Posted by: Saving Water SA (Cape Town, South Africa) - partnered with Water Rhapsody conservation systems – 22 April 2010

For all the worldwide chaos that Iceland’s volcano has already created, it may just be the opening act.

A column of steam and ash rises from the volcano near Eyjafjallajokull Photo: REUTERS

Scientists fear tremors at the Eyjafjallajokull volcano could trigger an even more dangerous eruption at the nearby Katla volcano – creating a worst-case scenario for the airline industry and travellers around the globe.

A Katla eruption would be 10 times stronger and shoot higher and larger plumes of ash into the air than its smaller neighbour, which has already brought European air travel to a standstill for five days and promises severe travel delays for days more.

The two volcanoes are side by side in southern Iceland, about 20km apart, and thought to be connected by a network of magma channels.

Katla, however, is buried under ice 500m thick – the massive Myrdalsjokull glacier, one of Iceland’s largest. That means it has more than twice the amount of ice than the current eruption has burned through, threatening a new and possibly longer aviation standstill across Europe.

Katla showed no signs of activity yesterday, according to scientists who monitor it with seismic sensors, but they were still wary.

Pall Einarsson, professor of geophysics at the Institute of Earth Sciences at the University of Iceland, said one volcanic eruption sometimes causes a nearby volcano to explode, and Katla and Eyjafjallajokull have been active in tandem in the past.

In fact, the last three times that Eyjafjallajokull erupted, Katla did as well.

Katla also typically awakens every 80 years or so, and having last exploded in 1918, it is now slightly overdue. Continue reading Iceland’s volcanic eruption may just be the opening act