the time the Icelandic aviation authorities had issued a warning (but no closure) for the airspace around the volcano.

The spectacle was so moving that fear wasn't a prominent emotion. The only hair-raising part was when we flew too low over some lava (shortly after this photograph was taken: https://www.flickr.com/photos/41812768@N07/15145875322/in/al...). The turbulent air from the heat shook the aircraft so violently that my headset came off.

When there are ongoing eruptions in Iceland, there are usually several companies that offer flights or helicopter tours to go see them. The tours normally cost $1-2k per person. Another option is to go hang out at the domestic airport in Reykjavík. Talk to a few people and you may find a private pilot who just wants to split the fuel cost.

I lived in Reykjavik at the time of the 2010 eruption of Eyjafjallajökull, and I had a friend with a giant jeep... So we drove to about 500m from the hole in the ground spouting lava (safe, open to the public, quite a few people there) and had the nature experience of a lifetime.

We literally called it the tourist volcano, because you could get so close and still be safe.

http://imgur.com/a/I1qyv

I am going back to Iceland next week for a few days, and my fingers are crossed that Katla and friends can wait until later to erupt.

>Katla is Iceland's most dangerous volcano and is located underneath the Mýrdalsjökull ice cap.

Had to look this up:

>Katla is a large volcano in southern Iceland. It is very active; twenty eruptions have been documented between 930 and 1918, at intervals of 13–95 years. It has not erupted violently for 99 years, although there may have been small eruptions that did not break the ice cover, including ones in 1955, 1999, and 2011.

Small eruptions that did not break the ice cover?

The glacier covering it is a quarter to a half a mile thick.

A half-mile ice cap means that the ice has accumulated at a rate of 8 meters per year since the last major eruption 99 years ago. That's equivalent to several dozen meters of snowfall per year.

I wonder if the caldera really gets that much snow, or if the last few eruptions were too small to melt all the ice in the caldera.

I would assume that since a caldera is usually shaped like a cup, there is some flow towards the center where it's deeper. I.e. like with water flowing into a lake, the glacier has a catchment area.

I think both of you are correct. Just dumping links for the record:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M%C3%BDrdalsj%C3%B6kull is the glacier. "Mýrdalsjökull is an exceedingly wet location, with models suggesting it receives more than 10 metres of precipitation annually"

Here is 30 yr avg annual precipitation (1970-2000) from the Icelandic Meteorological Office http://www.vedur.is/vedur/vedurfar/kort/medalurkoma_a/ (Katla is under the deep blue southernmost area).

The caldera has pronounce subsidence, as seen at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katla_(volcano)#/media/File:Ey...

For a bonus, about halfway down this has a picture of the glacier after a minor eruption: https://volcano.si.edu/volcano.cfm?vn=372030

From being in Iceland for a few days, it appears to be an "exceedingly wet location" in general. Magnificent waterfalls are one effect.

I'm headed there Thursday, here's hoping it can hold off a few more days.

On a related note, is WOW Air actually running flights below cost in some sort of promotion for Icelandic tourism? I know a lot of people in my social circle in LA who have all independently booked trips there solely because of the ridiculously cheap direct flights.

I wonder if fermented shark tastes good with poisonous ash.

I believe that it's subsidized by the government. What we found was that getting there was cheap but being there was ridiculously expensive.

Renting a small flat in downtown Reykjavik using AirBnB was quite reasonable (I think around 95 USD/night).

Car rental, gasoline, and food were all pricey. If you drink, check the rules for Duty Free at KEF - I believe it's local tax AND duty free, so you can buy when you arrive and carry into the country for much less than buying elsewhere. We didn't bother as we were only planning to drink a few bottles of wine.

Food isn't cheap. I recommend going to a super market like Bonus and by skyr, pastries (ideally kleinur), bananas and maybe some dried fish and just eat that for most meals. However, there are some well priced places. Cafe Haiti which has great lamb soup or C is for Cookie come to mind. Even Dill which has world class prix fixe is well priced for what it is. Interesting enough I've found most fish restaurants to be overpriced.

It tastes best with some kind of catastrophic injury to the olfactory centers of the brain.

I've been to Iceland several times and totally love it. Make sure to rent a car and get out of Reykjavik. Even driving around randomly to see there landscape is incredible.

I don't know for certain, but I'd guess WOW does the same thing Norwegian does: hiring staff on short-term contracts from places where labor is cheap (IIRC Norwegian hires its flight-deck crews from Estonia and cabin attendants from Thailand) in order to get low wages and avoid the overhead of full-time employment, registering most business operations in places like Ireland with favorable tax situations, and then ensuring most flights pass through at least one second-tier airport with low fees. Combine with being able to take advantage of half-in, half-out type EU pseudo-member benefits and you've got the makings of a profitable low-cost carrier.

WOW also appears to make do with a shoestring fleet -- they have only three long-haul planes, total, at the moment and seem to be relying on the range of much smaller A321s to do a lot of their US/Canada destinations.

> I don't know for certain, but I'd guess WOW does the same thing Norwegian does: hiring staff on short-term contracts from places where labor is cheap (IIRC Norwegian hires its flight-deck crews from Estonia and cabin attendants from Thailand) in order to get low wages and avoid the overhead of full-time employment, registering most business operations in places like Ireland with favorable tax situations, and then ensuring most flights pass through at least one second-tier airport with low fees.

Every time I've flown a WOW air flight, the attendants were Icelandic. So I don't think that's true.

Please refrain from eating shark, puffin or whales. The only reason why we are still killing endangered species is solely tourism. The local population does not eat them. Please try lamb soup instead. Or one of the amazing Iceland hotdogs.

OT:

Both WOW air and Icelandair promote iceland as a great "stop" on your way to eurotrip. A lot of people I met there in the rykjavik hostel were people who were just staying in iceland for 4 days to tour around quickly and then fly further to amsterdam. Apparently there is some promotion that there is no additional cost to stay in iceland a few days if you book a trip to europe through them.

If you're there on a budget, I highly suggest hitch hiking. It's one of the last european countries where you can really properly do this. Longest i waited for a hitch was 3 hours in the rain in a mountain range. But I think the mean waiting time has been 15 minutes.

There is only one main road, so you cannot really go into a wrong direction, just keep going right and you end up going all around the island back to rykjavik. I did it clock-wise, whilst most tourists did it counter-clockwise I think. The upside was that we mostly hitched rides from locals and we really got to know the country and its people this way.

It took me 20 days (with no rush) to cruise around the entire island this way. Must admit, we spent most of our time in the myvatn area, as it's just beatiful. The landscape changes every 20 metres and it's just gorgeous.

>Please refrain from eating shark, puffin or whales. The only reason why we are still killing endangered species is solely tourism. The local population does not eat them. Please try lamb soup instead. Or one of the amazing Iceland hotdogs.

I feel compelled to point out that none of the species are endangered[1][2][3] and that the hot dogs are honestly not that amazing[4].

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minke_whale [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlantic_puffin [3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greenland_shark [4] Citation needed

Endangered is indeed the wrong word I guess. What i was trying to convey is that the only reason to whaling seems to be tourism[1], and if you think whaling is a bad thing (which I think it is, as it is pretty cruel), you as a tourist can have a direct effect on this economy by refraining from participating, and going on a whale sightseeing tour instead

Also, must admit, I have had some really horrible hot dogs as well in random gas station ;)

[1] http://us.whales.org/campaigns/visiting-iceland-help-us-keep...

>What i was trying to convey is that the only reason to whaling seems to be tourism[1], and if you think whaling is a bad thing (which I think it is, as it is pretty cruel), you as a tourist can have a direct effect on this economy by refraining from participating

That's a totally reasonable and very fair standpoint, but I want to be super clear on this: That argument has nothing to do with the conservation status of the species. You meant well, but you lied.

It's hard to talk about things like rational people if everyone is running around lying. Being passionate about something isn't an excuse for lies. It muddies the waters. Neither side is helped by lies, all lies do is entangle the discussion so that no progress can be made.

Also, you can't buy good sausages in this country. They're all pork, no one makes an honest aussie beef snag on the whole island. How can you make good hotdogs without good snags? :(

I wanted to update my comment to readjust it to reword the part your criticised. but I cannot anymore sadly enough. Is there some kind of timeout period after which you cannot edit it anymore?

Yeah, there is. I'm not 100% sure how long, it might be like 30 minutes?

edit: apparently it's at least 54 minutes

> Also, you can't buy good sausages in this country. They're all pork, no one makes an honest aussie beef snag on the whole island. How can you make good hotdogs without good snags? :(

I haven't tried australian hot dogs, but if you're looking for something better than the mainstream hot dogs in Iceland you should look at the polish specialty shops. They have more variation, some of them are quite good.

> Please refrain from eating shark, puffin or whales. The only reason why we are still killing endangered species is solely tourism. The local population does not eat them. Please try lamb soup instead. Or one of the amazing Iceland hotdogs.

I don't know where you get the idea that Icelandic people don't eat these things. Admittedly puffin is not a very common dish, but whale meat is consumed by Icelandic people, and shark meat also has some following.

My friend's company in Iceland invited their employees to dinner a few weeks ago. The menu? Hrefnukjöt (minke whale meat).

If any of needs a place to stay, my home in Colombia is honored to have some guests.

Great.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_travel_disruption_after_th...

It seems plausible to me that there could be much worse consequences than an air travel disruption if four volcanoes all have big eruptions.

Yeah, serious health consequences for people globally.

In 1783 Laki erupted:

http://www.economist.com/node/10311405

"Japan suffered one of the three worst famines in its history in 1783-86, when exceptional cold destroyed the rice harvest and as many as 1m people died. Special crews had to be hired to clear the roads of the dead. In Japan this famine is usually attributed to another volcanic eruption, that of Mount Asama, but its impact was small compared with Laki's."

If we're very, very lucky, it counteracts global warming (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Ice_Age#Volcanic_activi...), but it could also overdo that, as in the year without a summer (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Year_Without_a_Summer)

At the time, there was a zero tolerance policy for volcanic ash with jet engines. However there are now upper bounds on the density of ash allowed, so if an Eyjafjallajökull-like eruption happened again today, not as much air traffic would have to shut down.

Katla has much more potential than Eyjafjallajökull.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katla_(volcano)

People reading this might be interested in an Canadian industrial turbine repair shop YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/AgentJayZ

Well, that had significantly less information than I was hoping for.

I'm not usually much impressed by content on IFL Science, but their post about this topic seems quite good:

http://www.iflscience.com/environment/four-icelands-volcanoe...

It's the foreign section of mbl (morgunblaðið).

Morgunblaðið is a highly partisan newspaper in Iceland owned by the fisheries industries. It's run at a loss but noone cares because their primary purpose is propaganda for their owners (to some extent this is the case for all media but they are particularly blatant about it).

The english-language section on their site is just a place for them to sell ads-disguised-as-news to tourists. They have low-paid teenagers translating stories from the Icelandic version to maintain some semblance of being a news site. You'll never find good information in these, and oftentimes it's just plain bullshit.

How much CO2 could these pump out?

>How much CO2 could these pump out?

There are around 60-80 volcanic eruptions per year; for a total of about 300 million tons of CO2; so all four together, even if they produce twice as much as an average eruption, would account for about only 3.5 million tons. (Human-produced CO2 is estimated at between 20 to 30 billion tons per year)

Wow, humans...

Now its just waiting for the foreigners to try pronounce them.

http://en.vedur.is/earthquakes-and-volcanism/volcanic-erupti...

So, how good are we at actually predicting when these things will erupt?

I love that there's an Air Iceland ad on that page. Placement fail.

Hmm. Heading there Tuesday for Sonar. Hope it'll be safe.

Tangential, but: That was a rare example of advertising done right. The top banner, from Air Iceland, is served inline as it should be, not from some sleazy external ad-provider.

And here's the thing: It works. Made it past my uMatrix and various other filtering. And thus became probably the first internet ad for twenty years which I have knowingly clicked. Could the rest of the world please look and learn?

[Edit: typo]

Did you click because you actually wanted a Northern Lights holiday, or because it was novel? If the latter, then your traffic was pointless - if you weren't thinking of buying, then they won't be interested in your visit.

I clicked out of interest, yes. But of course they should be interested, no matter what. 'Conversion rate', I believe it's called.

Conversion rate for the entity paying for the ad is number of purchases against number of visits. A low conversion rate indicates a bad marketing activity.

Oh, please no!

The world will die trying to pronounce another Eyjafjallajökull name.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=hSo_ND41-6g

It's easier than you think!

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