Geologists in Iceland are taking a closer look at Eyjafjallajökull, and other volcanoes, in order to gauge how much potential eruption spew they contain, and whether or not they’re ready to pop.
Ármann Höskuldsson, a geologist, told RÚV that most volcanoes have erupted, taken a break for a few weeks, and then erupted again. Ármann belongs to a team of geologists who have been measuring the volcanic content of volcanoes in Iceland over the past few months, Eyjafjallajökull included.
While Ármann says the final results of their findings could take months or up to a year to come to, the rough findings indicate that the volcanoes in Iceland contain about 140 million cubic meters of volcanic material such as lava and ash. The volcano in Iceland with the greatest amount of eruption material is none other than Gígsjökulslón, containing a stunning 25 million cubic meters of the stuff.
Ármann told reporters that Eyjafjallajökull is not what is considered a large volcano; to qualify for that classification, a volcano needs at least one cubic kilometer of volcanic material. Examples of volcanoes of this magnitude from the past one hundred years are Surtsey and Katla. While geologists are still trying to assess just how much volcanic material is in Eyjafjallajökull, Ármann said that there is no indication that the volcano is set to erupt again anytime soon.