Volcano could help understand floods

Mar 24 2010 by Tony Henderson, The Journal

THE eruption of an Icelandic volcano which had lain dormant for 200 years could have reverberations for studies of flooding in the North East.

The volcano near Eyjafjallajoekull glacier began to erupt just after midnight on Saturday sending lava 100 metres high and creating a 1km fissure.

Only days earlier a team from Newcastle and Northumbria universities had been working around the volcano.

Newcastle University’s Dr Andy Russell, a reader in physical geography, said: “We were right in the firing line and we could hear the bang-bang of tremors every few minutes.” The team have been studying the behaviour and effects of flooding caused by volcanic activity in Iceland.

Dr Russell was also part of a team which studied the aftermath of the 2008 floods in Rothbury, Northumberland, and is currently investigating the River Derwent flooding in Cumbria last year.

Now he plans to return to Iceland after the eruption is over to continue his studies on the impact of the eruption – particularly through flooding – on the landscape.

The data gathered from the investigations in Iceland and the north of England will feed into flood management strategies for the future.

The erupting volcano is between two glaciers and Dr Russell said that it could spread to both ice sheets, causing major flooding.

The flow of floodwater on the River Coquet in Northumberland in the 2008 floods was 400 cubic metres per second but that from the Icelandic incident could reach 10,000 cubic metres, he said. That could flood an area of 100 square kilometres and could also spark an eruption at the bigger, adjacent Katla volcano.

A state of emergency is in force in southern Iceland and more than 500 people in villages and farms in the area have been evacuated.

“There could be a huge eruption to come and it is potentially very serious,” added Dr Russell.

When Katla last produced a major eruption in 1918, the flood water flow was of Amazon proportions at 250,000 cubic metres.

“Katla is due another big eruption,” said Dr Russell, who went to Iceland 11 years ago to study the consequences of a smaller eruption at Katla.

He said of the Icelandic and Northern England studies: “A flood is a flood, wherever it is. We will go back after the eruptions and look at the impact on the landscape.”

The studies are examining issues such as how floodwater interacts with obstacles like trees and man-made structures which can influence what is built in certain locations.