Reykjavik - Day 8 - Eyjafjallajokull

Today’s tour is going North of Reykjavik. First up Eyjafjallajökull.

Eyjafjallajökull consists of a volcano completely covered by an ice cap. The ice cap covers an area of about 80 square kilometres (30 square miles) feeding many outlet glaciers.

The Eyjafjallajökull volcano last erupted on 14 April 2010 in Iceland. It left behind vast ash clouds so large that in some areas daylight was entirely obscured. The cloud not only darkened the sky but also interfered with hundreds of plane flights. However, the people of Iceland were not concerned about the ash clouds: they were more concerned about flooding. That year all the residents close to the volcano had to evacuate in case the area flooded. When the volcano erupted, all the melted ice had to go somewhere. It did not flood that much: most of it went into rivers, but if it had flooded down the farm valleys it could have swept away all the farms in the valley. The farms in the valley were however covered in a soft layer of ash, which the farmers thought would give bad crops, but the warmth and nutrition from the ash enabled the crops to grow rather wellLäs mer